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WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is considering issuing a written rule barring the use of any evidence obtained through torture in the military trials of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said that up to now it had been the Pentagon's view that a written rule was unnecessary because the military prosecutors had already declared that such evidence would not be permitted. He reiterated that Pentagon policy bans the use of torture, although critics and some Guantanamo Bay prisoners have asserted that some interrogation methods amount to torture.
Ten detainees at Guantanamo Bay face terrorism charges before U.S. military tribunals - the first since the aftermath of World War II. The tribunals, officially called commissions, were set up for prisoners captured by U.S. forces and their allies, mostly in Afghanistan in the months following the U.S. invasion in October 2001.
''We have not, to this point, believed that a specific commission rule was necessary, and in fact to some degree would erroneously suggest that torture had actually occurred,'' Whitman said. ''That said, we are taking a look at whether or not issuing a formal instruction . . . that bars prosecutors from using this type of evidence is necessary'' in order to ''eliminate any doubt from people's minds'' that the U.N. Convention Against Torture applies to the Guantanamo cases.
Lawyers for some Guantanamo Bay detainees have claimed that the military tribunals are illegal because they could consider evidence gained through torture or other forms of inhumane treatment of suspects.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the new Pentagon rule had already been approved, though not yet publicly released. Whitman said that a Pentagon officially had incorrectly told the newspaper this, but that in fact final approval had not yet been given. The Journal said the new rule was expected to be made public this week.
Also Wednesday, Bush administration lawyers argued that a new law forces the dismissal of more than 200 lawsuits filed in federal courts on behalf of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, urging a federal appellate court to instead adopt a far more limited process that still would give the prisoners access to judicial review.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will decide whether the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 retroactively stripped the court of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus cases challenging detentions at the military prison in Cuba. Lawyers representing the detainees argued that the new law does not apply to pending cases, while the government has maintained that all cases essentially should be wiped away.