WASHINGTON, 21 April 2006 — The Pentagon released its most extensive list of 558 foreign terrorism suspects on Wednesday, giving the names and nationalities of the detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The prisoners there are from 40 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and Europe. Saudis top the list with 130 detainees, Afghanistan follows with 125 and Yemen with 107.
The list is the first official roster of Guantanamo detainees. Nearly all the men have been ruled by the Combatant Status Review Tribunal to be enemy fighters, but only a handful have so far faced formal charges.
For over four years the Bush Administration has concealed the names, home countries and other details about the detainees. Many of the men were among the first swept up for suspected links to Al-Qaeda or the ousted Taleban regime in Afghanistan.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff last month ordered the Defense Department to release transcripts of detainee hearings as part of a lawsuit filed by the Associated Press to force the disclosure of names.
Pentagon officials said the documents have also been posted on a Defense Department website (http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/detainee_list.pdf) to comply with a court order that they be made public by March 3. “No more information is scheduled to be released at this point,” said Maj. Michael Shavers, a spokesman at the Pentagon.
“It does not speak very well of the Pentagon. Many of the detainees have been labeled ‘enemy combatants,” but only a few have faced formal charges. I doubt it will create any positive feedback in the Muslim world,” said Abdeslam Maghraoui, a Washington D.C. based expert on Muslim-American affairs.
“Whether the names are Saudi, Yemeni, or Afghan, everyone is going to think that the Americans have finally relented by letting these names be known. I don’t think it will influence the US policy in the Mideast or in Iraq. I also don’t think it will influence the perception of American actions,” said Imad Harb, senior program officer at the US Institute for Peace.
“It will be looked at as a welcome step, but it won’t change anything,” said Harb.
Doubting more information on the detainees will be made public, Harb said: “If they are enemy combatants, they will not want to release the intelligence they have on them. And if they’re innocent, they don’t want that to become public, because it’s embarrassing.”
Now that “the ice has been broken,” Maghraoui predicted more action by both the international community and human rights groups.
