As a preview to her 60 Minutes Guantanamo segment, Leslie Stahl said to Charlie Rose that she “assumed” the men at Guantanamo were guilty of “dastardly deeds.” It is unconscionable for a journalist of her supposed stature to be so painfully ignorant. The vast majority of men at Guantanamo, as has been shown again and again, have absolutely not committed “dastardly deeds.”
Many men there have won habeas corpus petitions before federal judges ruling that there are no legitimate grounds for detaining them, based on the review of evidence. 84 of them men still there have been cleared for release by US official themselves, clearly indicating that they are not even allegedly guilty of serious crimes.
How could Ms. Stahl not know this? How can CBS let her get away with it without a retraction and apology? Her “journalism” on this piece has been pathetic.
One might examine the website andyworthington.co.uk for detailed biographies of the men at Guantanamo, the flimsiness of the alleged “evidence” against many of them, and accounts of the grave torture many suffered.
The gods of journalism, history, the truth, justice, and I demand an apology.
Shame.
Jeremy Varon
Witness Against Torture
witnesstorture.org
Watch the 60 Minutes segment on Guantanamo
The voice of the prisoner crying out from the cell is Shaker Aamer, the British resident cleared for release by US authorities in 2007. Find out more about Shaker and other Guantanamo prisoners.