Objection, Your Honor, Hearsay

The torture and gratuitous physical abuse of prisoners is simply wrong.  It matters not whether the prisoners are held in Gitmo, as possible terrorism suspects, or in America’s prisons as common, run of the mill, criminals.

With that said, I note that Andrew Sullivan has a post up titled The Abuse Continues, which links to an ABC News report, posted at The Blotter, which brings us the news that Marine Sergeant Heather Cerveny has submitted a “sworn affidavit” which alleges the following,

In a sworn affidavit filed with the Pentagon Inspector General, Sgt. Cerveny says she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse.

Let’s review some of Sergeant Cerveny’s statements, which I would assume appear in the affidavit.

"One sailor specifically said, ‘I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door,’” Sgt. Cerveny tells ABC News in an exclusive interview…

One of the guards “was telling his buddy, ‘Yeah, this one detainee, you know, really pissed me off, irritated me.  So I just, you know, punched him in the face.’"

So, over drinks, at the club, Sergeant Cerveny overhears a few sailors exercising braggadocio and, allegedly, we have a new crisis of abuse at Gitmo.

Unless the statements reported in Sergeant Cerveny’s affidavit were addressed specifically to her, the affidavit is mere hearsay.

Exclusive: Marine Sergeant Comes Forward to Report Abuse at Guantanamo Bay

Posted by on 10/13 at 07:27 AM

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