Secret documents about detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison reveal new information about some of the men that the United States believes to be terrorists, according to reports about the files released by several American and European newspapers. The U.S. government criticized the publication as “unfortunate.”
The military detainee assessments were made public Sunday night by U.S. and European newspapers after the WikiLeaks website obtained the files. The records contain details of the more than 700 detainee interrogations and evidence the United States had collected against these suspected terrorists, according to the media outlets.
The files, known as Detainee Assessment Briefs or DABs, describe the intelligence value of the detainees and whether they would be a threat to the United States if released. To date, 604 detainees have been transferred out of Guantanamo while 172 remain locked up.
The disclosures are likely to provide human right activists with additional ammunition that some cases against inmates appear to be based on flawed evidence. But the DABs show certain inmates were more dangerous than previously known to the public and could complicate efforts by the United States to transfer detainees out of the controversial prison that President Barack Obama has failed to close.
The dossiers provide new insights into some of the prison’s most notorious detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. According to
The New York Times, Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, commanded a Maryland resident to kill Pakistan’s former present Pervez Musharraf.
Another high-value detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, bragged that he outranked Mohammed who was then considered the terrorist group’s No.3. Al-Nashiri faces charges before a military commission for his suspected role in the 2000 bombing of the USS
Cole.
U.S. officials said the documents “may or may not represent the current view of a given detainee” and criticized the decision by media organizations to publish the “sensitive information.”
The Washington Post reported that the DABs offered new details about the movement of Osama bin Laden and top deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri after the 9/11 attacks and the internal disputes that erupted within the terrorist organization.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.http://www.worldmag.com/
The Guantánamo Bay files contain new claims about Osama bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora, which is regarded as one of the early key lapses by foreign forces in the Afghan war. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
