- The French national, Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker was arrested before September 11 because he too was learning to fly. He was mainly interested to learn to fly a jumbo jet, but was not interested in learning to take-off or to land. The police investigated him and found that his visa was out of date. They put him in prison but did not do anything more although the French authorities told their counter part in the US that he was suspected to be linked to al-Qaida.
- Until May 3, 2003, we are told that the French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui,
who is waiting trial for conspiracy in the September 11 2001 attack, has sent
a quiz to the US Attorney General, John Ashcroff. Besides being accused of
being the so-called 20th hijacker, there is another theory according to which
Moussaoui was to pilot a fifth plane. His multi-choice quiz, is offering a
front seat at his execution as a reward for a right answer. John Ashcroff
is asked to tick a box alongside one of four options describing his theory
about Mr Moussaoui's role:
- 20th hijacker
- 5th plane missing in action
- I, Ashcroff, do not know
- Let us kill him anyway
- At the end of March 2003 we are told that the Americans are getting ready to send some of the Iraqi prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay prison to Cuba. The ordinary soldiers taken prisoners would be kept and dealt according to the Geneva Conventions and send home after the war is over. The paramilitaries, Fedayeen, Secret Security Organisation members, and the Ba'ath party militia members would be classified as unlawful combatants and send to Guantanamo Bay where they will have no legal protection and could be kept for life. And they call themselves Liberators!! The British military leaders are objecting saying that all prisoners should be treated according to international laws with the exception of the war criminals who should be judged by a competent court of law.
- On May 19, 2004, Sergeant Camillo Mejia appeared also in front of a court martial in Fort Stewart, Georgia, USA. Mejia was in Iraq for six months where he behaved superbly according to his records, but he grew morally opposed to the war as he saw it. He deserted because his conscience forbad him to go on doing what his superiors told him to do. He pleaded not guilty to desertion, being only a consciencous objector and as such unable to serve in the army. He is not even American but Costa Rican. On May 21 he was sentenced to 12 months in prison, demoted and his pay reduced.
- On June 17, 2004, we were told that Donald Duck (sorry, Rumsfeld) ordered an Iraqi man to be detained secretly for the last seven months without the Red Cross being informed or his name written on the registers of prisoners. Donald's justifications were that he acted at the request of the CIA director, George Tenet. And that the prisoner, a member of the Islamic group Ansar al-Islam thought to be linked to al-Qaida, was treated humanely. He forgot to say that by acting this way he was violating international law in particular the Geneva Conventions. But perhaps he never heard about these laws and, if he did, he could not care less since, after all, the prisoner is not an American citizen. This is American justice!
- On June 28, 2004, the US Supreme Court, by a 6 to 3 majority, said that prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay may now challenge their detention in the American courts. It rejected the US government claim that Guantanamo Bay laid outside the jurisdiction of US courts. The 600 prisoners, including four Britons, will be able to take their case to court in the US. This does not guarantee a quick release as the court upheld the government's right to hold these prisoners indefinitely if it can prove that they are "enemy combatants." But the US government will be forced to present evidences justifying the detention of each prisoner, and will have to allow them to meet civilian lawyers of their choice. In conclusion the US Supreme Court said that the US, Bush and Rumsfeld have been wrong for two and a half years.
- On the same day the Supreme Court ruled that Yaser Esam Hamdi held as a terrorist suspect in a military jail in South Carolina can challenge the constitutionality of his imprisonment. A flood of recourses are expected and if the prisoners are kept in Guantanamo Bay the recourse will have to be presented there. The infrastructure does not exist to deal with the recourses of the 595 detainees, the presence of many lawyers, and the necessity to have many judges.
- On October 8, 2004, the United States military has freed a top aide to rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in a good-will gesture that could help reduce the violence before elections due in January. Moayad al-Khazraji was detained nearly a year ago along with other Shia clerics close to Sadr. Khazraji was among 230 Iraqis being freed from Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad this week.
- On November 18, 2005, the UN Human Rights experts decided not to visit Guantanamo Bay's prison because the US military authorities forbade them to speak privately to the prisoners. They believe that in these conditions they would not be able to assess conditions at the jail.
- On November 22, 2005, Jose Padilla a US citizen described as an enemy combatant and kept in military jail has finally been charged, in a civilian court. He is accused of involvement in a conspiration to commit terrorist acts abroad. He is also known as "the Dirty Bomber." He was charged in a civilian court to avoid his case to be submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday.
- The US has admitted for the first time on December 9, 2005, that it has not given the Red Cross access to all detainees in its custody. The state department's top legal adviser, John Bellinger, made the admission but gave no details about where such prisoners were held. Correspondents say the revelation is likely to increase suspicion that the CIA has been operating secret prisons outside international oversight.
- On December 12, 2005, the Australian David Hicksheld as a terror suspect at Guantanamo Bay has won a legal battle in the UK High Court to be registered as a British citizen. The Muslim convert from Adelaide, South Australia, faces charges of conspiracy to commit war crimes. US authorities have also charged him with attempted murder and aiding the enemy.
- The US does not know what to do with Jose Padilla on December 28, 2005. Padilla was arrested at Chicago airport on his return from Afghanistan in May 2002. He was classified as an enemy combatant and accused of planning to attack the US with a dirty nuclear bomb (spreading radioactive products.) He was kept in a military prison. Lately a court said that a civil court should try him but the government opposed the decision on security ground. Now the government dropped the main charge against him and asked a court to transfer him to an ordinary present and to judge him on the reduced charges (no dirty bomber anymore.) The court refused the transfer saying that the government should stick to one set of accusations and not change their mind, which looks like contempt of court. The government has asked the Supreme Court to reverse the latest court decision, have Padilla transferred to an ordinary jail and judged on the reduced charges.
- On December 30, 2005, we were told that the number of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay on hunger strike has more than doubled last week. There are now 84 prisoners refusing food as 46 new ones joined the 38 already on strike. However the number is changing all the time. On September 11, 2005, the number was 131 and 32 of them were being fed through tubes.
- On January 4, 2006, the US Supreme Court authorised the US to transfer Jose Padilla, accused of being an enemy combatant, to Miami to face criminal charges in a civilian court. Lower courts opposed the proposal.
- On January 5, 2006, Jose Padilla accused of being linked to al-Qaida, jailed in a military prison without charge and described an "enemy combatant" although he is an American citizen, was flown to Miami to be tried for criminal charges by a civilian court. He briefly appeared before the US Magistrate Barry Garber.
- Jose Padilla the US citizen accused of helping al-Qaida pleaded non-guilty to criminal charges on January 12, 2006. Padilla was kept for three years in military jail without charges before being sent to a civilian jail a few days ago.
- On January 13, 2006, president Bush rejected a request by the new German chancellor, Mrs Angela Merkel, to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. He said that Guantanamo Bay prison is necessary to protect the American people.
- On January 23, 2006, a federal judge, US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, ruled that the US Defence Department must release the name of all the Guantanamo Bay detainees who now can challenge their detention. The government has a week to appeal to the 2d US Circuit Court of Appeal.
- On January 27, 2006, US Senator John McCain said that the interrogation methods used at Guantanamo Bay prison are still of concern and that the case of the prisoners, some have been kept there for up to 4 years without charge, should be processed legally.
- On February 15, 2006, UN human rights investigators have called for the immediate closure of the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. A UN report on conditions in the Cuba camp says the US should try all inmates or free them "without further delay". Some aspects of the treatment of the 500-strong camp population amount to torture, the UN team alleges. The US has rejected the closure call saying that the facility houses "dangerous terrorists". US officials have dismissed most of the allegations as "largely without merit", saying the five investigators never actually visited Guantanamo Bay.
- US civil liberties groups called on February 16, 2006, for an inquiry into treatment of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib after new images of apparent abuse were shown. Campaigners say they hope publishing the new images will spur government action against senior officials responsible for policy at the jail. The US government has said the images should not have been released and could incite violence. Several soldiers have been jailed for the abuses at the Baghdad jail.
- On February 17, 2006, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan said the United States must shut down Guantanamo Bay prison camp "as soon as is possible". Mr Annan backed a UN report calling for the closure of the camp where some 500 "enemy combatants" have been held without trial for up to four years. The White House has dismissed the report as "a discredit to the UN". The rest of the world, on the contrary, believes that Guantanamo is a discredit to the USA, if this is still possible.
- A Kuwaiti man being held at Guantanamo Bay has told the BBC on March 3, 2006, that the force-feeding of hunger strikers amounts to torture. Fawzi al-Odah said hunger strikers were strapped to a chair and force-fed through a tube three times a day. A senior US official denied the use of torture in Guantanamo Bay.
- On March 6, 2006, prosecutors in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui say he should be executed for his role in the 11 September attacks. But his defence team argue such a move would simply turn him into a martyr. Moussaoui, the only person charged in the US for a direct role in 9/11, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy although he was in jail during the attacks. Prosecutors argue he deserves death for not giving information that may have foiled the 11 September plot. The defence is seeking to portray him as a would-be terrorist who actually played no significant role. Speaking for the defence, court-appointed lawyer Edward MacMahon called on the jury not to allow Moussaoui to "live on as some smiling face in a recruiting poster for Osama Bin Laden.
- The jury in the trial of convicted al-Qaida plotter Zacarias Moussaoui has retired on March 29, 2006, to consider whether he is eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors said in closing arguments that Moussaoui had lied in custody to keep the 9/11 terror plot a secret. But Moussaoui's court-appointed defence lawyers said he was a fantasist and al-Qaida "hanger-on" who had no part in the attacks on New York and Washington. Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to attack the US. Defence lawyers appointed by the court had tried to stop the Moroccan-born Frenchman from testifying on the grounds that he would incriminate himself.
- The United States has released the most comprehensive list yet of those held in Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba on April 19, 2006. It contains the names of 558 men from 41 countries who were assessed by military tribunals at the camp. The majority of those under detention are from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Afghanistan. The move came as a result of a Freedom of Information challenge by the Associated Press news agency.
- On May 3, 2006, a jury decided Moussaoui -a French citizen of Moroccan descent- should not be executed. Al-Qaida plotter Zacarias Moussaoui has been condemned to spend his life in jail without the possibility of parole for his role in the 11 September attacks. In his final statement, Moussaoui declared "God curse America, God save Osama Bin Laden. You'll never get him." Moussaoui, 37, will serve his sentence in solitary confinement in a maximum-security jail in Colorado.
- The US has rejected on Thursday May 11, 2006, the UK government's calls for closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terror suspects. US officials said the camp housed dangerous people who could pose a fresh threat if they were released. The UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said on Wednesday the camp's existence was "unacceptable" and tarnished the US traditions of liberty and justice. The criticism shows a significant shift in the UK's stance on the camp run by its US ally, our correspondent says.
- The US should close any secret "war on terror" detention facilities
abroad and the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, a United Nations report said on
May 19, 2006. The UN Committee against Torture urged the US to ensure no one
was detained in any secret facility. The report followed the first US appearance
before the committee since the 11 September 2001 attacks. During the hearing
in early May, the US neither confirmed nor denied the existence of secret
prisons. The US has been holding hundreds of terror suspects arrested since
11 September at facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba. It has been accused
of operating secret prisons and transporting some detainees to states, which
use torture. The committee also recommended in its 11-page report that the
US should:
- Register all those it detains in territories under its jurisdiction.
- Eradicate torture and ill-treatment of detainees.
- Not send suspects to countries where they face a risk of torture.
- Enact a federal crime of torture.
- Broaden the definition of acts of psychological torture.
- Fifteen Saudi Arabians have arrived home on May 19, 2006, after being released from the United States military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. An understanding had been reached with the Saudi government over their release. About 460 detainees are held at Guantanamo.
- The suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay on June 10, 2006, amount to acts of war, the US military says. The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were "committed" and had killed themselves in "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us". Lawyers said the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair. A military investigation into the deaths is now under way, amid growing calls for the detention centre to be moved or closed. There have been dozens of suicide attempts since the camp was set up four years ago -but none successful until now. The men were found unresponsive and not breathing by guards. They were in separate cells in Camp One, the highest security section of the prison. They hanged themselves with clothing and bed sheets. He said medical teams had tried to revive the men, but all three were pronounced dead.
One of the three men who committed suicide at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay was due to be released - but did not know it, said a US lawyer on June 12, 2006r.
- Post-mortem examinations are being carried out on June 19, 2006, on the
bodies of two Saudi men said to have hanged themselves at the US prison camp
in Guantanamo Bay. The father of one of men, Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, says
that as a good Muslim his son would not have killed himself. He believes he
died after a scuffle between inmates and prison guards. There is no independent
corroboration of this allegation and no official response from the US authorities
to it. The results of the post-mortem examinations being conducted by the
Saudi authorities are expected within a week.
- The Justices of the US Supreme Court ruled on June 29, 2006, that President
Bush overstepped his authority by creating military war crimes trials for
among others Guantanamo detainees as part of US anti-terror policies.
- Sixteen Afghans and one Iranian released from years in captivity at Guantanamo
Bay prison arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday October12, 2006. Many of the
detainees, who are now free, had served up to four years in Guantanamo. "Most"
of the prisoners were innocent and had been turned in to the US military by
other Afghans because of personal disputes. The Iranian, who also arrived
in Afghanistan, was handed over to the International Committee of the Red
Cross.
- On October 13, 2006 the US government has rebuffed UK calls to close its
controversial detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba saying it was unacceptable
on human rights grounds and ineffective in fighting terrorism. But a US spokesman
said the camp was needed to house "some very dangerous people",
including those who were behind the 9/11 attacks.
- The US military said on February 3, 2007, it has prepared fresh charges against three terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. The three men -an Australian, a Canadian and a Yemeni- face charges including murder, conspiracy and material support for terrorism. This is the first step towards trials by new military commissions set up by the Bush administration.
- The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks has admitted his role in them,
and 30 other plots in a hearing at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Pentagon.
"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z," said Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed in a partial transcript from a closed-door hearing. He also
said he had planned attacks on Big Ben and Heathrow airport in London. The
hearing was held to determine whether he was an "enemy combatant",
which could lead to a military trial. Any criminal charges that are brought
could eventually lead to a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There
are some doubts about this confession obtained after long period of torture
in prisons outside the USA and at Guantanamo Bay. The precedents of the Templars
and those 2administered" by the Inquisition tell us to wait for independent
confirmation. And not from the Americans!
- On March 27, 2007, Australian detainee David Hicks pleaded guilty at a
military court at Guantanamo Bay to a charge of providing material support
for terrorism. The 31-year-old Muslim convert was accused of attending al-Qaida
training camps and fighting with the Taliban. The plea means that Hicks, who
has been at the camp for five years, will likely return home to serve his
sentence. Hicks is the first detainee at the detention camp to face terror
charges under new US rules.
A guilty plea by Australian David Hicks to terrorism charges should not be
seen as legitimising US military tribunals taking place at Guantanamo Bay,
human rights groups said on March 27, 2007. Hicks, who is accused of helping
al Qaida fight American troops and their allies during the US-led invasion
of Afghanistan, acknowledged providing support to a terrorist organisation
but denied a portion of the charge that accused him of carrying out terrorist
acts.
A US military tribunal sentenced the Australian David Hicks to nine months
in prison Friday March 30, 2007, after he pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism
- in the first conviction at a U.S. war-crimes trial since the Second World
War. A panel of military officers had recommended a term of seven years but
a section of a plea agreement that had been kept secret from the panel capped
the sentence at nine months for David Hicks, who has been held at the US military
prison at Guantanamo Bay for more than five years. Under the agreement, the
confessed Taliban-allied gunman will be allowed to serve his sentence in an
Australian prison but must remain silent about any alleged abuse while in
custody. Hicks said he agreed to plead guilty because prosecutors had enough
evidence to convict him. Speaking in a deep voice, Hicks said he faced damning
evidence taken from "notes by interrogators" that he had been shown.
Hicks, a former outback cowboy who acknowledged aiding al-Qaida during the
US-led invasion of Afghanistan, showed little emotion at both hearings Friday
as details emerged of a plea deal struck Monday that also requires silence
about any alleged abuse while in custody. Hicks expressed regret for his actions
in a statement read by his lawyer, Marine Corps Maj. Michael Mori, who described
his client as an immature adventurer who had tried to enlist in the Australian
army but was rejected for lack of education.
- A Saudi man held in US custody for five years, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri,
told a military hearing he was tortured into confessing a role in the bombing
of the USS Cole in 2000. He said he had faced years of torture after his arrest
in 2002. Mr Nashiri said he made up stories to satisfy his captors. He was
among 14 "high-value" detainees moved to Guantanamo Bay in September.
The 14 men were previously held in secret CIA prisons but are now being detained
in a maximum-security wing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
- A CIA operative told a US court Tuesday May 15, 2007, that documents given to US authorities in Afghanistan included what appeared to be an application for Al-Qaida training filled out by American terror suspect Jose Padilla. The covert officer gave his name as Tom Langston and wore a beard and glasses, although it was unclear whether he used an assumed name or changed his appearance to testify at Padilla's trial in Miami. Federal Judge Marcia Cooke had earlier approved a request for the CIA employee to hide his identity.
- A convicted terrorist testified Friday May 18, 2007, that he prepared for jihad at an al-Qaida training camp that prosecutors said was attended by Jose Padilla, one of three men being tried on charges of supporting Islamic extremists. Yahya Goba, a 30-year-old Yemeni-American, said in federal court that he filled out a "mujahedeen data form" identical to the one allegedly completed by Padilla for the remote al-Farooq camp outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. While at the camp in summer 2001, Goba said, he learned about war tactics, plastic explosives and weapons such as AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and handguns. After the six-week course, Goba said he was told to provide his US address and contact information and to destroy his passport to hide his travel movements, which he did by putting it in a washing machine. Goba said he and several associates from Lackawanna, N.Y., went to the camps to get ready for a possible mission related to jihad, or holy war. Goba eventually was convicted of terrorism support, and the group became known as the "Lackawanna Six."
- A detainee who committed suicide at Guantanamo Bay on Wednesday May 30, 2007, was a Saudi army veteran who fought for the Taliban. The man, named as Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri, was found not breathing in his cell at the US detention facility, and guards could not revive him. Saudi Arabia has said it has begun procedures to repatriate his body.
- On August 7, 2007, the UK government has requested the release of five British residents from US custody at Guantanamo Bay. The men are not British citizens but lived in the UK before they were detained by the US. The request is a change of policy for the government which had previously said it could not intercede for non-British citizens.
- A Tunisian man released from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay said
on August 11, 2007, he was beaten by American soldiers while in custody in
Afghanistan. The former detainee also says U.S. medics amputated his frostbitten
fingers unnecessarily and against his will. Lotfi Lagha returned to Tunisia
in late June after five years at the US detention center for terrorism suspects
in Cuba. Lagha had traveled to Afghanistan in early 2001 from Italy, where
he had settled as an illegal immigrant three years earlier and had become
a devout Muslim.
- A US military judge who in June dismissed war crimes charges against a young Canadian prisoner at Guantanamo said on Thursday November 8, 2007, he was criticized by the Department of Defence over his ruling. Toronto-born Omar Khadr appeared before a tribunal at the US naval base in southeast Cuba on reinstated charges of murdering an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadr, a 21-year-old who has spent a quarter of his life at the Guantanamo detention and interrogation camp, appeared in court with a full, short beard and bushy sideburns.
- The CIA confirmed on December 7, 2007, that it destroyed at least two video tapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects. The tapes were destroyed to protect the identity of CIA agents and because they no longer had intelligence value.
- Four of the five British residents held by the US at Guantanamo Bay are to be released, we were told on December 8, 2007. Jamil el-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdenour Samuer will come back to the UK, while Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer will return to his native Saudi Arabia.
- Fifteen detainees at the US "war on terror" camp in Guantanamo, Cuba, have been transferred to Afghanistan and Sudan, the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday December 13, 2007. About 290 detainees still held at the prison. Thirteen detainees were sent to Afghanistan, and two others were sent to Sudan. Since 2002, 485 Guantanamo detainees have been transferred to about 30 countries according to the Pentagon including Albania, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, France, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda and Yemen.
- A French court convicted five former inmates of the American detention centre at Guantánamo Bay on Wednesday December 19, 2007, on terrorism-related charges, but did not send any of them back to prison. A sixth man was acquitted. Seven French citizens were captured by American forces in or near Afghanistan in late 2001. All were held for at least two years at Guantánamo and then handed over to the French authorities in 2004 and 2005. One was found to have no ties to terrorism and was freed immediately after his return to France. The others spent up to 17 months in prison in France. But by the time the verdict was announced Wednesday, all of them were out of prison pending rulings in their cases. Five men were convicted of "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise." All the men insisted during the trial that they were innocent.
- Two UK residents released by the US from Guantanamo Bay have been released on bail on December 20, 2007, after appearing in court under Spanish extradition warrants. Magistrates are considering extraditing Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes to Spain to face terror allegations. Abdenour Samuer, who was also held at Guantanamo, was arrested and held in custody but released without charge.
- An Australian, David Hicks, convicted by the United States of supporting terrorism has been freed from a prison in Adelaide. He was captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan in 2001, and spent five years at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In March he became the first person to be convicted at a US war crimes trial since the end of the World War II.
- On February 12, 2008, US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff
promised a fair trial for Guantanamo prisoners accused of organising the 9/11
attacks in 2001 after six men, including alleged plot mastermind Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, were charged. They could face the death penalty if convicted of
murder and conspiracy by controversial military tribunals. But human rights
groups have questioned whether such trials can be fair and said the defendants
were tortured.
- On March 14, 2008, the Army judge, Colonel Peter E. Brownback III, presiding over the war-crimes trial of Canadian Omar Khadr ordered prosecutors to turn over to defence lawyers documents and interrogation notes, and to make available a key witness. Khadr is charged with killing a US Army Special Forces soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. Among the witnesses who will be made available by April 4 to Khadr's attorneys is an Army commander identified only as Lt. Col. W. Khadr's Navy lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, has accused military authorities of doctoring evidence to make his client appear guilty. He said in pre-trial motions that the Army commander for the Khost region of eastern Afghanistan, Lt. Col. W, reported in July 2002 that the person who threw a grenade that killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher J. Speer also died in the firefight.
- Abuse of prisoners by US military interrogators in Afghanistan became an issue during separate pre-trial hearings on March 14, 2008, for three detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The military revealed the interrogator of one defendant had been convicted of assaulting an Afghan detainee who later died; a lawyer for the second charged his client was abused by a soldier known as "The King of Torture;" and the third boycotted his hearing after complaining of abuse in Afghanistan. All three defendants facing war-crimes tribunals were previously held by US forces at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, which became a way station for hundreds of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters who were later shipped to Guantanamo.
- The CIA revealed on March 14, 2008, it had captured Osama bin Laden's translator
and secretly held him for at least six months until this week when he was
turned over to the US facility at Guantanamo Bay. Muhammad Rahim was described
as "a tough, seasoned jihadist" who "sought chemicals for one
attack on US forces in Afghanistan." Rahim was "best known in counter-terror
circles as a personal facilitator and translator" for bin Laden.
- A former Kuwaiti detainee in Guantanamo Bay carried out a recent suicide bombing in northern Iraq, the US military has said on May 8, 2008. Abdullah al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul on 29 April that killed several people. Ajmi and two other Kuwaitis blew up two explosive-packed vehicles next to Iraqi security forces.
- The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on the US and four other key suspects have appeared at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay on June 6, 2008. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan in 2003, dismissed the trial as an "inquisition". He said he had had five years "under torture" and wished to become a martyr. All five men face the death penalty if convicted by the US tribunal in Cuba. Correspondents say the hearing raises questions about military commissions.
- US military prosecutors filed charges on July 1, 2008, against the alleged mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship that left 17 sailors dead. Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, faces charges including murder and terrorism. Mr Nashiri was arrested in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in October 2002 and has been held at Guantanamo since 2006. He told a hearing at the US base in Cuba last year that he confessed to the attack because he had been tortured. CIA director Michael Hayden acknowledged that the agency had subjected three suspects, including Mr Nashiri, to water-boarding -an interrogation technique which the CIA banned in 2006 and which human rights groups consider being torture.
- A videotape of a detainee being questioned at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay has been released for the first time on July 15, 2008. It shows 16-year-old Omar Khadr being asked by Canadian officials in 2003 about events leading up to his capture by US forces. The Canadian citizen is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. He is seen in a distressed state and complaining about the medical care. The footage was made public by Mr Khadr's lawyers following a Supreme Court ruling in May that the Canadian authorities had to hand over key evidence against him to allow a full defence of the charges he is facing. Mr Khadr, the only Westerner still held at the jail, was 15 when he was captured by US forces during a gun battle at a suspected al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. During the 10-minute video of his questioning in Guantanamo a year later, he can be seen crying, his face buried in his hands, and pulling at his hair. He can be heard repeatedly chanting: "Help me."
- The military judge overseeing the first war crimes trial against a terrorism suspect at Guantanamo Bay agreed Monday July 21, 2008, to bar some evidence against Osama bin Laden's former driver because it was obtained in "highly coercive environments and conditions." The exclusion of evidence considered coerced could set a standard for admissibility in other war crimes cases due before the tribunal in the coming months, including that of the self-proclaimed September 11 mastermind. During his imprisonment at Bagram, Hamdan was reportedly beaten, deprived of sleep and informed by other prisoners and guards that at least one suspect had been beaten so badly that he died.
- On July 22, 2008, former driver of Osama Bin Laden pleaded not guilty at the first war crimes trial to be held in the US prison in Guantanamo Bay. Yemeni national Salim Hamdan, 37, is accused of conspiracy and supporting terrorism, and faces life in prison if he is convicted. The right of the military tribunal to try him was earlier unsuccessfully challenged by his lawyers. About 270 suspects remain in detention in Guantanamo Bay.
- A jury of six U.S. military officers convicted Osama bin Laden's former driver of supporting terrorism but cleared him of conspiracy Wednesday August 6, 2008, in the first war crimes trial at Guantánamo Bay.
- Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist, was ordered to be held without bail by a US federal court judge in Manhattan on Tuesday august 5, 2008, on charges that she tried to kill an American soldier and an FBI agent while in US custody in Kabul. Ms Siddiqui, wearing a maroon headscarf, gingerly walked into the courtroom with the help of her lawyers. Looking frail and in pain recovering from a gunshot wound she received in what the prosecution lawyers described as an encounter in Afghanistan after police claimed they discovered suspicious documents about explosives and landmarks from her handbag.
- On August 7, 2008, Osama Bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison at the first US military trial in Guantanamo Bay. Prosecutors had demanded a sentence of not less than 30 years. On time served Hamdan could be released in five months but the Pentagon has said he will still be retained as an "enemy combatant". The US has always argued it can detain such people indefinitely, as long as its so-called war on terror continues. The Pentagon said Hamdan would serve his sentence and then be eligible for review.
- On August 12, 2008, a judge has ordered the government to provide a doctor for a Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three who is charged with assaulting and trying to kill her American interrogators in Afghanistan. Aafia Siddiqui, 36, who was educated in the United States and who mysteriously disappeared in Pakistan five years ago around the time American officials said they wanted to question her on suspicion of ties to al-Qaeda, sat in a wheelchair in court Monday, appearing fragile, with a white veil covering her hair. Her lawyers said that she has not seen a doctor since arriving in the United States a week ago and that her health is worsening since she sustained bullet wounds July 18 during the encounter with FBI agents and US troops. They also listed other potential health problems including brain damage and loss of a kidney and said she lacked painkillers and antibiotics. US Magistrate Judge Henry B. Pitman agreed to postpone her bail hearing until September.
- Jailed Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui, charged with trying to murder US officials in Afghanistan, is a "terrorist Mata Hari" and "treasure trove" of information on Al-Qaeda we were told on Tuesday August 12, 2008. She is the most significant capture in five years and she lives up to her reputation as an "alleged terrorist Mata Hari."
- On August 21, 2008, a UK resident detained at Guantanamo Bay won a High Court ruling that the UK government should disclose material which he says backs his torture claims. Binyam Mohamed, who is facing terrorism charges, says the documents support his case that the evidence against him has been obtained through torture. Mr Mohamed, 30, has been held at the US military prison in Cuba for four years. The judges said the information relating to him was "not only necessary but essential for his defence".
- After seven years in detention, five of six Algerian terror suspects at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been ordered freed by a federal district judge on November 21, 2008. In his decision, Judge Richard Leon noted that the government had provided enough evidence to continue holding the sixth Algerian, Belkacem Bensayah, who is accused of helping others travel to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida in its attacks on US interests. Washington attorney Annemarie Brennan pointed out that government prosecutors failed to show that the other defendants had assisted in the subversion campaign.
- Osama Bin Laden's former driver is being moved from Guantanamo Bay to serve the remainder of his sentence in his native Yemen, the Pentagon said on November 25, 2008. The transfer of Salim Hamdan would take place in the coming hours or days. Hamdan was given a 66-month sentence in August for providing material support to terrorism. He was the first detainee sentenced by a US military commission. His sentence ends on 28 December taking into account time already served. Military prosecutors had called for a minimum sentence of 30 years.
- US agents at Guantanamo Bay tortured a Saudi man suspected of involvement in the 11 September attacks we were told on January 13, 2009. Mohammad al-Qahtani had been left in a "life-threatening condition" after being interrogated. The Pentagon said their methods were legal in 2002, when the interviews took place -though some were now banned. Mr Qahtani remains at Guantanamo, but all charges against him were dropped.
- The military trial of an inmate held at Guantanamo Bay has been suspended on January 21, 2009, after a request by US President Barack Obama. In one of his first acts as president, Mr Obama asked for a temporary halt to all tribunals to review the process. There are 21 pending cases, including those against five men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 attacks.
- On February 6, 2009, the judge overseeing Guantanamo Bay hearings, Susan Crawford, has dropped the charges in the last trial there. President Barack Obama had ordered a delay to conduct a review of all cases. But the request was refused by Judge James Pohl, who was trying Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. The row could have damaged Mr Obama's plan to close the detention centre.
- Four Iraqi prisoners have been transferred from the US military detention centre in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Iraqi custody we were told on Monday February 9, 2009. The men had been arrested in Afghanistan, and then transferred to Guantánamo before eventually being released to the Iraqis for questioning.
- On February 12, 2009, a government official says four Iraqis transferred from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre to Iraq can be held for up two weeks while they are being investigated. Iraq is holding the four men to ensure they don't pose a threat. They are not wanted for crimes in Iraq but a judge approved their continued detention and interrogation for up to two weeks. The men were arrested in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo before being handed over to the Iraqis last month.
- US President Barack Obama is expected to announce on Friday May 15, 2009, that he is reviving military trials for some of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. But legal rights for defendants facing the military commissions will be significantly improved. President Obama halted the trials as one of his first acts on taking office in January, saying the US was entering a new era of respecting human rights. The decision to revive the military trials has angered civil rights groups.
- A UK resident soon to be released from Guantanamo Bay is unlikely to face harassment by British authorities we were told on Saturday February 21, 2009. Binyam Mohamed would be "given every opportunity, subject to the law, to integrate himself back" into society. Mr Mohamed has been detained since 2002 and spent more than four years at Guantanamo Bay. It is not clear if the Ethiopian-born man will be allowed to stay in the UK.
- A British resident, Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, detained at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years has arrived back in the UK on Monday February 23, 2009. Mr Mohamed says he was tortured while in custody on suspicion of terrorism. He said in a statement the worst moment of his captivity was when he realised his alleged torturers were receiving material from UK intelligence agents. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said his release was the first step towards the goal of closing Guantanamo Bay.
- A French appeals court on Tuesday February 24, 2009, overturned terrorist conspiracy convictions for five former inmates of the Guantánamo Bay prison who were tried and convicted in 2007, after they were returned to France. The court ruled that information gathered by French intelligence officials in interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, violated French rules for permissible evidence, and that there was no other proof of wrongdoing. None of the men, originally captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, are currently in prison, having been given time off for time already served.
- Ali al-Marri, held as the last "enemy combatant" on US soil has been formally charged on February 27, 2009, by a federal court with supporting a foreign terror group. He is accused of being an al-Qaeda sleeper agent and held at a military jail for more than five years. His lawyers say he has been seriously mistreated in custody.
- A Yemeni inmate at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has died in an apparent suicide we were told on June 3, 2009. The man, named as Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, becomes the fifth person believed to have killed himself at the facility in Cuba. He had been held there without charge since 2002 and was thought to have been taking part in a hunger strike. US President Barack Obama wants to close the camp by January 2010, but is facing considerable opposition.
- On August 24, 2009, the USA has released a prisoner from the Guantanamo
Bay detention camp accused of attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Mohammed
Jawad was sent back to his home in Afghanistan. Jawad had been accused of
throwing a grenade in 2002 that injured two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter
in Kabul. He has returned to his family, according to his lawyer.
- An al-Qaeda sleeper agent has been jailed in the US on October 30, 2009, for plotting to provide material support for terrorism. Ali al-Marri was held two months after the 9/11 attacks. He admitted having regular contact with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind. Al-Marri, a dual Saudi-Qatari national, pleaded guilty in May, having spent about six years in US custody. Jailing him for eight years, the judge said he considered it likely al-Marri would attack the US if he could. The judge did not give him the maximum of 15 years in prison, saying he deserved credit for enduring harsh treatment while in custody.
- Six Chinese Uighur prisoners from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to the Pacific island nation of Palau we were told on November1, 2009.
- Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspects
are to be sent from Guantanamo Bay to New York for trial in a civilian court
we were told on November 13, 2009. Mr Mohammed has admitted planning the 9/11
attacks. The move is part of US President Barack Obama's effort to close Guantanamo,
but some relatives of 9/11 victims say they oppose a federal court trial.
- On December 22, 2009, the Justice Department announced the transfer of 12 Guantanamo Bay detainees: four to Afghanistan, two to the Somaliland region, and six to Yemen.
- Two Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba have been transferred to their native country WE WERE TOLD ON January 22, 2010. The departure of Hasan Zemiri and Adil Hadi al-Jazairi Bin Hamlili came on the eve of President Barack Obama's self-imposed deadline to close the facility. However, 196 detainees still remain in the prison despite Mr Obama's pledge to close the facility by 22 January 2010.
- An Australian man who was held in the Guantanamo Bay US detention camp has won the right to sue his government for complicity in his alleged treatment on February 25, 2010. Mamdouh Habib says Australian officials were present at torture sessions he was subjected to while in detention. A Federal Court said he was free to sue after rejecting Canberra's claim that an Australian judge could not rule on the actions of foreign officials. Mr Habib was released from Guantanamo without charge in 2005.
- Judge James Robertson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered on March 22 that Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a native of Mauritania, be released from the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Slahi was described in the report of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the September 11 terrorist attacks as "a significant al Qaeda operative" who helped arrange for the group's Hamburg cell members to travel to Afghanistan for training.
- The Pentagon said on Thursday July 22, 2010, that it has transferred two detainees from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to the governments of Spain and Latvia but did not reveal their identities. The transfers brought the number of remaining detainees at Guantanamo to 176, down from 245 when U.S. President Barack Obama took office last year. Obama has vowed to close the detention centre at Guantanamo, which opened in January 2002 to hold and interrogate foreigners captured after U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan to oust al Qaeda and its Taliban protectors.
- The youngest prisoner at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is scheduled to stand trial Tuesday August 10, 2010, on allegations of killing a U.S. soldier and partially blinding another, and the outcome probably will spark renewed international debate over the practice of incarcerating and prosecuting child soldiers. Eight years a captive at the prison for terrorism suspects, Omar Ahmed Khadr, 23, released a letter through his lawyers this spring warning that if the Obama administration takes him to trial in a military tribunal, it could reveal "what is going on down here." "If the world sees the U.S. sentencing a child to life in prison," he wrote, "it might show the world how unfair and [a] sham this process is."
- Eight years after his capture as a teenager on an Afghan battlefield, a long-delayed trial started August 10, 2010, for Guantanamo Bay's youngest detainee. Khadr is accused of killing a US soldier after throwing a grenade at the end of a four-hour US bombardment of an al-Qaeda compound in the eastern Afghan city of Khost. His lawyers deny that he threw the grenade and contend that the prosecution is relying on confessions extracted following abuse.
- A young Canadian terrorism suspect accepted a plea deal Monday October
25, 2010, that will make him eligible to leave Guantanamo Bay prison in a
year, sparing the Obama administration the spectacle of putting the first
child soldier on trial for war crimes in modern times. The controversial military
commission kept secret the length of the sentence agreed to for Omar Ahmed
Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan after a fire fight between
Al Qaeda militants and U.S. Special Forces in July 2002. Sources said earlier
that an eight-year term was being discussed -the first year to be served at
Guantanamo and the rest in his native Canada, if the Ottawa government agrees
to take its citizen back home.
- The Afghan prisoner who died at the Guantanamo detention camp this week
had quit the Taliban forces because he considered them corrupt, and he was
never "in any way" an enemy of the United States, the man's lawyer
said on Friday February 4, 2011. Awal Malim Gul, 48, collapsed and died on
Tuesday after using an exercise machine at the prison camp on the Guantanamo
Bay. The U.S. military said the death appeared to have been from natural causes.
Gul's body was flown to a U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Friday and
will be turned over to the Afghan government and then to his family. The U.S.
military said Gul was a Taliban commander who operated an al Qaeda guest house
and admitted providing operational aid to Osama bin Laden. Gul's lawyer, federal
public defender Matthew Dodge, called those assertions "outrageous."
- A senior Afghan cleric and politician, Mullah Haji Rohullah Wakil, from the eastern Kunar province, who spent six years in Guantánamo Bay after being detained for links with al-Qaida and the Taliban in 2002 was working with British diplomats and possibly intelligence services at the time of his arrest we were told on Monday April 25, 2011. Rohullah had fought against al-Qaida and Taliban forces during the campaign of late 2001 alongside American troops and, officials have told the Guardian, was seen as playing a key role in maintaining stability in the north-east of Afghanistan. The Americans, however, believed he was running drugs, was working to destabilise the Afghan government at the time and had a role in plots to assassinate senior government figures. A memo based on the detainee's own claims and quantities of collated US intelligence shows that Rohullah was close to British authorities.
- The U.S. is considering a proposal to transfer a top Taliban commander out of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay as part of a potential step toward peace talks with the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Mullah Mohammed Fazl is among the prisoners being considered for release. Held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, Fazl was suspected in sectarian killings of Shiite Muslims before the U.S. invasion. The U.S. alleges he was a top Taliban official who at one point commanded thousands of troops. WikiLeaks documents also placed him at the scene of a 2001 prison riot where CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann was killed, though it's unclear whether Fazl was involved.
- On February 3, 2012, members of Congress are reacting sharply to a plan being considered by the White House to transfer abroad five of the most dangerous prisoners from Guantanamo Bay as a gesture to the Taliban in advance of Afghanistan peace talks. It would be the first time detainees from the "too dangerous to transfer" list have been relocated outside of U.S. control. The swift opposition from leading Republicans underscored President Obama's continuing difficulty to deliver on his promise to shut down the prison at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
- Five top Taliban leaders held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay military prison told a visiting Afghan delegation they agree to a proposed transfer to the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, opening the door for a possible move aimed at bringing the Taliban into peace talks we were told on Saturday March 10, 2012.
- The Obama administration is considering a new gambit to restart peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan that would send several Taliban detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a prison in Afghanistan we were told on Saturday June 30, 2012. Under the proposal, some Taliban fighters or affiliates captured in the early days of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and later sent to Guantanamo under the label of enemy combatants would be transferred out of full U.S. control but not released. It's a leap of faith on the U.S. side that the men will not become threats to U.S. forces once back on Afghan soil. But it is meant to show more moderate elements of the Taliban insurgency that the U.S. is still interested in cutting a deal for peace.
- A man who spent a decade as a prisoner in the U.S. detention facility for militants in Guantanamo Bay returned Wednesday July 11, 2012, to his native Sudan after completing a shortened sentence for aiding Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Ibrahim al-Qosi was getting reacquainted with his wife and two daughters and other family members and will spend some time in a government-sponsored reintegration program in the capital, Khartoum, before returning to his hometown. Al-Qosi, who recently turned 52, had not seen his family since he was captured and sent to the U.S. base in Cuba in early 2002. His release brings the prison population down to 168.
A prisoner who died in his cell at the Guantanamo Bay naval base during the weekend was a suicidal and mentally ill Yemeni who had won a U.S. court order for his release, only to have it overturned on appeal. The military identified the dead detainee on Tuesday September 11, 2012, as Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, 32, from Al Udayn, Yemen. He had been held at the U.S. detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay naval base on Cuba's southeast coast since 2002. He died on Saturday. Latif had attempted suicide several times.
The youngest prisoner and last Westerner held in the Guantanamo military base, Omar Khadr, was sent to finish his sentence in his native Canada on Saturday September 29, 2012. Khadr, who was a 15-year-old fighting in Afghanistan when captured in 2002, had been flown from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a military base in Trenton, Ontario and transferred to the province's Millhaven maximum-security prison. Khadr's case has been controversial both in Canada and abroad given his age when he was captured, the nature of his detention and hearing, and the reluctance of Canadian officials to accept his return.
Confronted with news of a widening hunger strike at Guantánamo, Yemenis renewed their efforts Monday April 1, 2013, to win release of nationals held at the detention centre —notably dozens of them cleared for release by review boards but trapped there by both White House and Congressional restrictions. On Monday, dozens of family members marched outside the U.S. Embassy in the capital Sana’a. At Guantánamo, officials counted nearly a fourth of the captives, 39 of the 166 prisoners, as meeting the minimum U.S. military definition of a hunger striker for having lost enough body weight and skipped at least nine meals in a row. Eleven of the captives were being fed nutritional supplements by tubes snaked up their nose and into their stomach. Two were hospitalized for intravenous drips as well as the tube feedings. On Friday, the military counted 37 captives as hunger strikers. Lawyers for the detainees described a much more dire situation, with one of the best known cleared-for-release captives, Shaker Aamer, telling his attorney on Friday that about 130 of the 166 captives were taking part.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday June 14, 2013, to restrict transfer of detainees to Yemen, a move designed to stall the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. In a vote of 236-188, the House voted to pass an amendment to the 2014 Defence Authorization Bill prohibiting use of federal funds to transfer detainees to Yemen, significant because 56 of the 86 detainees cleared for release are from Yemen. President Barack Obama said last month he would lift a restriction on transferring detainees to Yemen to jump start the transfer of cleared detainees, but some House members warned Yemen has been a hotbed of terrorist activity and home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Several hundred protesters gathered on Monday June 17, 2013, before the American embassy in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, to denounce U.S. President Obama's administration's policy in Guantanamo Bay prion, America's infamous terror penitentiary. The protesters, rights activists and family members of Gitmo's prisoners called for the immediate repatriation of all prisoners, accusing Washington of inhumanely prolonging the suffering of prisoners, when a majority had already been cleared for transfer while others lingered in limbo awaiting to be formerly charged. Since February a majority of Gitmo prisoners have staged a hunger strike, determined to make their plight public and mobilize public support.
A man held at Guantanamo Bay who was previously deemed too dangerous to release has been re-evaluated by a U.S. government panel reviewing cases as part of an effort to close the prison we were told on Thursday January 9, 2014. The six-member board decided that Mahmud Mujahid, who has been held at Guantanamo since January 2002, no longer poses a "continuing significant threat" to the United States and is eligible for transfer out of the U.S. base in Cuba. Mujahid, who was accused of being an al-Qaida fighter and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden although never charged with a crime, was one of dozens of men designated as too dangerous to release but could not be prosecuted for reasons such as a lack of evidence or jurisdiction. President Barack Obama directed authorities to review their cases as part of a renewed effort to close the prison, where the U.S. holds 155 men. Mujahid, 33, was the first prisoner to go before the review board. He appeared with his lawyer and two personal representatives by video link from the base in Cuba with representatives of six government agencies in Washington. ---
The United States has quietly released 14 Pakistani citizens from military detention in Afghanistan. The US military transferred the 14 to Pakistani government custody on Saturday September 20, 2014. It did not publicize the release, as is typical with releases from the detention center on the outskirts of Bagram Airfield which is known formally as the Detention Facility in Parwan. None of the 14 Pakistanis was ever charged with a crime. The US has held them in wartime detention. Unlike detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the Bagram non-Afghans –mostly Pakistanis, but also Yemenis, Tunisians, a Jordanian and a Russian– have no access to lawyers and judges, and have minimal ability to contest their detention. The US has never publicly named the non-Afghans it holds, let alone explained the circumstances of each man’s detention.
The CIA carried out "brutal" interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US, a US Senate report has said. The summary of the report, compiled by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the CIA misled Americans about what it was doing. The information the CIA collected this way failed to secure information that foiled any threats, the report said. Suspects were interrogated using methods such as waterboarding, slapping, humiliation, exposure to cold and sleep deprivation.
The US has shut its last detention facility in Afghanistan and has no more prisoners there. The US Department of Defense said it had recently transferred the last detainees from Bagram airfield, north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. It closed the prison there on 10 December. A US court found two adult detainees had been beaten to death at Bagram in 2002. The US government said such cases of abuse were rare. The last few weeks have seen a flurry of transfers from Bagram, including a top Pakistani Taliban militant returned to Pakistan this week. Tunisian detainee Redha al-Najar was placed in Afghan custody on Tuesday. Najar, one of the longest-serving detainees in the US “war on terror”, was captured as a suspected bodyguard of Osama bin Laden in May 2002. He and another Tunisian, who was also said to have been transferred to Afghan custody, received harsh treatment at a secret CIA facility that the intelligence agency described as a “dungeon” in the Senate report. ---
Four Afghans held for over a decade at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been sent home we were told on Saturday December 20, 2014. The men were flown to Kabul overnight aboard a U.S. military plane and released to Afghan authorities, the first such transfer of its kind to the war-torn country since 2009. With the repatriation of the four Afghans, Guantanamo’s detainee population has been whittled down to 132. Several more prisoners of "various nationalities" are expected to be transferred before the end of the year and a further unspecified number in succeeding weeks. Obama promised to shut the internationally condemned prison when he took office nearly six years ago, citing the damage it inflicted on America's image around the world. But he has been unable to do so, partly because of obstacles posed by Congress. The repatriation of the four Afghans, identified as "low-level detainees" who were cleared for transfer long ago and are not considered security risks in their homeland, had been in the pipeline for months.
On Saturday June 13, 2015, the United States has transferred six lower-level detainees from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The departures, to Oman, were the first from the prison in six months and reduced the inmate population there to 116 prisoners. The six men are all Yemenis and have each been held since early 2002 in indefinite detention without trial under the laws of war. In January 2010, a six-agency task force unanimously recommended that they be transferred, if security conditions could be met in the receiving country. But because of the political upheaval and security chaos in Yemen, they remained stranded until now. ---
The Department of Defense announced on Sunday November 15, 2015, that it had transferred five lower-level Yemeni detainees from the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba to the United Arab Emirates. The United States had held each for nearly 14 years as wartime prisoners, and none had been charged with a crime. The transfers reduced the detainee population at the prison to 107. As many as 17 other proposed transfers of lower-level detainees are in the bureaucratic pipeline. The resettlement of the Yemeni detainees was the first of its kind to the United Arab Emirates, which had previously taken in just one former Guantánamo detainee, in 2008 —its own citizen. ---
The United States on Saturday April 16, 2016, transferred nine Yemeni detainees from Guantánamo Bay to Saudi Arabia. The transfer reduces the population at Guantánamo to 80 prisoners. Finding places to transfer the large number of lower-level Yemeni detainees has been difficult. American officials have been reluctant to repatriate them because Yemen is chaotic and has an active affiliate of Al Qaeda. But Saudi Arabia, which shares a border with Yemen, has a stronger government and security. It also operates a rehabilitation program for Saudis who have drifted into militant Islamism. The program tries to reverse their radicalization and help them reintegrate into peaceful society. It enlists their relatives to help and has a record of reducing —though not eliminating— the risk of recidivism. ---
Four Yemeni inmates released from the US Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba have landed in Saudi Arabia on Thursday January 5, 2017. The four men were welcomed by tearful family members at Riyadh airport. They arrived at a terminal usually reserved for royals. President-elect Donald Trump said that there will be no further releases. Up to another 15 prisoners are expected to be transferred before Mr. Obama hands power to Mr. Trump on 20 January. They will be sent to at least four countries, including Italy, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The prisoners have all undergone lengthy reviews and parole-style hearings, and were deemed safe for repatriation or resettlement overseas.