Military panels can use proof gained by torture

December 3, 2004

BY MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of foreigners as enemy combatants are allowed to use evidence gained by torture in deciding whether to keep them imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the government conceded in court Thursday.

The acknowledgment by Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle came during a U.S. District Court hearing on lawsuits brought by some of the 550 foreigners imprisoned at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The lawsuits challenge their detention without charges for up to three years so far.

Attorneys for the prisoners said some were held solely on evidence gained by torture, which they said violated fundamental fairness and U.S. due-process standards. But Boyle argued in a similar hearing Wednesday that the prisoners "have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court."

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon asked whether a detention would be illegal if it were based solely on evidence gathered by torture, because "torture is illegal. We all know that."

Boyle replied that if the military's combatant status-review tribunals "determine that evidence of questionable provenance were reliable, nothing in the due-process clause prohibits them from relying on it."

Leon asked whether there were any restrictions on using evidence produced by torture.

Boyle replied the United States would never adopt a policy that would have barred it from acting on evidence that could have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks even if the data came from questionable practices like torture by a foreign power.

Evidence gained from torture is not admissible in U.S. courts.

"About 70 years ago, the Supreme Court stopped the use of evidence produced by third-degree tactics largely on the theory that it was totally unreliable," Harvard Law Professor Philip Heymann, a former deputy U.S. attorney general, said in an interview.

Leon asked whether U.S. courts could review detentions based on evidence from torture conducted by U.S. personnel.

Boyle said torture was against U.S. policy and any allegations of it would be "forwarded through command channels for military discipline." He added, "I don't think anything remotely like torture has occurred at Guantanamo" but noted that U.S. soldiers there had been disciplined for misconduct.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday it has given the White House a confidential report critical of U.S. treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.


Detroit Free Press

This is actually a pretty cool read.

There's a huge difference between torture and mind-fucking somebody.

Quoted: There's a huge difference between torture and mind-fucking somebody.

True - how many people think waiting in line at the DMV is torture?  

If those in captivity are being deprived of sleep and told lies about the capture of their leaders - big friggin' whooptie-do.  

If they're playing submarine or car battery - eventually I might begin to show a little concern - but not  this year yet.