At the time, a detainee was to face a military trial and, if I wanted, I could hang around outside as the case was underway. The peak of hospitality would be a tent to sleep under. I was advised that Guantanamo mosquitoes were particularly aggressive and vicious so bring bug spray. I'd hitch a ride on a military plane, stay a few days, and get another lift back to Miami. Postcards not included.
Unfortunately/fortunately for me, another job came up and Guantanamo had to do without me. My visit would have been a little different to the all-expenses-paid luxury junkets some colleagues score for a story but in comparison to detainees, I'd have had it very easy. What are a few bugs compared with water boarding?
The latest Wikileaks disclosures, released over the weekend include a number of classified files on almost 780 people detained at Guantanamo. They reveal significant details on the U.S response to the 9/11 attacks and hint at how much panic had spread through the offices of government and intelligence agencies in the aftermath of those attacks.
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While many legitimate and arguably necessary detentions did occur (figures show that 220 individuals were classed as “dangerous terrorists”) at least 150 innocent Pakistani and Afghan citizens were also detained.
These included a cameraman with the Al-Jazeera television station, an author who may have been imprisoned based on intentionally incorrect information provided by Pakistani officials, and a 14-year-old boy whose file said he had been kidnapped by Taliban and presented no threat.
Analysis by the New York Times suggests the word “possibly” appears in files on 387 occasions, hinting at how much interrogators and investigators were operating in the dark.
After the massive intelligence failure of 9/11, no one was prepared to err on the side of trust. If there was the slightest hint of suspicion (and that could come from being an Afghan or Pakistani in the wrong place at the wrong time) then the cuffs came on.
The files of the Australian detainees make for intriguing reading. The file for Mamdouh Habib, classified as “not for foreign (non-U.S.) eyes”, reported he owned “a second home in Greenwika, Australia”. One assumes this was actually referring to the Sydney suburb of Greenacre but opens up questions of what other minutiae is incorrect in other reports.
You can read Habib's file here.
The irony is that, on classified paper, Habib's alleged movements in the 90s and pre-9/11 would have certainly made him a person of interest. Yet the nature of detention and Habib's interrogation by Egyptian and American officials possibly (that word again) clouded everyone's version of the truth.
David Hicks is portrayed in his file as a confused drifter searching for some kind of action - even confessing he'd prefer to be a mercenary than a terrorist. Links with Al-Qaeda came at the wrong time for Hicks who, according to his file, was seemingly just as likely to be involved with guerrillas in East Timor as jihadists. Hicks was apparently held in high regard while in Guantanamo by several other interns, including Mohamed Atef, high-ranking within Al-Qaeda, which didn't reflect well.
You can read Hicks's file here.
The latest Wikileaks release caused more problems for the U.S. government over Guantanamo, some of it inconvenient personally for employees. Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell complained on Twitter that his Easter weekend had been ruined by the documents becoming public: “Thx to Wikileaks we spent Easter weekend dealing w/NYT & other news orgs publishing leaked classified GTMO docs”.
Could have been worse, though, right? Like spending years on a mosquito-infested jail in Cuba because you kind of looked like you might be a terrorist, maybe, sort of, possibly.
