Leaked US Documents Show Assessments of Guantanamo Detainees
Photo: AP
Inmates at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (File Photo)
Hundreds of newly disclosed U.S. military documents provide detailed reports about most of the more than 700 people who have been detained at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The New York Times says the intelligence reports show that a third of those who have been transferred out of Guantanamo were classified as "high risk" before being set free or handed over to other governments.
In the leaked documents, the U.S. military in 2007 named Pakistan's main intelligence agency as a terrorist organization. The military said any detainee with links to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, may have provided support to al-Qaida and the Taliban, or engaged in hostilities against U.S. and coalition forces.
The files say most of the 172 prisoners still being detained at Guantanamo pose a "high risk" to the United States and its allies if released without proper rehabilitation or supervision.
About 600 detainees have been transferred out of Guantanamo since the prison opened in 2002.
The Daily Telegraph says more than 150 detainees were determined to be innocent and have been released. It said the assessments showed many of the prisoners were mid- or low-level foot-soldiers.
The secret documents, which are from 2002 to 2009, were obtained by the website WikiLeaks. The New York Times said it obtained the documents by another source on the condition of anonymity.
The United States condemned the leak, saying the detainee assessments were written based on information available at the time, and do not necessarily represent the current view of a detainee.
A joint statement from the Defense and State Departments said newer detainee assessments made by a 2009 task force remain secret.
The reports include information about some of the highest-profile detainees, including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The Telegraph says the documents say a senior al-Qaida commander said the group has a nuclear bomb in Europe and would detonate it if Osama bin Laden is caught or killed. It said Mohammed told interrogators that al-Qaida would unleash a "nuclear hellstorm."
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced earlier this month that Mohammed will be tried by a U.S. military court in Guantanamo rather than in a U.S. federal court.
Prosecutors last week re-filed terrorism charges against Nashiri, who they say was the mastermind behind the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors.
Last month, U.S. President Barack Obama approved resuming military trials for Guantanamo detainees after a two-year freeze. The president halted such trials in 2009 while the administration reworked the terrorism prosecutions process.
Obama missed a self-imposed deadline to close the prison within one year of taking office, but has consistently maintained he wants to close it.
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