Pentagon to Identify Detainees

Pentagon to Identify Detainees

Pentagon officials are preparing to release the names of several hundred detainees at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the first time the government will publicly link names to previously revealed information about many captives at the island prison.

The change came when the government decided this week not to appeal a federal judge's order to provide names that were redacted from documents released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Associated Press. Although the government has previously released thousands of pages related to hearings on whether individual detainees are "enemy combatants," it has always withheld the names of the prisoners who participated in those hearings.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ordered the Defense Department to release the names by next Friday. Pentagon officials said yesterday that the decision not to appeal the ruling, made by the Justice Department, came over the strong objections of the Defense Department general counsel's office, which has been seeking to prevent the release of the names.

The names of hundreds of detainees have become public since the Supreme Court in June 2004 allowed them to file federal court cases contesting their imprisonment. Others have been identified in the media and by advocacy groups, some after they were released. Over the past several years, The Washington Post has independently confirmed the names of approximately 450 people who were detained at Guantanamo Bay for some part of the past four years.

Maybe we can get the US authorities to reveal the names of the 100 that human rights NGOs claim have died while in custody of US forces as well. The court doesn't say who is going to oversee the collection of the data and assure that compliance with the court order isn't selective.

The best list of names held at Gitmo has been posted on the Washington Post on line. Another web site, Cage Prisoners, has pictures and short narratives of the circumstances of their arrest, detention, treatment and, in some cases, release. Cage Prisoners also has lists of prisoners held in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is amazing that many of those detained at Gitmo were arrested in places other than Afghanistan or Iraq. Take a look. I cannot speak for the accuracy of the Cage Prisoners reports, but the Washington Post and Amnesty International have reputations to uphold, so their data would be more reliable.