Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Detention Center

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Prisoners on arrival in January 2002

The prison camp Guantanamo is part of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , a naval base of the US Navy in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba . The areas for accommodating the prisoners are Camp Iguana and Camp Delta (with the special section Camp Echo ). The latter replaces the now closed Camp X-Ray . Some of the camp names come from the NATO spelling table . The camps are operated by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo . In January 2002, following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan, work began on expanding the base into an internment camp for prisoners who the US governments under Bush and Obama have labeled illegal combatants . This was intended both to protect the United States from terrorists and to gain intelligence. The legal situation of the prisoners, their conditions of detention, the interrogation and torture methods used and the violations of human rights there have led to harsh international criticism and calls for closure. After a total of 779 prisoners had been detained there since 2002, the number was 40 in May 2018.

structure

Entrance to Camp Delta
A 48-person detention block at Camp Delta , January 2003
Prisoner in the US military prison

The prison camps are structured as follows:

Camp X-Ray (closed)

Camp X-Ray was the first to be established: it was in operation from January 2002 to April 29, 2002, had a capacity of 320 prisoners and consisted mostly of cages. These stood in the blazing sun, so that the inmates as well as the guards were exposed to the respective weather conditions. Since the cages could be seen from all sides, they were also completely robbed of their privacy. After pictures of the internees went around the world, the fences of the camp were covered with cloths, supposedly to protect the inmates from photographers.

Camp Delta

Because Camp X-Ray did not have enough capacity, it was replaced by the larger Camp Delta in 2002 . A total of 779 people were detained and tortured there in violation of international law. The camp still exists and is divided into seven camps - prison camps 1 to 6 and camp Echo:

  • Camp 5 (Echo): There are small isolation cells here.
  • Camp 6: At the end of 2011, most of the 171 prisoners remaining in the entire camp were in large communal cells in this high-security prison .
  • Camp Platinum is a further expansion of the prison camp. It is located outside of Camp Delta and is guarded by the US Military Police. Unlike Camp X-Ray, there are toilets in the cells and inmates have the opportunity to speak to their lawyers. It is used for special prisoners, but also for questioning and contacting the inmates with lawyers.

Camp Iguana

Also the Camp Iguana is an outsourced complex. Children were originally interned here. There are now prisoners housed there, whose innocence the US has recognized and whose transfer ("transfer") to their home countries is currently not considered possible.

history

The first American camp in Guantánamo was called Camp X-Ray (the letter X of the ICAO alphabet ) and existed from January 11, 2002 to April 29, 2002. It could hold a maximum of 320 prisoners. It was on 28/29. April replaced by the much larger Camp Delta camp.

Ill-treatment of prisoners became known on March 12, 2004. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on November 30, 2004 treatment equivalent to torture in Guantánamo.

On May 18, 2006, after several suicide attempts, a revolt broke out among the prisoners and was suppressed by the guards.

On January 22, 2009, US President Obama signed a decree to close the prison camps within a year at the latest. At that time there were 245 prisoners in custody on Guantánamo. Immediately after the exchange of five Taliban for a US soldier released in Afghanistan at the end of May 2014, the number of prisoners remaining in the camp was 149.

Suicides and attempted suicide by prisoners

On June 10, 2006, the camp administration announced that three prisoners had died in suicide by hanging . According to the BBC, Rear Admiral Harry Harris Jr., the camp commander, commented on this by saying, “You have no respect for life, either ours or yours. I believe it was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare against us. ”The Pentagon announced the names of the deceased as follows: Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habardi, 30, and Yasser Talal Abdulah Yahya al-Zahrani , 22 (both Saudi Arabia ) and Ali Abdullah Ahmed, 33 ( Yemen ). The camp administration denied allegations of lack of attention by saying that the prisoners had cunningly hidden their actions. A proper autopsy of the dead could not be carried out. In the autopsy of all three dead, parts of the throat, the larynx and the windpipe were missing, organs that are most important to examine when hanging. In addition, the back of the Yemeni's right hand had bruises that could have been caused by an injection. Because of this evidence, a murder by the camp personnel cannot be ruled out.

The suicides were preceded by 41 suicide attempts, which the camp management announced with a delay of up to 18 months in some cases. On May 30, 2007, 34-year-old Saudi Arabian Abdul Rahman Maath Thafir al-Amri was found dead in his cell. He was captured in the Tora Bora Mountains in November 2001 and has been detained in Guantánamo since February 2002. According to the US military, he died by suicide. Another inmate, Juma Mohammed Al Dossary, who was born in Bahrain, announced after at least ten suicide attempts that he wanted to put an end to his life. “I want to put an end to this mental and physical torture. I'm looking for an end to my life, ”said a letter from the 33-year-old.

On June 1, 2009, 31-year-old Mohammed Ahmad Abdallah Sali was found dead in his cell. According to the US military, he had killed himself. He had been in the detention center since February 2002.

Adnan Latif died in September 2012 of an overdose of his anti-psychosis drug.

More deaths

On December 30, 2007, the 68-year-old Afghan prisoner, Abdul Razzak, was pronounced dead by a doctor. He was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for colon cancer.

In early February 2011, 48-year-old Afghan inmate Awal Gul, who had been interned since 2002, died. According to official information, he died while exercising, possibly from a pulmonary embolism or a heart attack. An autopsy revealed arteriosclerosis to be the cause of death.

Legal position of the prisoners

Sculpture by José Antonio Elvira about the situation of prisoners in the US camp

The prisoners are denied rights as prisoners of war or civil prisoners. Instead, they are used as so-called unlawful combatants ( unlawful combatants detained, mutatis mutandis unlawful combatants) in special camps the base. The classification as unlawful combatants is seen as incompatible with international law and human rights according to prevailing opinion. The then President of the United States George W. Bush and his closest colleagues knew, according to the then Chief of Staff of the then US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, of the innocence of most of the Guantanamo prisoners, but left them in the special detention center for political reasons .

In November 2003 a rumor, which has since been confirmed, surfaced in the international media that children and young people captured during the Afghan war (2002) had also been abducted to Guantanamo . They were also denied some basic human rights. In January 2004, three detained youths between the ages of 13 and 16 were returned to Afghanistan and released. They are "no longer a threat to the security of the United States".

The remaining prisoners are denied both prisoner-of-war status and any legal assistance.

According to a ruling by the US Supreme Court in June 2004, detainees must have the opportunity to review their detention. By the end of the review at the end of January 2005, the status had been confirmed in 327 cases. For the rest of the detainees, the decision is still pending.

Evaluation of the legal situation, closure and release demands

Joyce Hens Green, District Court judge for the District of Columbia , in her January 31, 2005 ruling, described the practice of detention without due process as illegal and in violation of both the Geneva Conventions and the United States Constitution . In the meantime, the Supreme Court has also issued a landmark ruling . This prohibits the US government's practice of severely restricting the procedural and material rights of prisoners, and states that there is no legal basis for special courts in the form of “military commissions”.

On February 15, 2006, the UN Human Rights Commission issued a special report calling for the facility to be closed for the first time since the camp was established. The prisoners should immediately be brought to a fair trial or released. So far, however, the US has refused to comply, claiming that the report is based on selective statements.

On June 29, 2006, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals at Guantanamo Detention Center were illegal. They violated the Geneva Convention, US military law, and the US Constitution. President George W. Bush has exceeded his authority, ruled the judges in the trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan , who was represented by Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift .

On January 9, 2007, the Council of Europe demanded the immediate closure of the US Guantánamo camp. The camp is a blatant violation of human rights, an eyesore for the United States and an obstacle to the global fight against terrorism, said the secretary general of the state organization, Terry Davis . People suspected of terrorism should either be tried in the ordinary courts or released.

End of April 2011, there were due to documents that the revelations portal WikiLeaks published , media reports that at least 150 people were detained innocent.

Legal dispute about the prison camp

On November 10, 2003, the highest court in the United States, the Supreme Court , accepted two cases for decision. These were the Rasul v. Bush and al Odah v. Bush, which were bundled before the Supreme Court (Rasul v. Bush, 124 S. Ct. At 2686.). In 2002, relatives of the applicants in both proceedings filed for the first time in US federal courts. The plaintiffs in the Rasul v. Bush, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks had called for their release, no interrogation and access to legal advice of their choosing. The twelve Kuwaites in the case of al Odah v. Bush's main demands were to find out the exact reason for their imprisonment, to get legal assistance of their choice and a fair trial before an independent body. The federal courts declined to deal with the cases on the grounds that they lacked jurisdiction. The plaintiffs took these decisions of the federal courts to the Supreme Court. The task of the Supreme Court was now to clarify the question of whether the US federal courts were competent to review the legality of the detention of the Guantanamo inmates, but not the specific question Judge the applicant's guilt.

On June 28, 2004, the Supreme Court pronounced the verdict on the case. For the government side, which had to be told that “a state of war is not a blank check for the president”, the judgment was a clear defeat. The government's argument that Guantanamo is not US territory and that US courts therefore have no jurisdiction, the judges dismissed, pointing out that the unlimited jurisdiction in the Guantanamo case is decisive for the applicability of the jurisdiction specification in habeas corpus proceedings the United States. In addition, the nationality of the internees is insignificant, since the habeas corpus basically applies regardless of nationality.

In the proceedings, the government attorneys were not confirmed in any point. The case of Eisträger v. The Supreme Court refused to accept Johnson as a precedent for the administrative arrest of German spies during World War II , as the prisoners of Guantanamo “are not nationals of countries at war with the United States and which are in dispute that they have committed or planned acts of aggression against the US; they have never been given access to a court, let alone have been charged or convicted of a wrongdoing. For more than two years they were imprisoned in a territory over which the US exercised exclusive jurisdiction and control. "The Supreme Court ruled:" The US courts have jurisdiction to cast doubt on the legality of the detention of foreign nationals investigate those arrested abroad in connection with hostilities and detained in Guantanamo. "

For the prisoners, the verdict meant that the government felt compelled to set up so-called “Combatant Status Review Tribunals” (CSRTs), which offer prisoners a forum in which they can challenge their classification as “enemy combatants”. In addition, the prisoners were informed that they can now appeal to US federal courts and sue for habeas corpus. In order to obtain his release by US courts, a prisoner at Guantanamo has to go through the courts, which can take years. Nevertheless, the lawyers of 60 prisoners have now submitted habeas corpus petitions to Guantanamo.

One of the first Guantanamo inmates to take legal action opened by the Rasul ruling was Salim Ahmed Hamdan. This was captured by the Americans in 2001 during the war in Afghanistan. He has been in Guantanamo since June 2002. Hamdan is said to have been the driver and bodyguard of Osama bin Laden . In late 2004, Hamdan's attorneys filed a Habeas Corpus lawsuit against his detention in Guantanamo in the US District Court for the District of Columbia . District Judge James Robertson ruled that Hamdan must be treated under the Geneva Convention and that proceedings must be brought against him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The judge suspended a trial against Hamdan before a military commission. (Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, civil action No. 04-1519 (JR))

The government immediately appealed against Judge Robertson's decision. The government attorneys were able to prevail before the court of appeal. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the Guantanamo government's action lawful. Hamdan's lawyers did not accept this decision and called the Supreme Court. The highest federal court accepted the case. The court came to a verdict on June 29, 2006. In a five-to-three decision, the majority came to the conclusion that the President had committed several violations of the law by setting up special courts in Guantanamo. The judges complained that the president had not established his special court in Guantanamo in accordance with the constitution with the express permission of Congress. In addition, the military justice process as planned would not meet the minimum requirements of the Geneva Convention and would not even meet the American standards for military courts under the UCMJ. As a result, the majority of the judges agreed with the plaintiff and, as a direct legal consequence, overturned the judgment of the court of appeal against Hamdan. This does not mean in any way that Hamdan must be released, but only that he cannot be lawfully convicted by the Guantanamo military commission . Nevertheless, the meaning of the judgment goes far beyond the specific case. The Hamdan case sets a precedent. The Bush administration now either had to adapt the procedural rules of the military commissions of the Geneva Convention and the UCMJ and seek support for the special jurisdiction on Guantanamo in Congress, or it had to forego the planned trial entirely and, if necessary, try to obtain convictions in regular courts .

The Bush administration did not want to forego special jurisdiction for Guantanamo prisoners and, in order to comply with the demands of the Supreme Court, introduced the Military Commission Act of 2006 into Congress. The law met with little opposition in Congress and Senate, although it went far beyond merely creating a constitutional basis for special jurisdiction on Guantanamo. In the House of Representatives, a majority of 235 MPs, including 36 Democrats, voted for the law. In the Senate, the score was even clearer at 65-34, with 12 Democratic senators voting for the bill and only one Republican voting against. According to the Washington Post, many Democrats had doubts about the law, but suppressed them in order not to be portrayed by political opponents again as fickle in the fight against terrorism in the current Congressional election campaign: “Many Democrats in Congress decided to put their fears aside and for that To vote law so as not to be portrayed as less vigilant towards the subjects caught in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. "

Demands for closure

Not only human rights organizations, but also various European countries called for the prison camp to be closed and for prisoners in US custody to be treated more generally humane.

  • The German Chancellor Angela Merkel distanced herself from US secret prisons with the following words: “An institution like Guantánamo cannot and must not exist in this way in the long term. Means and ways must be found to deal with the prisoners differently. "
  • British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in early 2006 that he was certain "that Guantánamo will be closed soon."
  • Ursula Plassnik (EU Council President Foreign Minister) remarked that there should be "no legal free space, for anyone, not even for suspected terrorists."
  • The EU Parliament also voted 331 to 228 for the immediate closure of Guantánamo. Angelika Beer (MEP) commented on this decision by saying that “all allegations of torture against US troops in Afghanistan [..] must be unconditionally clarified” and “those responsible must be brought to justice”.
  • The US administration under George Bush was unimpressed by these and similar statements and defended the legality of the prison camp.
  • In 2006, a UN commission of experts denounced torture practices in Guantánamo. The then Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan , joined the call for it to be closed as soon as possible.
  • White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed it on the grounds that "we are talking about dangerous terrorists".
  • On May 19, 2006, a UN committee again called on the United States to close Guantánamo for violations of international law and to end all forms of torture and ill-treatment.
  • US President Barack Obama particularly advocated closing the camp during his presidential election campaign. On January 22, 2009, after winning the presidential election, Obama issued a directive stating that the detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and not later than 1 year from the date of this order. ("The detention facilities in Guantánamo ... are to be closed as early as practicable, but not later than a year after this instruction.") The prisoners at Guantánamo shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. ("Should be returned to their home countries, released, moved to a third country, or placed in any other United States detention facility in accordance with the law, national security, and our foreign policy interests.") In the same directive, Obama initiated an individual review of all those who remained Prisoners and the stop of all special court proceedings on Guantanamo. Obama also ordered the CIA to close all secret prisons. The prisoners from the secret prisons were transferred to Guantanamo under the Bush administration, but the facilities themselves were not completely dismantled. Obama abolished the term enemy combatants for Guantanamo prisoners in early March. The new government also reaffirmed its will to capture only those who " substantially " supported terrorist groups and no longer those who "unknowingly or insignificantly" provided such support ( provide unwitting or insignificant support ).
  • In his speech on national security on May 21, 2009, US President Barack Obama said "that Guantánamo has harmed the moral authority [of the US]" and: "Guantánamo [was] not a tool for the fight against terrorism, but has become a symbol, that helped al Qaeda to recruit terrorists into their cause. The existence of Guantánamo probably created more terrorists in the world than ever imprisoned there ”.

Conditions of detention

According to an AFP report on January 27, 2007, the lawyer of several Chinese Uyghurs held in Guantánamo expressed indignation about the conditions in the US detention center. The 17 Uyghur laid down in Guantanamo would in a new area of the camp called "Camp Six" in solitary confinement held, declared lawyer Sabin Willett on 26 January 2007 in Washington. The imprisonment is like a "nightmare": The Uyghurs spend at least 22 hours a day in isolation in a cell made entirely of metal and with no daylight. This means an "immediate threat" to the prisoners' health.

At the same time as ordering the closure of Guantánamo, President Barack Obama commissioned a commission of inquiry to investigate the entire situation of all terrorist suspects held by the USA. The estimated time for these examinations is six months; a decision is not expected until these examination results are available.

In 2009, some inmates at the Guantánamo Detention Center reported that when President Obama took office, their situation had worsened and ill-treatment had increased. According to lawyer Ahmed Ghappour of the Reprieve Foundation , the significant increase in the number of ill-treatment since Obama's inauguration was due to the fact that some guards wanted to “have fun” before the camp was closed and that this was apparently not ordered by higher authorities.

torture

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the only humanitarian organization with authority to visit the camp on a regular basis, described as reported by New York Times in July 2004, a confidential report to the US government's interrogation methods used as a torture and criticized the Conditions of detention sharp. Torture and inhuman treatment are also mentioned in repeated media reports.

The responsible US authorities regularly denied the allegations and referred to the visits by representatives of the Red Cross. However, the ICRC is not allowed to confirm or deny the accuracy of the allegations against the US authorities, because the confidentiality of the reports is a prerequisite for conducting the visits.

The UN special report of February 15, 2006 also mentions torture. The use of dogs and the force-feeding of hunger strikers are criticized.

On June 12, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners must also have access to US civil courts. Even if the camp is in Cuba, the prisoners should not be denied the legal principle of the so-called habeas corpus act, which they are entitled to under the US Constitution .

In early 2004, a report from the United States Department of Defense confirmed the allegations of torture.

In addition, the practice of so-called waterboarding has been described as a common interrogation method that creates the impression of drowning. Detainees also reported other forms of severe physical and emotional abuse , including severing limbs.

In January 2009, the use of torture in Guantanamo was first confirmed by a senior Bush administration official, Susan J. Crawford, responsible for investigating prisoner practices. In detail, she described the treatment of Mohammed al-Qahtani :

  • For 160 days, the prisoner only had contact with people who interrogated him
  • he was interrogated for 18 to 20 hours for 48 out of 54 consecutive days
  • he was forced to stand naked in front of a woman who was on the investigative team
  • he suffered insults against his mother and sister
  • he was threatened with a military dog
  • he had to put on a brassiere, a thong and was led around the room like a dog with a leather strap attached to his chains, where he had to perform tricks like a dog.

In a report by the Spanish investigating magistrate to Spain's National Court of Justice, Baltasar Garzón , who investigated who tortured in Guantánamo and who incited the torturers to commit their acts, further details are given about the image of "under the authority of American military personnel" perpetrated torture inside and outside the US Guantánamo Special Camp. This includes:

  • Blows to the testicles
  • underground detention in total darkness for three weeks with food and sleep deprivation
  • Threat of injections from dog tapeworm cysts
  • Smearing prisoners with excrement
  • Waterboarding

Sometimes the torture was carried out in the presence of medical professionals.

The advisory activities of the psychologist Martin Seligman for the CIA were also critically discussed : Seligman's theory of learned helplessness is cited as the basis for some of the torture techniques used in Guantanamo Bay.

A 2010 report by the Seton Hall University School of Law also examines whether the routine treatment of inmates with the anti-malarial drug mefloquine in Guantanamo Bay has violated the rights of those affected. The drug is characterized by a comparatively strong neuropsychiatric side effect potential. Nevertheless, the administration of the active ingredient took place without diagnosis and consideration of possible contraindications. In the press and the medical community it was therefore speculated whether side effects in the sense of “pharmacological waterboarding” were possibly consciously accepted.

On August 1, 2014, President Barack Obama first described the practices as "torture" and "wrong". The US has to take responsibility, said Obama.

Immediate Reaction Force (IRF)

The Immediate Reaction Forces , which react with excessive use of force, come into play when Guantánamo prisoners have the slightest rule violations and signs of resistance . These are special units of the US military that officially consist of five officers from the military police who are on constant standby to respond to emergencies. Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights , says that the role of the IRFs cannot be separated from torture.

“IRF teams brutally beat prisoners, forcing their heads in toilet bowls, breaking their bones, attacking their eyes to the point of blinding them, pressing their testicles, urinating on their heads, beating their heads against the concrete floor and handcuffing their hands and feet - sometimes they leave prisoners handcuffed in excruciating positions for hours. "

According to the Spanish Commission of Inquiry, up to 15 people attempted suicide as a result of the mistreatment by IRF officers at Camp Delta. Scott Horton, a leading expert on US military and constitutional law, said these teams were created "to get prisoners out of their minds that they are free from physical attack while in US custody" and that they are "Approved by the highest levels of the Bush administration, including the Secretary of Defense and external advice from the Justice Department."

Guantánamo attorney Ahmed Ghappour said his clients have reported an "increase in abuse" since Obama's election as US president, including "beating, dislocating limbs, putting pepper spray in closed cells, spraying toilet paper." Pepper spray and the overly force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike ”.

Attempts to prosecute torturers

In 2010, on behalf of 12 tortured prisoners in the camp, the human rights attorney Wolfgang Kaleck filed charges with the German Federal Public Prosecutor General for torture against ex-defense minister Donald Rumsfeld , ex-justice minister Alberto Gonzales , ex-CIA director George Tenet and the former troop commander Ricardo S. Sánchez . The legal basis is the world law principle , which requires the international prosecution of crimes against humanity . The first complaint of this kind from 2005 was rejected by the federal prosecutor in 2007 because it was not competent and investigations in the USA would have to be started.

Prisoners

After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, a total of 779 people from more than 40 countries were brought to Guantanamo as alleged members of the ranks of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda . At the beginning of June 2014 the number of remaining prisoners was 149. Of the fifty nationalities of the prisoners, Afghans make up the largest group (29 percent), followed by Saudis (17 percent), Yemenis (15 percent), Pakistanis (9 percent) and Algerians ( 3 percent).

On June 17, 2013, The Miami Herald published a list of 48 “ indefinite detainees ” (German: “unlimited imprisoned”) issued by the Department of Defense on the basis of a FOIA request or a federal lawsuit by the Herald , who, according to the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists being held by the Obama administration. Two of them had already died in Guantanamo by this point.

The fall of the 22 Uighurs

Several Chinese Uyghurs in Guantánamo, who had been handed over to the USA as alleged terrorists by "bounty hunters", could not be released for a long time because no country would accept them. Five of them were accepted into Albania as political refugees in May 2006 . 17 other Uyghurs remained imprisoned in Guantanamo, even though they had already been acquitted of suspicion of terrorism in June 2008. Through a lawyer, the prisoners tried to get them to leave Germany, the home of Europe's largest Uighur minority. The interior ministers' conference refused to accept the men. The Interior Minister of Lower Saxony, Uwe Schünemann , stated that the Guantanamo Uyghurs were “all in terror camps”. Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble also called for "a personal relationship [of] the former Guantanamo inmates with Germany". In 2009 the Pacific state of Palau assured the admission of the 17 men. Palau does not recognize the People's Republic of China and has diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) . In fact, Palau only accepted six Uighurs. Other members of the group were able to travel to Bermuda , Switzerland and El Salvador . The last three of the originally 22 Uighur Guantanamo prisoners were admitted to Slovakia after their release in early January 2014 .

The Murat Kurnaz case

The Murat Kurnaz case caused a sensation in Germany because the federal government at the time did not do everything to protect it from probable torture . The Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on 15 December 2005 on the hearing of the Bremen-born Turkish citizen Kurnaz, who was held in Guantanamo since 2001, by the German intelligence service. The Karlsruhe Federal Prosecutor's Office closed preliminary proceedings against him as early as the spring of 2002 because there was “no evidence of radical fundamentalist procedures”. This is how the judge in Washington, DC Kurnaz had been in the camp since 2001 and, according to his American lawyer, was "physically, mentally and sexually tortured" by the US military , as can also be seen from reports. Since Kurnaz is not a German citizen, the German government says it had only very limited opportunities to intervene. The report of the CIA special committee of the European Parliament states that the German federal government rejected an offer by the United States to release Kurnaz in 2002. This happened even though the intelligence services of both states were convinced of his innocence. The turkey did not seem to secure the release of Kurnaz to try. Shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Kurnaz traveled to Pakistan to attend a Koran school. This made himself suspicious and was sold to the USA for a bounty. Many of the Koran schools there are considered to be the Taliban's cadre schools . On August 24, 2006, the prisoner was finally released after five years in prison and arrived on the same day at the Ramstein military airfield in Germany.

The case last received new attention in 2007 with the book Five Years of My Life. A report from Guantanamo by Murat Kurnaz, in which he reports on torture methods used on fellow inmates that resulted in the loss of entire limbs. The film 5 Years of Life was released in 2013 .

List of known prisoners

Surname Country of origin accusations Indictment and conviction arrest Discharge Others source
Jamal al-Harith (Ronald Fiddler / Abu Zakariya al-Britani) England suspected Taliban fighter without trial or charge 2001 Pakistan 2004 Fought for £ 1 million in compensation , killed himself as an IS suicide bomber in 2017 in the Battle of Mosul in Iraq.
Ruhal Ahmed England without trial or charge Early 2002 March 2004 His experiences were filmed in the motion picture The Road to Guantanamo directed by Michael Winterbottom and he took part in an Amnesty International campaign against torture.
Mehdi Ghezali Sweden January 2002 July 2004
Ould Slahi Mauritania He is said to have been logistically involved in the terrorist attacks on the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi . In 1999, Arab terrorists planned an attack on Los Angeles International Airport . The explosives were discovered on a ferry on the Canadian border. Ould Slahi is said to have also planned this attack. In autumn 1999 he is said to have recruited at least two of the hijackers of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in his apartment in Duisburg . December 2001 October 2016 At the instigation of his lawyer, a US federal judge ordered his release on March 22, 2010.
Abdul Haq Wasiq formerly deputy head of the secret service May 2014 Prisoner exchange against US soldier Bowe Bergdahl
Mullah Norullah Nori formerly commander in Mazar-e Sharif May 2014 Prisoner exchange against US soldier Bowe Bergdahl
Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa Former interior minister with direct links to Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden May 2014 Prisoner exchange against US soldier Bowe Bergdahl
Mohammed Nabi Formerly security chief of Qalat in the province of Zabul and later a radio operator in the Taliban's communications office in Kabul May 2014 Prisoner exchange against US soldier Bowe Bergdahl
Mohammad Fazl Identified by Human Rights Watch as an accomplice in 2000 and 2001 war crimes against Shiite people. May 2014 Prisoner exchange against US soldier Bowe Bergdahl
Abdul Hadi al Iraqi Iraq (ethnic Kurd) senior member of al-Qaeda April 2007
Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu Libya
Ramzi Binalshibh Yemen leading head of the Hamburg terror cell Indicted in May 2012 September 2006
Salim Ahmed Hamdan sentenced to five and a half years in prison in August 2008. The judgment was overturned by an appeals court in October 2012. The sentence was offset against his time in Guantánamo captivity and Hamdan was released in 2008 to his native Yemen. From there he continued his fight against the verdict.
Murat Kurnaz Turkish citizen, grew up in Germany August 2006
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan September 2005
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda , chief planner of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 Indicted in May 2012 March 2003
Abu Subaida Palestinian raised in Saudi Arabia March 2002
Ajamel ameziane Algeria 2002 Appealed against ongoing detention and torture in August 2008 ( Center for Constitutional Rights )
Gouled Hassan Dourad Somalia by Al-Ittihad al-Islami , who are said to have links to al-Qaeda . 2004
Bashir Bin Lap (aka "Lillie") Malaysia is said to be a member of the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiya .
Riduan Isamuddin Hambali Indonesia is said to be a member of the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiya.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri Saudi Arabia November 2002
Moazzam Begg United Kingdom 2005, returned to Birmingham
David Hicks Australia was sentenced on March 31, 2007 as the first Guantanamo detainee served his sentence in a maximum security prison in Adelaide, Australia (until December 2007)
Sami Al-Haj Sudan May 2008 Al Jazeera cameraman , captured on the way to Afghanistan in December 2001 and taken to Guantánamo as an enemy fighter. He was the only confirmed media representative there.
Omar Khadr Canada (Afghan family background) Killing of a US soldier 2002 September 2012 was transferred to the Millhaven Institution maximum security prison in Bath, Ontario in late September 2012 at the age of 26. In 2015, he was released from prison on probation. In 2017, he received compensation of 10.5 million Canadian dollars from the Canadian government.
Lakhdar Boumediene Algeria, Bosnian citizenship accepted Planning an attack on the US embassy in Bosnia Acquittal by a civil criminal court January 20, 2002 May 15, 2009 apparently innocent for seven and a half years, plaintiff in the Boumediene v. Bush

Trials against individual prisoners, convictions, and releases

On March 26, 2007, the first trial of an inmate in the camp began. The Australian David Hicks was accused of supporting a terrorist organization and assisting in the preparation or execution of a terrorist act. The Australian, who converted to Islam in 1999, pleaded guilty to material aid to terrorists.

After five years of existence in the prison camp (2007), only four prisoners have been tried in a regular court and only one of them, David Hicks, has been tried.

An examination of the Pentagon documents found that 55% of detainees transferred to Guantanamo are not accused of hostile acts against the United States. Only 8% are accused of fighting for a terrorist group. 86% were captured by the Northern Alliance or Pakistani authorities and handed over to the US armed forces when they paid heavy bounties for the capture of suspected terrorists.

On November 20, 2008, US federal judge Richard Leon ordered the immediate release of five Algerians who were arrested in October 2001 and extradited to the United States in January 2002 . The men should no longer be held as "enemy fighters" as there is no evidence that they were involved in plans to attack the United States. On January 28, 2009, the same judge denied the request for the release of Yemeni Ghaleb Nassar Al Bihani, who had been detained in Guantanamo for more than seven years . He said he had worked as a kitchen helper for the Taliban and never fired a shot from a weapon himself. Judge Leon decided that Al Bihani was rightly to be classified as an enemy fighter, since Napoleon had already said that every army marches on its stomach.

In May 2012, indictments were brought against five suspects: the Saudi Arabian Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi , the Pakistanis Chalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ali Abd al-Asis Ali, and the Yemenis Ramzi Binalshibh and Walid Bin Attash . They are accused of being involved in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks .

List of convicted prisoners

Renditions and releases

  • In 2004, 200 prisoners were released without a formal review of their status as an illegal combatant .
  • Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, who was transferred to his home country Kuwait in 2005, carried out a suicide attack in Mosul in 2008 after a Kuwaiti court acquitted him of terrorist charges.
  • In June 2006, 14 Saudi prisoners were released and flown to Saudi Arabia, including Othman Ahmad Othman al-Ghamdi, who was on the list of the most wanted terrorists there.
  • In 2010, the Saudi authorities reported that 25 of the 120 prisoners transferred to date had turned to terrorism again despite a rehabilitation program.
  • Ibrahim al Qosi, who had worked as a driver and cook for Bin Ladin, pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism as part of a settlement in the criminal proceedings , was convicted, deported to his home country Sudan and rejoined al-Qaeda there.
  • In 2010, the German Interior Ministry announced that two inmates had been resettled in Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg.
  • In 2014, five Afghan Taliban imprisoned since 2001 were flown to Qatar as part of an exchange for US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2009 .
  • In January 2016, Majid Mahmud Abdu Ahmad was heard by the Periodic Review Board; the final assessment came to the conclusion that the Yemeni Taliban was no longer a major threat and recommended transfer to an Arabic-speaking host country.
  • A British convert named Jamal al-Harith was in Guantanamo from 2002 to 2004 and in Great Britain for about ten years after his release. Then he went to Syria to join ISIS. On February 20, 2017, he drove a car loaded with explosives in front of an Iraqi military base southwest of Mosul and blew himself up with the car.

Closure plans

President Bush announced several times that he would close the prison camp as soon as the Supreme Court decided on the location of the criminal trials.

As one of his first acts as the new US President, Barack Obama ordered the stay of all trials before the military tribunal on January 20, 2009. The new government wants to have the legality of the procedures checked. Two days later, he signed a decree to close the detention center within a year and a decree banning "harsh interrogation methods". He also ordered the closure of all CIA secret prisons ( black sites ) with immediate effect . In future, they want to adhere to the Geneva Conventions on dealing with prisoners of war.

The implementation of the presidential order to close it encountered difficulties. The main problems were finding states that would accept former Guantanamo prisoners. It was particularly difficult to find countries willing to accept those Guantanamo inmates who could not be deported to their home countries for humanitarian reasons. The US Senate rejected it in 2009 by 90 to 6 votes to provide funds for the closure of Guantanamo. The government must first come up with a detailed plan of what to do with the remaining 240 Guantanamo inmates, especially where to detain those who cannot be released. Non-partisan, there was a strong group in Congress that definitely wants to prevent even a single former Guantanamo inmate from being imprisoned on American soil or even given asylum in the United States; this is an incalculable security risk. The Republicans introduced a bill in Congress, the Keep Terrorists Out of America Act . "There now seems to be a broad consensus that Guantanamo must be closed," said Matthew C. Waxman, who served as Secretary of State in the Department of Defense with prisoner affairs under Bush. The problem remained of what to do with the Guantanamo inmates.

Several European countries offered to take in prisoners classified as innocent. This possibility was also discussed in Germany. This mostly concerned Uighur prisoners, since Germany is by far the largest Uighur community outside of China. Monika Lüke , then Secretary General of Amnesty International Germany, called on Chancellor Merkel to give asylum to some of the prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in the Federal Republic, who were classified as innocent and harmless by the US authorities. The federal government signaled readiness to talk. In 2009, five Uyghur Guantanamo inmates were released to Albania, four to Bermuda and six to Palau. Switzerland took in a Uzbek in January 2010 and two Uyghur brothers in March 2010. In May 2010 it became known that the Federal Republic would accept prisoners, contrary to statements made to the contrary, in July 2010 the Interior Ministry confirmed the admission of two former Guantanamo prisoners.

According to a report by the American secret service director James Clapper , around a quarter of 598 released prisoners have "with certainty or a high probability" returned to terrorism, which makes it more difficult for the president to close the camp. In addition, it cannot be ruled out that a large number of internees would not be friendly towards the United States after their release.

By September 2016, according to Clapper, numerous Guantanamo prisoners had joined militant groups after their release as fighters. Including:

  • 113 of 532 prisoners released under President Bush through 2009
  • 9 of 160 prisoners released under President Obama since 2009

Role of other states

The British organization Reprieve determined by comparing flight logs from the Portuguese authorities with information from the US Department of Defense about the arrival of the prisoners in Guantánamo, that 728 of a total of 774 prisoners were brought there through the national territory or the airspace of Portugal. The Portuguese government denies that.

See also

Cinematic reception

  • The Road to Guantanamo . Competition film at the Berlinale 2006, Michael Winterbottom . Feature film based on real life.
  • This is Camp X-Ray . Documentary by Damien Mahoney, 2005.
  • Torture: The Guantanamo Guidebook . In this second part of a four-part documentary film series about torture, volunteers are exposed to questioning techniques, which, according to the TV station Channel 4, are also used with prisoners in Guantanamo.
  • You don't like the truth . Documentary from 2010. 4 days with Omar Ahmed Khadr in Guantanamo.
  • 5 years of life . Germany 2013. Director: Stefan Schaller ; Script: Stefan Schaller, David Finck ; Camera: Armin Franzen; Actors: Sascha Alexander Gersak , Ben Miles u. a; 96 minutes; Colour; Genre; Thriller . FSK from 12 years.
  • The Report . USA 2019. Thriller. Acts of investigations into the methods used in Guantanamo. Director: Scott Z. Burns

literature

Web links

Commons : Guantanamo Bay detainment camp  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Media reports

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung online on April 25, 2011: Wikileaks reveals secret papers on Guantanamo. Retrieved April 29, 2011 .
  2. ↑ The Guardian on April 25, 2011: Guantánamo leaks lift lid on world's most controversial prison. Retrieved April 29, 2011 .
  3. ↑ a b Human Rights Watch : Ten Years of Guantanamo, January 6, 2012, accessed June 3, 2014
  4. ^ US Transfers First Guantánamo Detainee Under Trump, Who Vowed to Fill It. In: The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  5. ↑ VICE News: Guantanamo: Blacked Out Bay (Full Length) on YouTube
  6. ↑ a b Katja Schlesinger: Obama's Broken Promise - Ten Years of Guantanamo and No End , Deutschlandfunk - " Background " of January 10, 2012 (January 14, 2012)
  7. ^ Brite describes Guantánamo as hell ( Memento of April 5, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) . Netzeitung, March 12, 2004.
  8. ↑ ICRC accuses USA of torture . Frankfurter Rundschau (source no longer available.)
  9. ↑ Executive Order 13492
  10. ↑ a b Eric Schmitt: Afghan Prison Poses Problem in Overhaul of Detainee Policy In: New York Times , January 27, 2009 ( online ), accessed January 30, 2009
  11. ↑ a b Soldier Bowe Bergdahl released by the Taliban after five years, in: Tagesspiegel.de of June 1, 2014
  12. ↑ Suicides in Guantanamo. Death in the camp of shame. Süddeutsche Zeitung .
  13. ↑ Swiss coroner asks questions about the dead in Guantánamo. Swissinfo.ch
  14. ↑ Inmate committed suicide. In: the standard. June 3, 2009. Retrieved June 3, 2009 .
  15. ↑ Military faults guards in captive's suicide by overdose. Miami Herald .
  16. Jump up ↑ Guantanamo prisoner dies of cancer , Reuters, December 30, 2007
  17. ^ Guantanamo prisoner dies after sport , Spiegel Online , February 4, 2011
  18. ↑ Muere un preso en Guantánamo , El País , February 3, 2011
  19. ↑ http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-guantanamo-testimonials-project/testimonies/prisoner-testimonies/autopsy_awal_gul.pdf
  20. ^ Bulgaria takes in Guantánamo prisoners. In: the standard. May 5, 2010, accessed May 9, 2010 .
  21. ↑ Judgment of January 31, 2005 (PDF; 3.3 MB)
  22. ^ Special report on the liquidation of the camp
  23. ↑ Süddeutsche: Spotlight on Bush's shadow prison ; Retrieved April 25, 2011
  24. ↑ Rasul v. Bush ( Memento from July 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 149 kB)
  25. ↑ http://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Guantanamo:_Gefangene_erlangen_den_Schutz_der_Genfer_Konventionen
  26. ^ ( Analogous to Charles Babington, House Approves Bill on Detainees - 253 to 168 Vote Backs Bush on Prosecution of Terrorism Suspects, Washington Post, September 28, 2006, p. A01)
  27. ↑ Angela Merkel "Guantanamo must not exist in the long run". In: Stern. January 7, 2006, accessed February 2, 2009 .
  28. ↑ Straw expects Guantanamo to be closed soon. In: Spiegel Online. March 15, 2006, accessed February 2, 2009 .
  29. ^ Plassnik for closing Guantanamo. In: ORF. Retrieved February 2, 2009 .
  30. ↑ European Parliament calls for Guantanamo to be closed. Angelika Beer, January 18, 2005, accessed February 2, 2009 .
  31. ↑ handelsblatt.com ( Memento from September 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  32. ↑ Annan denounces conditions in Guantánamo. In: Handelsblatt. February 17, 2006, accessed February 2, 2009 .
  33. ↑ Annan urges the closure of Guantanamo. In: SF Tagesschau. February 16, 2006, archived from the original on July 18, 2012 ; Retrieved February 2, 2009 .
  34. ↑ "The United States is committed to the worldwide abolition of torture, and we lead by example in this fight." In: Amnesty International. Retrieved February 2, 2009 .
  35. ↑ Guantánamo will be closed within a year ( memento of January 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - Tagesschau January 22, 2009.
  36. ↑ - ( Memento from April 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  37. ↑ Matthias Gebauer: US military prison Bagram - test case for Obama's anti-terrorism course In: Der Spiegel , January 27, 2009 ( online ), accessed on January 30, 2009
  38. ↑ New abuse claims at Guantanamo. In: Al Jazeera. April 17, 2009, accessed May 10, 2009 .
  39. ↑ Attorney: Abuses have increased since Obama's election. In: focus.de. February 25, 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2009 .
  40. ↑ American Prison Camps: Torture in Guantánamo? - Report on torture at faz.net
  41. ↑ Spiegel-Online: US government is defeated in Guantanamo proceedings from June 12, 2008
  42. ↑ Tima Chadid: Sami al-Hajj: 'Thank you, Guantanamo'. In: Menassat.com. October 7, 2008, accessed on November 2, 2008 : “As for the medical treatment, al-Hajj talks about detainees having their limbs amputated. "They cut the feet of a Saudi detainee, and the hands of many others. They also cut the fingers of a Tunisian prisoner. ""
  43. ↑ a b Five years of my life. A report from Guantanamo., Rowohlt, 2007, ISBN 3-87134-589-X
  44. ↑ Thomas Pany: Senior member of the Bush administration admits torture in Guantanamo. In: Telepolis. Christian Heise, January 14, 2009, accessed January 14, 2009 .
  45. ↑ a b Alexander Bahar : Will torture and mistreatment continue in Guantánamo? In: Telepolis. June 5, 2009. Retrieved June 6, 2009 .
  46. ↑ Jonathan H. Marks, Gregg Bloche: The Ethics of Interrogation - The US Military's Ongoing Use of Psychiatrists. In: The New England Journal of Medicine. Volume 359, 2008. pp. 1090-1109. [1]
  47. ↑ Vlad Georgescu: Doctors in the military. US Army appoints psychiatrists as interrogation instructors. In: Spiegel-Online. September 11, 2008. [2]
  48. ↑ Mark Denbeaux, Sean Camoni, Brian Beroth, Meghan Chrisner, Chrystal Loyer, Kelli Stout, Paul Taylor: Drug abuse. An exploration of the government's use of mefloquine at Guantanamo. Published on the Seton Hall University School of Law website. December 2010. ( PDF )
  49. ↑ AM Croft: A lesson learned: the rise and fall of Lariam and Halfan. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Volume 100, number 4, April 2007, pp. 170-174, doi : 10.1177 / 014107680710011411 , PMID 17404338 , PMC 1847738 (free full text) (review).
  50. ↑ Elke Brüser: Torture in Guantanamo. "Pharmacological Waterboarding" . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. December 15, 2010. [3]
  51. ↑ Anna Gabriel: Torture in Guantánamo with drugs? In: The press . December 18, 2010. [4]
  52. ^ RL Nevin: Mass administration of the antimalarial drug mefloquine to Guantánamo detainees: A critical analysis. In: Tropical Medicine & International Health. August 12, 2012. doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-3156.2012.03063.x . PMID 22882560
  53. ↑ ZEIT ONLINE: Obama admits torture after 9/11. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  54. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 19, 2010: Human rights activists report Rumsfeld in Germany
  55. ^ Tagesspiegel, April 27, 2007: War crimes: Federal prosecutor spared Rumsfeld
  56. ↑ Emanuel Deutschmann: Between Collaboration and Disobedience: The Behavior of the Guantánamo Detainees and its Consequences ( Memento of June 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Journal of Conflict Resolution, published on August 14, 2014.
  57. ^ Carol Rosenberg: Guantanamo. List of 'indefinite detainees' . In: miamiherald.com , June 17, 2013, accessed June 18, 2013.
  58. ↑ 20 minutes : Sold by bounty hunters to Guantánamo January 27, 2007
  59. ^ Guantanamo: Success for Uyghur prisoners from China. Seniorweb, October 8, 2008, accessed February 4, 2009 .
  60. ↑ From the terror camp to Germany? Die Welt, June 3, 2009, accessed June 10, 2009 .
  61. ↑ Guantanamo prisoners appalled by the German blockade. Spiegel Online, June 10, 2009, accessed June 10, 2009 .
  62. ^ South Pacific instead of Guantanamo. Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 10, 2009, archived from the original on June 13, 2009 ; Retrieved June 10, 2009 .
  63. ^ Ex-Guantanamo prisoner disappeared from Insel, in: Welt.de of February 14, 2013, accessed on June 3, 2014
  64. ↑ Uighurs: China demands extradition of Guantanamo prisoners, in: Spiegel Online from January 2, 2014, accessed on June 3, 2014
  65. ↑ sueddeutsche.de: ( Memento from May 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Interrogation tourism: With it in the legal free area
  66. ^ Spiegel online on January 20, 2015: Guantanamo: female guards forced inmates to have sex. Retrieved January 20, 2015 .
  67. ^ Final report of the CIA special committee of the European Parliament
  68. ^ ARD at Beckmann: ( Memento from August 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Murat Kurnaz
  69. ↑ tagesschau.de: (tagesschau.de archive) Kurnaz's lawyer raises allegations against red-green
  70. ^ Zeit.de: Leaving in Guantánamo
  71. ^ Die Tageszeitung, Friday, April 20, 2007, p. 3: "A report against forgetting"
  72. ↑ Gordon Rayner: [5] . In: Daily Telegraph , February 22, 2017
  73. ↑ Tobias Rapp : Hearing with pain . In: Der Spiegel , January 11, 2010
  74. ↑ Bowe Bergdahl, returning from the war - Better, he's a hero , FAZ.net from June 1, 2014
  75. ↑ Cleveland.com: Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl freed from captivity in Afghanistan June 1, 2014
  76. ↑ Michael König: Wikileaks disclosure - Once a Guantanamo prisoner, today a US ally , Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 26, 2011
  77. ↑ a b c 9/11 attacks: Computer breakdown delays Guantanamo trial, in: Spiegel Online from August 22, 2012, accessed on June 3, 2014
  78. ↑ a b United States: Court overturns judgment against bin Ladin drivers , FAZ.net, October 16, 2012
  79. ↑ Bin Laden's former driver sentenced to five and a half years in prison , Spiegel Online, August 7, 2008
  80. ^ Joel Campagna: The Enemy? , CPJ, October 3, 2006
  81. ↑ Khadr return to Canada: Guantanamo's youngest is allowed to leave. In: Spiegel Online of September 29, 2012, accessed December 9, 2013
  82. ↑ Guantánamo video shows a desperate 16-year-old ( Memento from November 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  83. ↑ The Australian Hicks pleads guilty (tagesschau.de archive)
  84. ^ The Independent: Reporting on life behind the wire: The Sudanese journalist held in Guantanamo Bay ( Memento of July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), June 9, 2007
  85. ↑ Financial Times Deutschland: USA have to let five prisoners run ( memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) from November 21, 2008
  86. ↑ Taliban cook will not be released. In: the standard. January 28, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2009 .
  87. ↑ Life imprisonment for ex-Guantanamo prisoners in: Spiegel Online from January 25, 2011
  88. ↑ Die Zeit 2008 ( Memento from January 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  89. ↑ AP Report: Former Guantanamo detainee carried out Iraq suicide attack ( Memento from June 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) May 2, 2008 (English).
  90. ↑ Mansour Al-Shihri, Khaled A-Shalahi: Names keep climbing on infamous terror list. ( Memento of February 7, 2009 on WebCite ) February 7, 2009 (English).
  91. ↑ Thomas Joscelyn: Saudi Gitmo recidivists. In: LongWarJournal.org . June 21, 2010 (English).
  92. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/9395276/Osama-bin-Ladens-cook-returns-to-Sudan-from-Guantnamo.html
  93. ↑ Terrorist released from Gitmo emerges as face of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
  94. ↑ Germany has taken in two people from Guantanamo. ( Memento of December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Press release. In: BMI.Bund.de . Federal Ministry of the Interior, September 16, 2010.
  95. ^ Guantanamo prisoners to Qatar, in: news.ORF.at of June 1, 2014
  96. ^ Opening statements by his defense lawyers
  97. ↑ Unclassified Summary of Final Determination
  98. ↑ spiegel.de
  99. ^ Spiegel Online : Pentagon wants to stop Guantanamo trials from January 21, 2009.
  100. ↑ FAZ.net January 22, 2009: Obama draws a line under Bush's methods.
  101. ↑ Guantanamo will be closed within a year. In: the standard. January 22, 2009. Retrieved January 22, 2009 .
  102. ↑ Excluded from this ruling are the US military prison on Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and other prisons in which the US is holding suspects of terrorism as illegal combatants. At Bagram Air Base , a facility largely unknown to the public in 2009, the US military primarily detained people captured in Afghanistan. Initially set up as a temporary facility, this base functioned as a kind of transit station for prisoners. After the Bush administration ordered in the fall of 2004 not to bring any more prisoners to Guantánamo, the number of prisoners in Bagram multiplied.
  103. ↑ Guantanamo: The American Senate votes against Obama. Tages-Anzeiger , May 20, 2009.
  104. ^ Keep Terrorists Out of America Act.
  105. ↑ Guantanomhäftlinge
  106. ↑ Does Germany accept released prisoners? An adviser to Obama calls on the allies to help the new US administration disband the controversial Guantánamo camp. Berlin is not averse. zeit.de, 2008.
  107. ↑ Uyghurs released from Guantanamo to Palau. In: Spiegel Online of November 1, 2009, accessed November 24, 2011.
  108. ↑ Switzerland grants two Uighurs from Guantanamo humanitarian admission. In: Human Rights Watch, February 4, 2010.
  109. ↑ Switzerland takes in two Uyghurs from Guantanamo. N24.
  110. ↑ Merkel wants to let Guantanamo prisoners into the country. In: Focus .
  111. ↑ spiegel.de July 7, 2010: Germany takes Obama off two problem cases. In: Spiegel online
  112. ↑ Focus 51/2010, p. 56: From Guantanamo back to the terror front.
  113. ↑ theguardian.com March 14, 2014: US responds to Guantánamo Bay and NSA criticisms made by the UN committee.
  114. ^ Gabriel Samuels: Two more militants released from Guantanamo Bay return to conflict. In: The Independent of September 16, 2016.
  115. ↑ THE “JOURNEY OF DEATH” , Reprieve, January 28, 2008

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