Security Detainees
Arrests and Trials of Non-Citizens within the United States:
The Guantanamo Detainees
The first prisoners from Afghanistan arrived at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba on January 11, 2002. Today there are some 650 detainees being held at
Guantanamo, from at least 43 countries. Most were captured in or near battlefields in
Afghanistan. Some have come from other places, including six Algerians who were
transferred from Bosnia in January 2002, after a local court there ordered their release for
lack of evidence.
In late October 2002, the United States released four of the Guantanamo
detainees, three Afghans and a Pakistani, explaining that the four no longer posed a threat
to U.S. security. Though one of the men was 60 years old and two others upwards of 70
years old, the Defense Department insisted that "at the time of their detention, these
enemy combatants posed a threat to U.S. security."1
Within days of the October releases, 30 new detainees were shipped to
Guantanamo, bringing the total at that time to 625. On February 7, 2003, approximately
25 additional men were brought to Guantanamo, raising the total to about 650.2 Defense
Department officials continue to say that many of the detainees held in Guantanamo can
expect to be held there until the end of the war against terrorism, a war that shows no
signs of ending. To date, there have been 20 suicide attempts by 16 detainees, mostly
attempts to hang themselves with cloth. According to one prison mental health expert,
these cases represent "an extraordinarily high number compared to other prison
populations."3 The names of the detainees continue to be withheld, although the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been allowed to visit detainees at
Guantanamo and to communicate with families. Lawyers representing some of the
detainees held at Guantanamo have filed habeas corpus petitions, asking U.S. courts to
assert jurisdiction over their cases. At least two federal courts have ruled that they lack
such jurisdiction.4
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