The Associated Press reported Tuesday that among the documents it received from its Guantanamo FOIA request are transcripts of interviews with detainees in which they allege they were sold to the U.S. for a bounty. This is not new news. It's been reported before by several organizations, by TalkLeft in December, 2003 and May, 2004, and in Time Magazine.

According to Time, activities leading toward release of the 140 [Guantanamo] prisoners have accelerated since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. It said U.S. officials had concluded some detainees were kidnapped for reward money offered for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. (our emphasis)

Nonetheless, Before Bush calls the latest AP claims "absurd," he needs to consider the statement of this former CIA officer, contained in Tuesday's AP article:

A former CIA intelligence officer who helped lead the search for Osama bin Laden told AP the accounts sounded legitimate because U.S. allies regularly got money to help catch Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. Gary Schroen said he took a suitcase of $3 million in cash into Afghanistan himself to help supply and win over warlords to fight for U.S. Special Forces.