Further adventures of a cavalier approach to the rule of law.

In the category of "yet another reason Guantanamo is an affront to human values," the Guardian (UK) is reporting that it took them 3 days to find witnesses for one detainee that the US Government claimed it couldn't locate after several months. What's most amazing about this story is that the witnesses weren't holed up in remote locations, either:

The Guardian searched for Mr Mujahid's witnesses and found them within three days. One was working for President Hamid Karzai. Another was teaching at a leading American college. The third was living in Kabul. The fourth, it turned out, was dead. Each witness said he had never been approached by the Americans
to testify in Mr Mujahid's hearing.

OK, obviously the US couldn't have called the dead man to testify, but if a newspaper can figure out the guy's dead after an extensive 3 day search, why can't the US figure it out after a few months? Holy crap. One was working for the US-installed leader.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Mujahid has spent 3 years in custody. While he may or may not be guilty -- the original complaint appears to be that Mr. Mujahid was fired from his position as a police chief for "colluding with anti-government forces" -- it's also a travesty that these witnesses, as in so many other cases, were "non-contactable" according to the military.