The release of Mohamedou Slahi from Guantanamo raises the possibility that we will learn more about "harsh interrogation" from one of its victims.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson's ruling was classified, so there was no immediate explanation for why he granted the habeas corpus petition of Mohamedou Slahi, 39. A notation in court files said an unclassified version of the ruling would be made available, but didn't say when.
Slahi is the 34th Guantanamo detainee ordered freed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that detainees could challenge their incarceration in federal court, but his name was already well known because of investigations into detainee abuse.
Those probes found that Slahi had been subjected to sleep deprivation, exposed to extremes of heat and cold, moved around the base blindfolded, and at one point taken into the bay on a boat and threatened with death. Investigators also found that interrogators had told him they'd his mother and have her jailed as the only female detainee at Guantanamo if he did not cooperate.
The interrogations were so abusive that a highly regarded Pentagon lawyer, Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, quit the case five years ago rather than prosecute him at the Bush administration's first effort to stage military commissions.
"He's been incarcerated, tortured and interrogated and rendered illegally,'' said attorney Nancy Hollander of Albuquerque, N.M., who represents Slahi free of charge. "After almost 10 years the government has not been able to meet the minimal burden to detain him that's required under habeas. He should be free.'' ...McClatchy
The Justice Department may intervene. It has questioned the release of detainees in the past and may respond to this habeas corpus ruling.
It's fair to wonder whether we'll learn anything from a freed victim of torture that could jeopardize the "legacy" -- or even the freedom -- of George Bush or Dick Cheney. It's more than likely that the Bush administration will continue to be protected by what may turn out to be one of the current administration's worst decisions: to avoid any politically challenging applications of Constitutional law.
