Evidence from Torture? No Problem!

One way to deflect criticism of alleged torture at Guantanamo Bay is to say it just doesn't matter. At a hearing today, a deputy associate attorney general said that evidence gained through torture can be used to decide whether to detain foreigners indefinitely.

The Associated Press reports: "Statements produced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S. courts for about 70 years. But the U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of 550 foreigners as enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are allowed to use such evidence" [according to the official].

In an interview, Harvard Law Professor Philip Heymann, a former deputy U.S. attorney general explained: "About 70 years ago, the Supreme Court stopped the use of evidence produced by third-degree tactics largely on the theory that it was totally unreliable."