AFP - The United States has freed dozens of prisoners at "high risk" prisoners and detained nearly 150 innocents for years in military prison at Guantanamo, according to documents provided by Wikileaks and published Monday by the Western media.
The wrong place at wrong time
About 200 detainees who had been defined as "high risk" because they could constitute a "future threat against the United States or against U.S. interests" have been released or extradited to third countries, as New York Times was given access to U.S. court documents describing the history of past 779 people since 2002 in Guantanamo.
220 of them should be considered only as dangerous extremists, according to Britain's Daily Telegraph, while 380 were only grassroots activists belonging to the Taliban movement or who traveled to Afghanistan.
At least 150 were innocent Afghans or Pakistanis, arrested and transferred to Guantanamo.They were based on information collected in war zones, sometimes mistaken for another person or who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The U.S. government regretted the "unfortunate" the documents and defended himself by saying he "did everything she could to act with the utmost care and greater application in the transfer of detainees to Guantanamo" .
"The government (of former president George W.Bush and current Barack Obama) have made the protection of American citizens their priority, "say the Pentagon and State Department, expressing concern about" damage "caused by the publication of these documents.
The closure of Guantanamo, Obama promise, always rejected
Guantanamo Bay currently accommodates 172 inmates.The administration hopes to repatriate or send in a hundred countries, judging 33 for "war crimes" and plans to keep 48 indefinitely behind bars without trial.
The White House has reiterated its commitment to early April to close the Guantanamo prison term, despite the decision to try the five accused September 11 and not before an ordinary court in New York.
Their trial for "war crimes" before a special military tribunal at Guantanamo began in spring 2008 before being suspended indefinitely by Barack Obama, the night of his taking office, a symbolic decision hailed on his left.
But in just over two years, promises have collapsed: Guantanamo is still far from being closed, special courts have been restored, after reform, and the trial of Sept. 11 will be held in the hall of Hearing ultra-secure built by the Bush administration on the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
