Guantanamo names to be released (today)

[alarcojon]

The US defence department has said it will release the names of inmates detained at its Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba later on Friday.

However, the names will not appear as a simple list - they will be buried within 6,000 pages of documents to be posted on the Pentagon website.

They are transcripts of tribunals in which the 500 detainees were screened and their combat status assessed.

The transcripts have been released before, but with the names blacked out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4771774.stm

on edit: this is an update on this story from Monday:

The Defense Department is preparing to release detainee hearing transcripts containing the names of persons held at the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a senior Pentagon official said here yesterday.

A New York federal district judge recently ruled in favor of an Associated Press lawsuit that sought the release of some uncensored transcripts taken from detainee hearings at Guantanamo, according to press reports.

...snip...

The U.S. Justice Department declined to appeal the judge's ruling, which requires DoD to provide the documents by March 3, Whitman said. About 490 detainees captured during the war against global terrorism are being held at Guantanamo, which was established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Transcripts from Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearings conducted at Guantanamo were previously made available with the detainees' names blacked out, Whitman said.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2006/20060228_4337.html

[ncrainbowgrrl]

1. If it's friday... it's newsdump day!

:eyes:

[brooklynite]

2. Pentagon Prepares to Release Gitmo Names

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - After four years of secrecy, the Pentagon said Friday it would release the names of hundreds of detainees at a U.S. military prison because of a victory by The Associated Press in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

The Bush administration has hidden the identities, home countries and other information about the men, who allegedly took up arms against the United States. The administration argued that releasing the identities would violate the detainees' privacy and could endanger them and their families.

More than 5,000 pages in all would be released, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday in Washington. The names were scattered through transcripts of hearings in which detainees defended themselves against allegations that they were "enemy combatants."

That classification, Bush administration lawyers say, deprives the detainees of Geneva Convention prisoner of war protections and allows them to be held indefinitely without charges.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060303/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_detainees
- - -
Friday at 5 PM...news dump?

[Betsy Ross]

3. Let's get us some penpals. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

4. Very good idea, but will rummy allow it? n/t

[coffeenap]

5. Some names...

SOME OF THE NAMED DETAINEES
Feroz Ali Abassi, British - submitted written complaints about military police
Abdul Gappher, Uighur from western China - accused of seeking to join Uzbek Islamist group but says he was training to fight the Chinese
Mohammed Sharif, Afghan - accused of serving as a Taleban guard but said he was forced to work for them
Abdullah Mohammed al-Hamiri, Yemeni - accused of association with al-Qaeda
Zahir Shah, Afghan - accused of being member of radical group Hizb-i-Islamia
Mahbub Rahman, Afghan - accused of spying on US forces
Naibullah Darwaish, Afghan - accused of being Taleban-appointed police chief of Zabul province

Veil of secrecy lifted


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4771774.stm

[rodeodance]

8. kick

[alarcojon]

9. From your link

Answering the questions from the BBC's Today Programme through his lawyer, Fawzi al-Odah said hunger strikers were strapped to a chair and force-fed through a tube three times a day.

Mr Odah, who has been held at the base since 2002, was one of 84 inmates at Guantanamo who went on hunger strike in December. Just four are still refusing food.

He told how detainees were given "formulas" to force them to empty their bowels and were strapped to a metal chair three times a day, where a tube was inserted to administer food.

"One guy, a Saudi, told me that he had once been tortured in Saudi Arabia and that this metal chair treatment was worse than any torture he had ever endured or could imagine," Mr Odah said.

[rodeodance]

6. The WH pushes the envelope-this time till a Court gets them.

[rodeodance]

7. kickypoo poo