Gitmo: Re-writing the Evidence

This is simply amazing. It seems that the Bush administration now wants to rewrite official evidence against Guantanamo Bay detainees so they can shore up its cases before they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first time. While the government has stood behind the evidence for years, relying on it to justify holding hundreds of prisoners indefinitely without charge, they now want to submit new records, which would allow them to add intelligence and expand their reasoning for holding the detainees.

According to David Remes, who represents 18 detainees currently held at Guantanamo, this is a sign that the original documents were defective adding that much of the evidence came from questionable sources to begin with. It will be up to federal judges to decide whether the Justice Department can rewrite those documents. “It’s a totally fishy maneuver that suggests that the government wants, at the 11th hour, to get its ducks in a row,” according to Jonathan Hafetz, another attorney representing several detainees.