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Michael Ratner of Center for Constitutional Rights Echos Original Gitmo Commander: Shut Down Guantanamo!

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Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, supports the call of Maj. Gen. Michael Lenhart to close Guantanamo.Click here for free audiobook download, and generate $15 to the PBC Podcast from Audible!

Tech note: This was initially posted without the link to the audio file.  It’s fixed now.

Ratner and CCR have been on the front lines of the fight for our constitutional rights since well before 9/11 and he comments on an op-ed published 12/12/13 in the Detroit Free Press by the commander who opened the prison camp at Guantanamo in 2002.  Maj. Gen. Michael Lenhart USMC-ret. says the prison never should have been opened, did not deliver useful intelligence as promised, and should be shut down as soon as possible.  Ratner praises Lenhart, and talks about the failures of the detention program.

He compares the false representations made about Gitmo and its prisoners to the unproven claims of intelligence leaders about the value of NSA spying on innocent Americans, and about the report on detention, rendition and torture by the Senate Intelligence Committee that is still suppressed a year after its completion.  Ratner supects that the White House doesn’t want the report released, as that could lead to calls for prosecution of Bush era officials–which amounts to obstruction of justice.

Ratner is attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and he comments on his efforts to get assurances from the “Justice” Dept. that Assange will not be indicted in the US.