Destroying Key Records Was Standard at Gitmo

Guantanamo Bay interrogators were urged to destroy notes from interviews with detainees, including Canadian Omar Khadr, documents suggest. Minimizing interrogation records “can minimize certain legal issues,” reads a Guantanamo operational manual for intelligence teams shown to Khadr’s lawyers. The case against Khadr is thought to be based largely on information from the interrogations, the Globe and Mail reports.

“The government's case against Omar is based almost entirely on statements interrogators extracted from him,” Khadr’s lawyer said. “If handwritten notes were destroyed, the government intentionally deprived Omar's lawyers of key evidence with which to challenge the reliability of his statements.” Khadr faces life in prison if convicted of charges including murdering a US soldier in Afghanistan. (More Guantanamo Bay stories.)