Pentagon told to release Gitmo transcripts (AP) Updated: 2006-02-24 08:48
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.
"The 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.
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