Posted on 02/24/2006 4:26:38 AM PST by snowrip
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Feb. 24) - A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on Thursday to release the identities of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press, a move which would force the government to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list yet of
Some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terror being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been held as long as four years. Only a handful have been officially identified.
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York ordered the Defense Department to release uncensored transcripts of detainee hearings, which contain the names of detainees in custody and those who have been held and later released. Previously released documents have had identities and other details blacked out.
The judge ordered the government to hand over the documents by March 3 after the Defense Department said Wednesday it would not appeal his earlier ruling in the lawsuit filed by the AP.
On Jan. 23, Rakoff ordered the military to turn over uncensored copies of transcripts and other documents from 317 military hearings for detainees at the prison camp. There were another 241 detainees who refused to participate in the Combatant Status Review Tribunals and the Defense Department said no transcripts exist of those hearings.
U.S. authorities now hold about 490 prisoners at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Most have been held without charges since the detention center opened four years ago, prompting complaints from human rights groups and others.
"AP has been fighting for this information since the fall of 2004," said Dave Tomlin, assistant general counsel for the news organization. "We're grateful to have a decision at last that keeping prisoner identities secret is against the public policy and the law of this country."
The military has never officially released the names of any detainees except the 10 who have been charged.
Most of those that are known emerged from the approximately 400 civil suits filed on behalf of prisoners by lawyers who got their names from family or other detainees, said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which represents about 200 detainees.
"They have been very resistant to releasing the names," Ratner said. "There are still people there who don't have a lawyer and we don't know who they are. They have disappeared."
The Defense Department earlier released transcripts after the AP filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act, but the names and other details of detainees were blacked out.
The Defense Department said it would obey the judge's order.
"DOD will be complying with the judge's decision in this matter," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.
Law experts said the case has wide-ranging implications.
"The government has tried to maintain Guantanamo as a black hole since they opened it," said Jonathan Hafetz of the New York University School of Law. "This is bringing it within the mainstream of the justice system and says we're not going to have secret detentions at Guantanamo."
In his ruling last month, Rakoff rejected government arguments that releasing the detainees' names from transcripts should be kept secret to protect their privacy and their families, friends and associates from embarrassment and retaliation.
The judge had given the government a month to decide whether to appeal and the U.S. Solicitor General decided not to pursue the case further, said Megan Gaffney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
The AP is awaiting a decision from the judge on whether the government must release the unredacted transcripts from a second round of hearings, the annual Administrative Review Board - panels that decide whether detainees are still considered a threat to the United States.
Well, you answered my first question right away.
Hopefully, this will disappear on appeal.
FOIA trumps national security?
What about the national security exemption?
Why not appeal this to a higher court?
FOIA does not trump national security.
Exemption 1 of the FOIA integrates the national security protections provided by this executive order with the FOIA's disclosure mandate by protecting from disclosure all national security information concerning the national defense or foreign policy that has been properly classified in accordance with the substantive and procedural requirements of the current such order. (3) The executive order currently in effect is Executive Order 12,958, as amended, which was signed by President George W. Bush on March 25, 2003. (4) This amend-ed order replaced the original version of Executive Order 12,958, which was issued in 1995 by President William J. Clinton. (5) The provisions of this amended executive order are discussed below.
Check out this DOJ FOIA Guide:
http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foi-act.htm
That judge is a real Rakoff.
I hope they will... What pisses me off is the fact that the AP was even nosing around for this information in the first place.
(If there existed a combination of the words "loser", "gutless", and "traitor", I would insert it here to describe the actions of the Associated Press. Actually, there is, so I'll use it.)
Liberals.
duplicate..........
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1584483/posts
???
Why aren't they appealing??
What's up?
The new name of our country if the liberals have there way:
The Union of Soviet Socialist States of America - a title Khrushchev couldn't have liked better.
/sarcasm
I suggest that each member of Congress who is sooo concerned about the Gitmo detainees bring one home to live with them ! Starting with Hillary.
I wonder why Congress and the media never talk about, and don't seem to be concerned about, the mass murder and torture going on in North Korea? How many people have been starved to death, tortured to death, or executed by Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, for not being obedient socialists? Hundreds of thousands.
The book to read is "Rogue Regime" by Jasper Becker.
The atrocities in North Korea and in Saddam Hussein's Iraq are stunning and sickening, making the Abu Ghraib and Gitmo "accusations" completely insignificant.
Rakoff, Jed Saul Born 1943 in Philadelphia, PA Federal Judicial Service: U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York Nominated by William J. Clinton on October 11, 1995, to a seat vacated by David N. Edelstein; Confirmed by the Senate on December 29, 1995, and received commission on January 4, 1996.
If I were a detainee, and had been released, I think I would be very upset that the AP was now going to publish my name.
wOW!
Impressive!
"Rakoff is a Clinton appointee... the info was obtained under a FOIA request from the AP... and the UN wants to close the prison down. Do we need ANY more proof that liberalism has no place whatsoever in a war?"
Quick, someone get a copy of the Barret report over to Rakoff. I am sure he will force the government to take out the redactions. /sarcasm
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