New Claims that Bush Officials Knew “Vast Majority” of Guantanamo Detainees Were Innocent Underscores Need to Shutter Facility

Washington, DC Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said that Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld knew that the “vast majority” of detainees held at Guantanamo were innocent, according to a story published in The Times of London. Human Rights First notes that these allegations, if true, underscore the importance of closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo, a facility that continues to undermine national security.

“These new allegations are startling, and if true, reflect a callous and cavalier attitude by officials at the highest level of the U.S. government to the rule of law,” said Human Rights First