US to free 38 Guantanamo detainees
The Pentagon has decided that 38 detainees held at its prison camp in Guantanamo Bay are not "enemy combatants" and will set them free without charge.
Navy Secretary Gordon England said the Pentagon had completed a review of the cases of all the detainees, who were classified as enemy combatants rather than given the status of prisoners of war (PoW).
Special three-member military panels found that 520 Guantanamo prisoners were properly classified, but determined that another 38, or 7 per cent of those at Guantanamo, were not enemy combatants despite their earlier designation.
"Is the system perfect? It's human beings, so obviously it's not perfect," said Mr England, who oversaw the review which was launched last summer.
"But it is as perfect as we can make the system and as fair as we can make the system for the detainee while protecting America."
He declined to name or give the nationalities of the 38 prisoners to be freed.
Mr England said a common theme among those to be freed was that there was insufficient evidence against them, or what he called "thin files".
The Pentagon created the review panels after a June 2004 Supreme Court ruling that Guantanamo prisoners could go to US courts to seek their freedom.
The United States holds about 540 foreign citizens at Guantanamo, captured in what President George W Bush calls the global "war on terror".
Most were detained up in Afghanistan.
Mr Bush declared these prisoners were not covered by the Geneva Conventions. Enemy combatant status does not guarantee rights required under international law for PoWs.
About 214 other Guantanamo prisoners have been released through other processes, such as diplomatic talks, separate from the status-review panels.
Prisoners were not permitted to have a lawyer during the review process and not allowed to see much of the evidence against them because it was deemed classified.
"A process skewed from the outset to ensure that the maximum number of detainees remain jailed still resulted in a significant percentage being cleared for release," said Amnesty International USA spokesman Alistair Hodgett.
"If the Bush administration actually allowed these detainees to participate in a fair process in which they could confront the evidence against them and call witnesses to support their alibis and their accounts of why they were in Pakistan or Afghanistan, we could only imagine how many of the hundreds still detained might be cleared to walk free," Mr Hodgett added.
Mr England defended the reviews as "open, transparent and available".
He said the State Department was coordinating the return of the prisoners to their home countries, adding that five already had gone home and arrangements would be made for the other 33 to leave "as expeditiously as possible".
The panels finished their hearings in January but final decisions took more time, Mr England said.
The Pentagon has defined an enemy combatant as a person "who was part of or supporting Taliban or Al Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces."
Human rights groups have criticised Guantanamo as a "legal black hole" and some former prisoners have said they were tortured there.
Adelaide man David Hicks is still being held in Guantanamo Bay but his trial has been delayed due to legal challenges by detainees in the US courts.
- Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1334081.htm
WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH WHEN WILL THIS PRESIDENT AND ADMINISTRATION EVER BE CHARGED WITH WAR CRIME AND BE BOUGHT TO JUSTICE
Guantanamo
http://www.guantanamo.com/p/3e/00fa2485e389b5.html?id=WNAT910cf5e46e2b5423eb01b9594f1bea0d
The Pentagon has decided that 38 detainees held at its prison camp in Guantanamo Bay are not "enemy combatants" and will set them free without charge.
Navy Secretary Gordon England said the Pentagon had completed a review of the cases of all the detainees, who were classified as enemy combatants rather than given the status of prisoners of war (PoW).
Special three-member military panels found that 520 Guantanamo prisoners were properly classified, but determined that another 38, or 7 per cent of those at Guantanamo, were not enemy combatants despite their earlier designation.
"Is the system perfect? It's human beings, so obviously it's not perfect," said Mr England, who oversaw the review which was launched last summer.
"But it is as perfect as we can make the system and as fair as we can make the system for the detainee while protecting America."
He declined to name or give the nationalities of the 38 prisoners to be freed.
Mr England said a common theme among those to be freed was that there was insufficient evidence against them, or what he called "thin files".
The Pentagon created the review panels after a June 2004 Supreme Court ruling that Guantanamo prisoners could go to US courts to seek their freedom.
The United States holds about 540 foreign citizens at Guantanamo, captured in what President George W Bush calls the global "war on terror".
Most were detained up in Afghanistan.
Mr Bush declared these prisoners were not covered by the Geneva Conventions. Enemy combatant status does not guarantee rights required under international law for PoWs.
About 214 other Guantanamo prisoners have been released through other processes, such as diplomatic talks, separate from the status-review panels.
Prisoners were not permitted to have a lawyer during the review process and not allowed to see much of the evidence against them because it was deemed classified.
"A process skewed from the outset to ensure that the maximum number of detainees remain jailed still resulted in a significant percentage being cleared for release," said Amnesty International USA spokesman Alistair Hodgett.
"If the Bush administration actually allowed these detainees to participate in a fair process in which they could confront the evidence against them and call witnesses to support their alibis and their accounts of why they were in Pakistan or Afghanistan, we could only imagine how many of the hundreds still detained might be cleared to walk free," Mr Hodgett added.
Mr England defended the reviews as "open, transparent and available".
He said the State Department was coordinating the return of the prisoners to their home countries, adding that five already had gone home and arrangements would be made for the other 33 to leave "as expeditiously as possible".
The panels finished their hearings in January but final decisions took more time, Mr England said.
The Pentagon has defined an enemy combatant as a person "who was part of or supporting Taliban or Al Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces."
Human rights groups have criticised Guantanamo as a "legal black hole" and some former prisoners have said they were tortured there.
Adelaide man David Hicks is still being held in Guantanamo Bay but his trial has been delayed due to legal challenges by detainees in the US courts.
- Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1334081.htm
WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH WHEN WILL THIS PRESIDENT AND ADMINISTRATION EVER BE CHARGED WITH WAR CRIME AND BE BOUGHT TO JUSTICE
Guantanamo
http://www.guantanamo.com/p/3e/00fa2485e389b5.html?id=WNAT910cf5e46e2b5423eb01b9594f1bea0d
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:48 PM
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