Scientific Dictatorship

Bush Knew Guantanamo Prisoners Were Innocent, Former Colin Powell Aid Tells Court

George W Bush knew that hundreds of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay were innocent - but covered the fact up for political reasons, a top former aide has told a U.S. court.

Retired Army Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, testified that officials 'knew that they had seized and were holding innocent men at Guantanamo Bay'.

'I discussed the issue of the Guantánamo detainees with Secretary Powell,' he said. 'I learnt that it was his view that it was not just Vice-President [Dick] Cheney and [Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld, but also President Bush who was involved in all of the Guantánamo decision making.'

'They simply refused to release them out of fear of political repercussions,' he continued.

Colonel Wilkerson heaped most of his criticism on the heads of of Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Cheney, saying they knew that the majority of the 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were not guilty of any crimes.

His assertion is understood to have been backed by General Powell, the Times has reported.

General Powell left the Bush administration in 2005 in anger over the false information that he unknowlingly used to make the case for the war in Iraq.

Parts of the document were quoted by the Associated Press, while further quotes - including the Bush quote - emerged in the Times, which said it had obtained a copy.

The declaration emerged after a Sudanese worker freed from Guantánamo in 2007 sued the U.S. government...

Labels: Colin Powell, Colonel Lawence Wilkerson, Guantanamo

George W. Bush 'Knew Guantanamo Prisoners Were Innocent'

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.

Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.

General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson’s declaration.

Colonel Wilkerson, a long-time critic of the Bush Administration’s approach to counter-terrorism and the war in Iraq, claimed that the majority of detainees — children as young as 12 and men as old as 93, he said — never saw a US soldier when they were captured. He said that many were turned over by Afghans and Pakistanis for up to $5,000. Little or no evidence was produced as to why they had been taken...

Labels: Colin Powell, Colonel Lawence Wilkerson, Guantanamo

Powell Withholds Comment On Report That Innocent Men Were Kept At Gitmo

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Powell, the former secretary of state, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantanamo detainee.

Colin Powell

declined to comment on an article published in the Times of London Friday that reported innocent men were kept at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp because the Bush administration feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.

The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Powell, the former secretary of state, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantanamo detainee.

Peggy Cifrino, principal assistant to Powell, said in a written statement to Fox News, "General Powell has not seen Colonel Wilkerson's declaration and, therefore, cannot provide a comment. Nor, obviously, can 'it be understood that he backed' the declaration as reported by Tim Reid of The Times."

The Times of London reported that George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney

and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld knew in 2002 that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo were innocent, but the administration believed that it was "politically impossible to release them"...

Labels: Colin Powell, Colonel Lawence Wilkerson, Guantanamo

Prisoner Demands Compensation For Guantanamo Nightmare

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson’s serious accusations against the Bush White House over Guantánamo Bay are made to support the cause of Adel Hassan Hamad, a former detainee who is now seeking compensation from the United States.

In July 2002 Mr Hamad, now 52, who worked for a Muslim humanitarian organisation, was asleep in his flat in Peshawar when it was raided by heavily armed men. He says that he believes there was also an American with them.

To this day Mr Hamad says that he does not know why he was seized. He believes that the Pakistani military, to which he had refused to give supplies from his workplace, retaliated by telling the Americans that he was a terrorist...

Labels: Adel Hassan Hamad, Colonel Lawence Wilkerson, Guantanamo