New Pentagon detainee manual could lead to executions based on 'hearsay evidence'

David Edwards and Ron Brynaert
Raw Story
Jan. 19, 2007

A new Pentagon detainee manual could allow executions based on "hearsay evidence," according to a report.

"We have learned that the Pentagon has just completed a manual for the coming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorist to be imprisoned or executed using hearsay evidence or coerced testimony," said Nora O'Donnell, chief Washington correspondent for MSNBC. "In other words, could be put to death on hearsay evidence..."

Drawing from a copy of the manual, available in PDF form at this link, Anne Flaherty of the Associated Press writes that "a terror suspect's defense lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence in the person's defense until the government has a chance to review it."

NBC News correspondent Pete Williams says "the big question before Congress is, 'Should we allow these two types of evidence?'"

"The handbook conforms with the law," Williams said.

Excerpts from AP article:
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The manual, sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday and scheduled to be released later by the Pentagon, is intended to track a law passed last fall by Congress restoring President Bush's plans to have special military commissions try terror-war prisoners. Those commissions had been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court.

....

The Pentagon manual is aimed at ensuring that enemy combatants – the Bush administration's term for many of the terrorism suspects captured on the battlefield – "are prosecuted before regularly constituted courts affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized by civilized people," according to the document.

As required by law, the manual prohibits statements obtained by torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" as prohibited by the Constitution.

However, the law does allow statements obtained through coercive interrogation techniques if obtained before Dec. 30, 2005, and deemed reliable by a judge.