BUSH DISGUISED INNOCENCE OF GITMO PRISONERS

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, once Chief of Staff to Bush’s first secretary of state, Colin Powell has accused former American President George W. Bush and his top aides for covering up the innocent Guantanamo Bay detainees, amid fears releasing them could harm the war on terror. Wilkerson presented in a lawsuit filed by a former Guantanamo inmate and published by The Times. He alleged that Bush’s Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld knew that most of the detainees held at the US detention camp in 2002 were innocent but believed it was politically impossible to release them. Wilkerson, who according to The Times has been a long-time critic of the Bush administration’s approach to counter terrorism, said he discussed the issue with Powell, who left his job in 2005. “I learned that not just Vice President Cheney and Defence Secretary Rumsfeld, but also President Bush who was involved in all of the Guantanamo decision-making,” The Times reported him as saying. Wilkerson’s statement was filed in support of Adel Hassan Hamad, a Sudanese man held at Guantanamo Bay from March 2003 until December 2007. He claims he was tortured by US agents, The Times said.