Scenes From the Police State

I learned of this article by National Journal's Stuart Taylor from Atrios. It debunks the administration's assertion that their prisoners in Cuba are all Taliban fighters caught in the act of attacking U.S. Forces.

A high percentage, perhaps the majority, of the 500-odd men now held at Guantanamo were not captured on any battlefield, let alone on "the battlefield in Afghanistan" (as Bush asserted) while "trying to kill American forces" (as McClellan claimed).

Fewer than 20 percent of the Guantanamo detainees, the best available evidence suggests, have ever been Qaeda members.

Many scores, and perhaps hundreds, of the detainees were not even Taliban foot soldiers, let alone Qaeda terrorists. They were innocent, wrongly seized noncombatants with no intention of joining the Qaeda campaign to murder Americans.

The majority were not captured by U.S. forces but rather handed over by reward-seeking Pakistanis and Afghan warlords and by villagers of highly doubtful reliability.

And the administration seeks the power to kill people in this country? If I thought it would help, I'd keep my doors locked.

Todavia Cantamos.

UPDATE 2/8/2006: Ilsa is quite right. Taylor's article is based upon a longer article, also published by National Journal. Taylor links to it, and so shall I.