Guantanamo captives' documents
Initially the Bush Presidency asserted that they did not have to publish any of the Guantanamo captive's documents. They asserted that no captive apprehended in Afghanistan was entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, and that those held in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were not protected by US law either, because it was not on US territory. In Rasul v. Bush the Supreme Court over-ruled the Executive Branch, and clarified that US law did apply in Guantanamo.
By September 2007, 11 official lists have been published; see Guantanamo captives' documents/External Links. Many captives names were spelled inconsistently on these lists, which is consistent with the problems of consistent transliteration from nonroman orthography in languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Pashtun. Detainee numbers also were inconsistent, which Mackey observed was true at temporary facilities in Afghanistan. [1]
Documents prepared for non-court administrative hearings.
Based on Rasul v. Bush, the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants (OARDEC) is responsible for the implementation of a one time Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) and annual Administrative Review Board (ARB) hearings.
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
The CSR Tribunals mandate is to make a determination as to whether the Guantanamo captives had been correctly determined to have been "enemy combatants".
CSRT unclassified dossiers
179 Guantanamo captives had the unclassified documents prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) released to their lawyers. In 2005 the Associated Press hosted 58 of these unclassified CSRT dossiers.[2]
Administrative Review Board
The ARBs mandate is to annually review each captive's case and make a recommendation as to whether the USA has a continuing reason to hold the captive.
Habeas Corpus documents
Thousands of pages from captives habeas corpus requests have been made public.
Military Commission charge sheets
In 2004 four captives faced charges before the first version of the Guantanamo military commissions. The charge sheets against these men were made public. In 2005 a further five captives faced charges, before the second version of the military commissions. Their charge sheets were also made public.
In 2006 one more captive faced charges before the second version of the military commissions.
In the fall of 2006 Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and new charges before themm were made public.
In 2008 seventeen more sets of charges were filed under the Military Commissions Act. Most but not all of the original ten captives initially charged under the Presidentially authorized Military Commissions faced new charges under the Military Commissions Act. These charges were made public.
Captives released because they were not combatants
On November 19, 2007 the Department of Defense published an official list of the 38 men's names.[3]
References
- ↑ Chris Mackey & Greg Miller (2004), The Interrogators: inside the secret war against Al-Qaeda, Little, Brown & Co., ISBN 0-316-87112-5
- ↑ OARDEC (2007-07-17). Index for Combatant Status Review Board unclassified summaries of evidence. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
- ↑ Detainees Found to No Longer Meet the Definition of "Enemy Combatant" during Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo, United States Department of Defense, November 19, 2007. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.