a battered man with signs of diminished mental capacity, a man who authorities concede was so badly abused

that

The Pentagon has formally dropped charges

conceding that most of the evidence it has came from Qahtani’s own coerced statements

No case that details Qahtani’s supposed role in the 9/11 plot ever has been presented

his abuse at the hands of American military interrogators is well known

By late November, the detainee was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma (talking to nonexistent people, reporting hearing voices, crouching in a corner of the cell covered with a sheet for hours on end)

still considered an “enemy combatant” and so can be held at Guantanamo under the Bush administration’s unique theory that it may hold whomever it wants for as long as it wants

the next president may bring us relief, but not absolution for having condoned the unconscionable