A Political Bird

06:08 pm - In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.

From Roger Cohen, hat-tip to Andrew Sullivan:

Of the 770 detainees grabbed here and there and flown to Guantánamo, only 23 have ever been charged with a crime. Of the more than 500 so far released, many traumatized by those “enhanced” techniques, not one has received an apology or compensation for their season in hell.

What they got on release was a single piece of paper from the American government. A U.S. official met one of the dozens of Afghans now released from Guantánamo and was so appalled by this document that he forwarded me a copy.

Dated Oct. 7, 2006, it reads as follows:

“An Administrative Review Board has reviewed the information about you that was talked about at the meeting on 02 December 2005 and the deciding official in the United States has made a decision about what will happen to you. You will be sent to the country of Afghanistan. Your departure will occur as soon as possible.”

That’s it, the one and only record on paper of protracted U.S. incarceration: three sentences for four years of a young Afghan’s life, written in language Orwell would have recognized.

09:52 pm - ABDALLAH HIGAZY v. MILLENIUM HOTEL AND RESORTS - 05-4148-cv

Bearing in mind that the blogosphere is inherently vulnerable to amplification effects, this does seem worrisome.

Google cache seems to confirm the decision was temporarily pulled (the URL is a 404), and the revised opinion has oddities in the formatting of the first seven pages which match the (not at all odd) formatting of the first seven pages of the purported original. (Note particularly p. 3, which in the revised version loses a line, and p. 7, where the redaction notice appears.)

I don't have time to research this properly. But there's certainly something wrong here.