Guantanamo detainees’ names released

THE Pentagon has released the names and nationalities of many detainees held at the isolated military prison in Cuba for up to four years.

A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Associated Press forced the Department of Defence to turn over some 5,000 pages of transcripts from closed-door hearings on the detainees.

A federal judge rejected the US Government’s arguments that this would violate the detainees’ privacy and could endanger them and their families.

AP’s assistant general counsel David Tomlin said: “Many of them are anxious to have the fact of their confinement at Guantanamo known.”

The names are scattered throughout the transcripts, and it was unclear how many names they contained.

About 490 men are being held, but only 10 have been charged.

The transcripts record British citizen Feroz Ali Abbasi, since freed, complaining of military police having sex in front of him; others trying to feed him “a hot plate of pork”; and some misleading him into praying north, towards the US rather than Mecca.

Mr Abbasi repeatedly cited international law, arguing he was unfairly classified as an enemy combatant - a status the US Government says deprives detainees of Geneva Convention protection and allows them to be held indefinitely without charges. But a US Air Force colonel would have none of it.

“Mr Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning,” he said before having Mr Abbasi removed from court.

“I do not care about international law. I do not want to hear the words international law again. We are not concerned about international law.”

Mohammed Gul, who said he was a farmer and petrol station owner, said he was mistakenly captured as a Taliban fighter when he came home from Saudi Arabia to care for his sick wife.

“I don’t want to spend any more time here,” he told the tribunal.

Abdul Hakim Bukhary denied belonging to al-Qaida but admitted travelling from his native Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to fight US forces.

Mr Bukhary praised his captors for running a good jail.

“Prisoners are in paradise,” he says. “They give us three meals. Fruit juice and everything!”

Military spokesman Lt-Cdr Chito Peppler said: “Personal information on detainees was withheld to protect detainee privacy and for their own security.”

But human rights monitors say keeping identities of prisoners secret can lead to abuses.