Detentions in Iraq

Two Americans get picked up in a raid on a dodgy security company in Iraq, both are innocent and one has been working as an FBI informer, which is why the raid happens. They then spend months in custody before finally getting released.

Nathan Ertel, the American held with Vance, brought away military records that shed further light on the detention camp and its secretive tribunals. Those records include a legal memorandum explicitly denying detainees the right to a lawyer at detention hearings to determine whether they should be released or held indefinitely, perhaps for prosecution.

Donald Vance made a very good point:

While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the camp commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to instill in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due process to the Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to follow ourselves.

Another case of “do what I say, not what I do”. 🙁