25 April 2011 Last updated at 07:23 GMT Wikileaks: Many at Guantanamo 'not dangerous' Guantanamo Bay detention facility President Obama pledged in January 2009 to close the prison within a year
Files obtained by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks have revealed that the US believed many of those held at Guantanamo Bay were innocent or only low-level operatives. The files, published in US and European newspapers, are assessments of all 780 people ever held at the facility. They show that about 220 were classed as dangerous terrorists, but 150 were innocent Afghans and Pakistanis. The Pentagon said the files' release could damage anti-terrorism efforts. The latest have been published in the Guardian, New York Times and other newspapers. It was not clear whether the papers had co-operated with Wikileaks in their release. The Times said they received the files through "another source". The Detainee Assessment Briefs (DABs) also give details of alleged plots, revealed under interrogation, against US and European targets. They included unverified claims that al-Qaeda had hidden a nuclear weapon in Europe for detonation should Osama Bin laden be captured. Other alleged plots include plans to put cyanide into the air conditioning systems of US public buildings and attempts by al-Qaeda to recruit workers at London's Heathrow Airport. But the files give little information on the allegations of harsh treatment and interrogation techniques at the camp. There are now just under 180 detainees at the US naval base in Cuba, which President Barack Obama has pledged to shut down. Most of those remaining are deemed to pose a high risk threat to the US if released without adequate rehabilitation and supervision. The files show that US military analysts considered only 220 of those ever detained at Guantanamo to be dangerous extremists. Another 380 were deemed to be low-ranking soldiers who had travelled to Afghanistan or were part of the Taliban. At least another 150 people were innocent Afghans or Pakistanis - including drivers, farmers and chefs - rounded up during frantic intelligence gathering in war zones. Mistaken identity These were then detained for years due to mistaken identity or because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, the memos say. Among them were a cameraman for the al-Jazeera news network, Sami al-Hajj, who was held for six years, and Abdul Badr Mannan, an anti-extremist author who told US officials he had been framed by the Pakistani security services, the Guardian reports. In many cases, US commanders concluded there was "no reason recorded for transfer". The memo relating to Mukhibullo Abdukarimovich Umarov, a Tajik man arrested in Karachi in 2002 who spent almost two years at Guantanamo (GTMO) cites: "It is undetermined as to why the detainee was transferred to GTMO." The Pentagon said the leak was "unfortunate" and described the assessments as snapshots that may now be outdated. Officials said they and the office of former President George W Bush had "made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo", adding that the document disclosure could damage efforts to protect US citizens. The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington says many of the details have been known about, but not from an official US source. The 779 documents were part of a cache of secret memos leaked to Wikileaks last year. The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, is currently battling extradition from the UK to Sweden, where he is wanted over allegations of sexual assault. His supporters say the case is politically motivated because his organisation has antagonised the US authorities - they fear he will be handed over to the US if extradited. The Guantanamo Bay detention facility was set up in 2001 under the Bush administration - President Obama pledged in January 2009 to close it within a year. However, in March this year he announced he was lifting a two-year freeze on new military trials for detainees there. The White House says Mr Obama remains committed to the eventual closure of Guantanamo Bay. ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
