0-for-245

The incompetence of this administration is utterly mind-boggling. Even England is just releasing anyone returned there from Gitmo.

The United States does not systematically track what happens to detainees once they leave Guantanamo, the U.S. State Department says. [What benefit would there be to keeping track of people the Pentagon calls "the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth"? -- Dr. S]

Defense lawyers and human rights groups say they know of no centralized database, although one group is attempting to compile one.

When the Pentagon announces a detainee has been moved from Guantanamo, it gives his nationality but not his name, making it difficult to track the roughly 360 men released since the detention center opened in January 2002. The Pentagon says detainees have been sent to 26 countries.

But through interviews with justice and police officials, detainees and their families, and using reports from human rights groups and local media, The Associated Press was able to track 245 of those formerly held at Guantanamo. The investigation, which spanned 17 countries, found:

Once the detainees arrived in other countries, 205 of the 245 were either freed without being charged or were cleared of charges related to their detention at Guantanamo. Forty either stand charged with crimes or continue to be detained.

Only a tiny fraction of transferred detainees have been put on trial. The AP identified 14 trials, in which eight men were acquitted and six are awaiting verdicts. Two of the cases involving acquittals — one in Kuwait, one in Spain — initially resulted in convictions that were overturned on appeal.

So there is no record of anyone who was detained at Guantanamo being convicted of anything. But that's no reason to give up hope. After all, if you indiscriminately sweep up enough people, the law of averages dictates that sooner or later, you'll accidentally find someone you're looking for. And the Bush administration continues to hold about 420 people at Gitmo without charges. One of them is bound to be guilty of something, right?

It's not possible that of the hundreds and hundreds of people held prisoner there and at secret CIA prisons around the world by the Bush administration, not one person is guilty of what they're accused of (but not charged with).

Is it?

Even the Iraqis, amid a state of utter horror and chaos in their country, were able to convict Saddam Hussein. And in five years, the Bush administration hasn't secured one conviction against an actual terrorist.