Secret Guantanamo Files, New Insights: Hundreds Held 'Just in Case.'

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Guantanamo files revealed by Wikileaks shed light on 780 people who passed through the facility in Cuba, of which only 220 have been assessed by Americans to be dangerous international terrorists.

Senior US commanders have concluded that in dozens of cases there was “no reason recorded for transfer.” The documents, which date from 2002 to 2008, also unveil shocking accounts of innocent people, including farmers, chefs and drivers who were sold to US forces.

Less than a third of people who went to Gitmo were thought to be terrorists, the rest apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time. All the more reason and evidence that operations like this never should have happened and at the very least should have had oversight (i.e. a fair trial to establish guilt).

Secret Guantanamo Files, New Insights: Hundreds Held ‘Just in Case.’ - TIME NewsFeed

 

[revanneosl]

Dear Mr. President,

One of the reasons that I voted for you was because you said that you would put an end to this national shame. I know that some of the people incarcerated at Camp X-Ray would be a danger to the national security of the United States if they were to be released. However, that danger is dwarfed by the danger to our national identity if we continue to hold prisoners without trial, for no other reason than the fact that our own agents screwed up the evidence-gathering so badly that the evidence is not admissible in court.

And that is to say noting of the innocents being held.

Mr. President - instruct your Justice Department to either try these people or let them go.

What began as a jury-rigged experiment after the 2001 terrorist attacks now seems like an enduring American institution, and the leaked files show why, by laying bare the patchwork and contradictory evidence that in many cases would never have stood up in criminal court or a military tribunal.

The dossiers also show the seat-of-the-pants intelligence gathering in war zones that led to the incarcerations of innocent men for years in cases of mistaken identity or simple misfortune. In May 2003, for example, Afghan forces captured Prisoner 1051, an Afghan named Sharbat, near the scene of a roadside bomb explosion, the documents show. He denied any involvement, saying he was a shepherd. Guantánamo debriefers and analysts agreed, citing his consistent story, his knowledge of herding animals and his ignorance of “simple military and political concepts,” according to his assessment. Yet a military tribunal declared him an “enemy combatant” anyway, and he was not sent home until 2006.

 

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Yes, good points. This is a stain that started under Bush, but one that Obama has done little to wash away. Indeed one of the reasons I voted for him was his promise to close Gitmo. I could not be more disappointed that he hasn't done so.