Blogswarm
A few days ago Captain Ed requested a blogswarm in response to a report issued by Mark Denbeaux, a Professor at Seton Hall University School of Law and Counsel to two Guantanamo detainees. The purpose of the blogswarm is to try and provide a rapid evaluation of this report, which is based on quite a bit of evidence recently unclassified and released by the US government pertaining to why they are still holding 517 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.
The idea of a blogswarm is to take advantage of the internet to muster as many resources as possible in the shortest amount of time. I downloaded and analyzed one set of documents that included four detainees and sent my take back to Ed.
Mr. Denbeaux, as counsel for two of the detainees, has an interest in presenting the data released by the government as in favor of his clients. My purpose in participating is to address two concerns. The first is to make sure that the government is not pressured politically into releasing detainees that are likely to return to combat. The second is to satisfy my concerns that these people are in fact dangerous.
It's scary to think that someone is being held that does not deserve to be held, especially for a long period of time. Aside from the bad PR that is Guantanamo, it is entirely hypocritical to our purpose in the war. You don't free a people by locking them up. I was just as interested in finding reasons to release any one of these individuals, if not more so, than I was to find a reason to keep them.
I'll refrain from disclosing my opinion until Ed has a chance to compile his report. If you want to participate click here as I think there are a few more reports left. I'll post a link to the finished version when it's complete.
