Gitmo Lawyers Say Hurdles Make It Difficult to Prove Taint of Torture
The U.S. government says evidence obtained through torture won’t be able to be used in the trials of six men charged this week with planning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but defense lawyers for other detainees say evidentiary hurdles could prevent details of harsh interrogations from being introduced in the tribunals.
Defense lawyers told the Washington Post it may be impossible to compel CIA employees to testify about harsh methods it used because the information is classified. These civilian lawyers said other restrictions on their representation of detainees could make it impossible to provide a fair defense.
Five of the six suspects charged in the Sept. 11 attacks were questioned by the CIA at secret prisons. So far, no military or civilian lawyers have been appointed to represent those five suspects.
The Bush administration has sent a cable to U.S. embassies saying the Guantanamo tribunals won’t be able to use evidence obtained through torture, the Associated Press reports. The document was dispatched to instruct diplomats how to defend the decision to seek the death penalty against the Sept. 11 suspects. Although tribunals can’t use evidence obtained through torture, the cable says, they can consider information derived from “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” if it was obtained before a 2005 law that barred such techniques.
Gitanjali Gutierrez, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents a detainee not charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, told the Post she fears prosecutors will cite “national security concerns and will deny the lawyers and the detainees any background about the [witness] statements that are offered. That will be a way of manipulating the process and of keeping the taint of torture secret.”
The defense lawyers who spoke to the Post complained of several restrictions. Their meetings with their clients are subject to video surveillance, and mail and notes are reviewed with the military. They can’t learn everything the government knows about their clients and can’t share classified information with the clients.
