The 14 Myths of Guantánamo: Senate Armed Services Committee Statement of Mark P. Denbeaux

Abstract

Before habeas corpus was recognized for Guantánamo detainees, the Executive Branch of our government claimed loudly and often that those detained in Guantánamo were the worst of the worst; that they were captured on battlefields in Afghanistan shooting at Americans. Those in the Executive Branch of our government said also that those detained at Guantánamo possessed important information which we needed to acquire to protect our national security. Another Executive Department claim was that those detained at Guantánamo were held because of their membership in groups that were hostile to the United States.

After the Supreme Court, to its everlasting honor, recognized that habeas corpus applied to those detained at Guantánamo, the Executive Branch had to prepare documents which were thereafter released. A careful review of these documents, a review that assumes every word in the government’s records to be true and a review that accords the government’s records every benefit of the doubt when evaluating them, reveals that almost everything said by our highest officials about who was detained at Guantánamo and why they were detained was false.

Because habeas corpus was recognized for those detained at Guantánamo, we now know that our government’s statements that said those detained at Guantánamo were the “worst of the worst” were false.

Because habeas corpus was recognized for those detained at Guantánamo, we now know that all our government’s statements that the detainees they were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan shooting at Americans were also false.

Because habeas corpus was recognized for those detained at Guantánamo, we now know that our government’s statements that said those detained had important information critical to our national security, are belied by the efforts of those interrogating at Guantánamo.

Keywords: Guantánamo, detainees, habeas corpus Supreme Court,