Porkins Policy Review

A former Guantanamo Bay detainee has had his court case thrown out by a U.S. judge. Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al Janko was held in Guantanamo from 2002 until 2009, after winning a court challenge that his ties to Al Qaeda were little or no longer existed. The administration maintained that Janko was still a threat and had ties to Al Qaeda. After he was allegedly urinated on, beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to harsh interrogations, we might assume that he may now want to strengthen his weak ties with Al Qaeda. Janko also tried to commit suicide a total of 17 times. Judge Richard Leon tried his best to show sympathy for Janko; telling him that unfortunately “war, by its very nature, victimizes many of those caught in its wake.” That comment was later followed by one of the more deplorable things to come out of the war on terror. Judge Leon were that “our legal system was never designed to provide a remedy in our courts for these inevitable tragedies, especially in a conflict like this where terrorists cunningly morph into their surroundings.”
Translation: sorry we tortured you, but there really isn’t anything we can do about it. Our legal system was never designed to protect you from something that we are supposed to be prohibited from doing.