I've been torn about Obama choice of Gates to stay on for a while. While I think he has been a hundred times better than Rumfeld was he has still been a loyal Bush supporter on many fronts. It now appears that support may get him in some dangerous hot water.
Lawyers for a British resident held at Guantánamo Bay have accused Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, of signing a "flagrantly false" affidavit to avoid having to disclose evidence of torture.
In a sworn affidavit to a district court in Washington, Gates says the US authorities have provided Binyam Mohamed's lawyers and the British government with all the information they possess relating to Mohamed's treatment while held in secret prisons. Gates declared his affidavit to be the truth "under penalty of perjury". Guantánamo prisoner's lawyers accuse US defence secretary
Binyam Mohamed is known by most as the man who had a scalpel taken to his Penis as a form of torture. ( as the men reflectively cross their legs ). Mohamed has claimed he was Rendered to a Secret Black Prison and held there for 18 months while being tortured until he confessed false statements of his guilt. The British Courts have found his story creditable enough warrant a deeper look see.
His claims of torture were upheld by the British High Court in a review this summer, which took place after Mohamed’s lawyers sued the British government for alleged complicity in their client’s rendition and torture. Both the British government and the British High Court accepted that Mohamed "has put forward a prima facie case of torture," Stafford Smith said.
The court established that Mohamed was "unlawfully rendered from Pakistan to Morocco by the United States authorities," his lawyers said, and was "subject to unlawful incommunicado detention and torture during his interrogation there by or on behalf of the United States authorities." The court also established that Mr. Mohamed was "unlawfully rendered by the United States authorities from Morocco to Afghanistan," where he was "detained unlawfully and incommunicado" and was "tortured or subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by or on behalf of the United States authorities in the ‘Dark Prison.’" -- a secret CIA facility near Kabul. Guantanamo lawyer says Gates may have committed perjury
From what I have read the gist of the story is that Gates was asked sign a statement saying that our Gov. had turned over all the exculpatory evidence about Mohamed. Since in all the documents turned over do not say a single word about Mohameds Rendition Gates statement cannot be true. They cannot be true since some of the exculpatory evidence would have to include the so-called admissions of guilt made by Mohamed under Torture while being held at the Secret Prison. Stafford Smith has still given Gates a small benefit of the doubt but that is not likely to last long.
Clive Stafford Smith, Mohamed's lawyer and director of Reprieve, the charity that fights miscarriages of justice and human rights abuses, has told the court that Gates's affidavit is "flagrantly false". He has asked the court whether Gates was aware Mohamed was held incommunicado for three years in Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Stafford Smith says there seems to be only one explanation for the affidavit: the defence secretary has been "misadvised".
Why is all this important ? Well since Mohamed is still in custody and faces a US military tribunal and the death penalty on unspecified terrorist charges you can be sure the real facts of his detainment and torture have important bearing on the outcome.
Now I don't know if Mohamed is the really bad man the US claims him to be, but I do know that if the SecDef. is willing to perjure himself to a Federal Court then Pres. Obama may want to rethink his choice before it's too late. What say you ?