Some people just have too many rights
Having just finished the book version of Taking Liberties (which made me so angry I think I have to go see the film), this part of an NYTimes article leaped out at me:
Part of the problem is that, in response to the shameful abuses at Abu Ghraib, the American military instituted vastly excessive civil rights protections for detainees. In our experience, it has worked this way: After an arrest, two soldiers must file affidavits, together with physical evidence and digital pictures, and then an American lawyer decides if the package is strong enough to withstand further review. About half of all detainees are released within 18 hours; the others are sent from battalion level to brigade level, where the evidence is re-examined, resulting in more releases.
Those detainees remaining are sent to a detention center where a combined board reviews the evidence again, and releases still more. After that, every six months a United States board must re-review the evidence in each case. Lastly, the detainee appears before an Iraqi judge, who in turn dismisses about half of the cases.
I agree, needing evidence in order to lock people up is dangerously excessive. Next they’ll be asking for a jury of peers or other claptrap. Just because it didn’t look like the evidence was going to hold up is no reason to release them! Chances are they were an insurgent anyway and if they weren’t, well, they might have become insurgents at some point in the future. It’s best to be safe than sorry.
