Thanks Bush

For years we've had two stories: what the Bush Administration said was going on during the all encompassing "War on Terror" and what we later got to find out was really happening. Thanks to ABC News we get another one of those moments, this time while our elected betters are in mid-froth about the sanctity of Gitmo and the extreme guilt of everyone inside. It's the story of Lakhdar Boumediene and I'd suggest not only reading the full article, but watching the video segment they did for the news over the weekend.

For 7½ years, Lakhdar Boumediene was known simply by a number: "10005."
Lakhdar Boumediene is released after 7 1/2 years in Guantanamo Bay detention.

These were the digits assigned to him when he arrived at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, swept up in a post-Sept. 11 dragnet and accused of plotting to blow up the U.S. and British Embassies in Sarajevo.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Boumediene said the interrogators at Gitmo never once asked him about this alleged plot, which he denied playing any part it.

"I'm a normal man," said Boumediene, who at the time of his arrest worked for the Red Crescent, providing help to orphans and others in need. "I'm not a terrorist."
...
After what Boumediene described as a 7½ year nightmare, he is now a free man. Boumediene: "I don't think. I'm sure" about torture.

That's right, a guy who worked for a charity helping orphans. And not just any charity, the Red Crescent. Furthermore, when he got swept up by the Bosnian authorities and falsely charged with plotting to blow up embassies, he was quickly exonerated and about to be released...that is until the Bush Administration pressured the Bosnian Government to hand him and five others over. Upon which time he got the full five-star treatment at Gitmo until 7 1/2 years later when the Supreme Court said he had a right to a trial, which was quickly followed by a Republican judge laughing the government's charges against him out of court, and finally followed by his release.

Of note is the fact that the crime he was originally swept up for, plotting to blow up embassies, never made it into the list of charges the government brought up when they finally had to give him a trial. But, in a spot of good news, at least when he was tortured interrogated in an enhanced manner by the government, they didn't ask him about Iraq/al-Qaeda links. They only grilled what they thought was a low level functionary about the whereabouts and plans of Osama bin Laden. Which, while intensely stupid, was a tremendous step up for our government. Just so were keeping score here, that's 7 1/2 years of imprisonment replete with beatings and torture, all for a man who was found innocent....TWICE. Once at the beginning and once at the end. Well done.

So the next time someone starts defending the necessity/effectiveness of Gitmo and the tactics of the Bush Administration, some of which are being continued by the Obama Administration, remember stuff like this. And resist the urge to beat whoever is saying it.