United States defence department has at last released the names and nationalities of hundreds of the inmates detained at its Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
The names, which are buried within 6,000 pages of documents posted on the Pentagon's website, have been made public after a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press.
They are revealed in transcripts of tribunals in which the 500 detainees were screened and their combat status assessed.
The documents had been published previously with names blanked out. The US government had argued that releasing the identities would violate the detainees' privacy and could endanger them and their families.
Most of the men were captured during the 2001 US-led war that drove the Taleban from power in Afghanistan.
It is believed it will take days, or even weeks, for the documents to be read and analysed, but the information will allow much more to be learned not only about who the detainees are, but also the circumstances of their capture and detention.
However, last night it was reported that only inmates who underwent Combatant Status Review Tribunals have been named and it was possible there are other prisoners, known as "ghost" detainees, in Guantanamo.
• Yesterday it was reported Fawzi-al-Odah, 29, a Kuwaiti prisoner at Guantanamo, claimed US personnel threatened to use methods that amounted to torture to break his hunger strike.
No comments:
Post a Comment