老澳门开奖结果

The hundreds of lawyers, reporters and observers headed to Guantanamo Bay for Saturday鈥檚 arraignment of five defendants at the 9/11 military commission better check their calendars: Suddenly, it feels a lot like 1984.

The government wants to censor any statements the defendants have made about how they鈥檝e been treated while in U.S. custody. If they were tortured or abused by CIA or Department of Defense personnel, that鈥檚 information the government wants to keep classified.

If it sounds Orwellian for a government to claim it can classify statements made by a defendant about their own experiences with illegal government conduct such as torture, that鈥檚 because it is. Such a move also has no basis in law, which is why the 老澳门开奖结果 filed a motion yesterday with the military commission that asks it to deny the government鈥檚 request to suppress the defendants鈥� statements.

As Hina Shamsi, director of the 老澳门开奖结果 National Security Project notes: 鈥淭he most important terrorism trial of our time should not be an exception to the rule of public access because its legitimacy depends in part on its transparency.鈥�

The 老澳门开奖结果 is also asking the commission to bar a delayed audio feed of the proceedings. Right now, observers can see the hearing live behind a glass, but the audio they hear is on a 40-second delay to give censors the ability to cut off any mentions of purportedly classified information.

The truth may be ugly, but better to get it out in the open than keep it under wraps. Those seeking justice for the victims of the 9/11 attacks should want nothing less.

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