CNN
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
The names of dozens of detainees held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were released for the first time on Monday after a newspaper sued the federal government for the information.
The list identifies 46 inmates being held for “continued detention” at the facility, which President Barack Obama has vowed to close. The report was made public after a lawsuit from the Miami Herald. The Obama administration first acknowledged that detainees were being held indefinitely in Guantanamo in 2010, but didn't make their identities public until now.
Recently, more than half of the 166 current Guantanamo detainees have staged a hunger strike. They are protesting their treatment and indefinite detention, resulting in force feedings of more than 20.
The list released Monday was the product of a 2010 federal review of the status of each detainee, which was commissioned by President Barack Obama as a step toward closing the facility.
Obama has recently renewed his vow to shut the prison established last decade to house suspected terrorists.
Of the 46 detainees listed for indefinite detention, the report shows
that 26 are from Yemen, 10 are from Afghanistan, three are from Saudi
Arabia, two each are from Libya and Kuwait, and one each are from Kenya,
Somalia and Morocco.
Human rights groups have long protested the detention of suspected enemy fighters who haven’t been charged with crimes.
The government says the detainees are too dangerous to transfer but
cannot be tried, characterizing them as war prisoners under the 2001
“Authorization for Use of Military Force Act.”
“It is fundamental to democracy that the public know the identities
of the people our nation is depriving of liberty and why they are being
detained,” said Dixon Osburn, the director of the Law and Security
Program at the group Human Rights First.
“The United States has held some of the men at Guantanamo now for
over a decade. Today’s revelation is welcome, though long overdue. The
administration should use its authority under current law immediately to
transfer the 86 detainees already cleared for transfer out of
Guantanamo," Osburn said.
Of the 86 detainees cleared for transfer, 56 are from Yemen.
Currently, a moratorium is in place on transferring prisoners back to
Yemen, citing the country’s current security situation.
One of Obama’s initiatives in his new bid to close Guantanamo is lifting that ban.