Inmate Speaks at Guantanamo Bay Tribunal

[Khephra]

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- In one of the longest appearances before tribunals evaluating some 585 terror suspects, a prisoner admitted Monday that he was a Taliban bodyguard but said he did it only to feed his family.

Gesticulating with his shackled right hand to stress points, the 37-year-old Afghan pleaded for about an hour before the members of his tribunal closed the session to review classified material.

snip.....

"I joined the Taliban to make a living for my family," the slight, bearded man said in a prepared statement read by his Pashto interpreter. "I wasn't a big leader in the Taliban."

The U.S. military says the man -- held at Guantanamo Bay for more than 2 1/2 years -- not only fought for the Taliban on the front lines, but also served in 2000 as an acting Taliban governor in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-guantanamo-review-panels,0,6750680.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[madrchsod]

1. remind me why we

arrested all these guys who were "taliban". i know they were just alittle crazier than thefundies in our country but what exactly is the case against them? could it be they wouldn`t sign the gas pipeline deal?

[struggle4progress]

2. I'd bet it was Rove's idea: they needed a bunch of detainees ...

... so they would look like they had actually accomplished something. They really didn't care if the folks they brought to Gitmo actually had anything to do with anything at all.