The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Powell, the former secretary of state, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantanamo detainee.
Colin Powell declined to comment on an article published in the Times of London Friday that reported innocent men were kept at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp because the Bush administration feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.
The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Powell, the former secretary of state, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantanamo detainee.
Peggy Cifrino, principal assistant to Powell, said in a written statement to Fox News, "General Powell has not seen Colonel Wilkerson's declaration and, therefore, cannot provide a comment. Nor, obviously, can 'it be understood that he backed' the declaration as reported by Tim Reid of The Times."
The Times of London reported that George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld knew in 2002 that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo were innocent, but the administration believed that it was "politically impossible to release them"...
