[Mb-civic] US releases detainee list - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

  US releases detainee list


    Official roster names 558 people at Guantanamo

By Ben Fox  |  April 20, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

SAN JUAN -- The US government released yesterday a detailed list of 
detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison -- the most extensive 
accounting of the hundreds of people held there, nearly all of them 
labeled ''enemy combatants."

In all, 558 people were named in the list provided by the Pentagon in 
response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit by the Associated Press. 
They were among the first swept up in the US global war on terrorism for 
suspected links to Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

The list is the first official roster of Guantanamo detainees who passed 
through the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process in 2004 and 2005 to 
determine whether they should be deemed enemy combatants.

Those named are from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and 39 other countries. 
Many have been held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for more 
than four years. Only a few have faced charges.

Some names had been previously disclosed, such as David Hicks, a Muslim 
from Australia charged with fighting US and coalition forces in 
Afghanistan. He is one of 10 detainees selected to be tried by a 
military tribunal, on charges of attempted murder, aiding the enemy, and 
conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Lesser-known detainees on the list include Muhammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi 
who reportedly was supposed to be the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 
2001, attacks. Although his presence at Guantanamo had been reported, 
the military previously declined to confirm it.

Others, such as an Afghan identified only as ''Commander Chaman," remain 
mysterious.

The largest number of detainees -- 132 -- came from Saudi Arabia. 
Afghanistan followed with 125, then Yemen with 107.

Partial, unofficial lists of Guantanamo Bay detainees have been compiled 
in the past by news organizations, lawyers, and human rights groups. The 
United States had previously declined to release any names except the 10 
who have been formally charged.

Even with the latest release, the Pentagon has not provided a full list 
of the more than 750 prisoners the military says have passed through 
Guantanamo.

The release of the list, ordered by a federal judge, occurred amid wide 
criticism of the secrecy surrounding the Guantanamo Bay detention 
center, where the United States now holds about 490 detainees.

''This is information that should have been released a long time ago, 
and it's a scandal that it hasn't been," said Bill Goodman, legal 
director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based group 
that helps coordinate legal efforts on behalf of detainees.

The combatant status hearings at Guantanamo Bay were held from July 2004 
to January 2005. Of the 558 detainees, the panels classified 38 as ''no 
longer enemy combatants," and the military later released 29 of them.

The remaining nine, including an undisclosed number of Uighurs who can't 
be sent back to their native China because of the possibility they could 
face persecution, are being held in a part of the detention center with 
extra privileges, a military spokesman said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/20/us_releases_detainee_list/
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