Were Chinese agents at Gitmo?

By GottaLaff

I heard this on Thom Hartmann's show yesterday and couldn't believe my ears. Well, yes I could:

A fight is brewing between Capitol Hill and the Pentagon over allegations that Chinese government agents were allowed to interrogate some detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Jay Alan Liotta, principal director of the Defense Department office responsible for detainee policy, told a House subcommittee on Thursday that he would not publicly comment on whether officials from China or any other nation were granted access to foreign citizens held at the detention facility.

He offered to release that information to the committee during a closed, classified session. Lawmakers weren’t happy about his answer. [...]

Members of Congress have been routinely denied access to the Guantanamo detainees.

“The American people have a right, without compromising national security, to understand what happened at Guantanamo, particularly in this case of the Uighurs,” said Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., chairman of the subcommittee that conducted the hearing. “The answer that it should be in a classified setting is absurd.”

Ranking Republican Dana Rohrabacher of California agreed, saying he recently was denied access to terrorism detainees. [...]

Three former Uighur detainees submitted testimony through legal counsel on Thursday alleging that all 22 detainees of the Chinese Muslim minority group were interrogated by Chinese government officials during a seven- to 10-day visit in 2002.

There is obviously so much more information to come on this subject, but note the recent pace at which it's been released. As it is reported, I promise to pass it along.

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.