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Scoop Links: Guantanamo Images and Abu Ghraib Docs

Scoop Links: Guantanamo Images and Abu Ghraib Documents

Salon has presented an archive of 279 photographs and 19 videos gathered in the US Army's internal investigation of the torture and abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. Salon notes that " To date no officers have been brought to justice in a court of law".

Also this week, Associated Press has analysed transcripts and other documents related to the Combatant Status Reviews of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. A recent court order required the documents to be released without the censoring of personal information. The documents name 186 detainees, who may or may not still be at Guantanamo. There are believe to be about 490 prisoners currently held at the base. 267 prisoners have been released or transferred from Guantanamo to date.

AP have also made PDFs of a five of the documents available. Most concern prisoners justifying their possession of a particular kind of Casio watch.

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Salon: The Abu Ghraib files
By Joan Walsh
Salon.com news
http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/

279 photographs and 19 videos from the Army's internal investigation record a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious prison -- and make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable.

The human rights scandal now known as "Abu Ghraib" began its journey toward exposure on Jan. 13, 2004, when Spc. Joseph Darby handed over horrific images of detainee abuse to the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID). The next day, the Army launched a criminal investigation. Three and a half months later, CBS News and the New Yorker published photos and stories that introduced the world to devastating scenes of torture and suffering inside the decrepit prison in Iraq.

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Today Salon presents an archive of 279 photos and 19 videos of Abu Ghraib abuse first gathered by the CID, along with information drawn from the CID's own timeline of the events depicted. As we reported Feb. 16, Salon's Mark Benjamin recently acquired extensive documentation of the CID investigation -- including this photo archive and timeline -- from a military source who spent time at Abu Ghraib and who is familiar with the Army probe.

See... http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/

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Associated Press: Much Still Unknown About Gitmo Detainees
Associated Press
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUANTANAMO_SECRECY

By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Named detainees: 186, citizens of two dozen countries including Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Accusations: Recruiting for the Taliban, helping Osama bin Laden escape U.S. troops, harboring gunmen who attacked American special forces.

These details, and many more, emerge from more than 5,000 pages of newly released transcripts of detainee hearings at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But as much as they reveal about the U.S. war against terrorism, much more remains unknown - the answers tantalizingly beyond reach.

Where, for example, is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, who was captured in Pakistan three years ago by CIA officers and Pakistani authorities?

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Many of those whose names do appear are accused of relatively minor or vague offenses, such as working as a driver or cook for the Taliban or receiving military training. Others were accused of fighting U.S. troops or coordinating ambushes. The detainees often denied the accusations, saying they were farmers, merchants or charity workers who in some cases were simply caught up in the Afghan war.

Nor do the transcripts fully illuminate the quality of evidence that has kept detainees behind bars at Guantanamo Bay, some for more than four years. The transcripts describe only unclassified evidence, much of it ambiguous. If a man owned a rifle, that's considered evidence, even though many men in Afghanistan keep weapons for protection.

See... http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUANTANAMO_SECRECY
ALSO:
Sketches of Guantanamo Detainees:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

(Pages contain links to PDFs of selected documents)

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