Secret Evidence Isn't Just for Gitmo Anymore

The Department of Justice's stated reason for a major evidence no-show is that it can’t “be reasonably recompiled," Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick writes, a potentially dangerous precedent. Justice is thinking about redoing some military tribunals rather than present “not readily available” evidence used to brand enemy combatants—and Lithwick says illegally obtained ammo on citizens “might just disappear” too.

She’s not buying the government’s claims about scattered documents, and finds significant irony in an organization “secretly and illegally collecting” information—and then claiming untidiness. Meanwhile, new evidence on the domestic front confirms that surveillance rules are being trampled, and little stands in the way of the “flimsy claims” used at Guantanamo Bay being re-purposed against any of us. (More enemy combatants stories.)