It’d be a shame if it turns out to be true that some (or many) of the detainees are completely innocent and have nothing to do with any of the dubious organizations.
It’s also interesting to learn that Amnesty International has publicly criticized the policy relevant to the situation at hand.
Years after their arrests, some prisoners at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay said they still didn’t know why they were detained, according to documents released Tuesday by the Pentagon.
“I’m a poor guy,” one Afghan prisoner tells his U.S. military tribunal in the undated transcript from a custody hearing. “I don’t know why you brought me here and make me sit here.”
“You are here because Americans thought you shot at them when they were looking for very dangerous things,” replies the presiding officer, an unidentified American. “That is why you are here.”
“Nobody believes me, so my words are nothing,” the unidentified detainee says. “Why have I been sitting here for three years?”
More than 700 prisoners have passed through the Cuban detention centre since the base began receiving detainees following the Sept. 11 attacks. Some been held there for more than four years. A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday there are 490 prisoners being held at the base.
The transcripts come from special hearings held to determine whether prisoners still posed threats to the United States. It was unclear when the hearings took place.
“My conscience is clear,” said Algerian detainee Mohamed Nechla, in a separate exchange recorded in the documents.
Nechla was accused of plotting to attack the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia. “If I left this place my only concern would be bread on the table for my wife and children.”
While the papers don’t appear to contain any major revelations about high-profile detainees, they do give insight into who has been detained.
The Pentagon made more than 2,700 pages public in response to an Associated Press Freedom of Information lawsuit.
As in the previous release of transcripts to the AP last month, names were scattered throughout the documents but many prisoners remained unidentified. There was nothing to suggest whether any had been released.
While the human rights group Amnesty International has publicly criticized American policies in its war on terror, its acting director of government Relations welcomed Tuesday’s document release.
“Even the seemingly minor details in these documents may help shed light on the secrecy surrounding the detainees’ cases,” Eric Olson said.