Canadian detainees at Guantanamo Bay
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The United States Department of Defense acknowledges holding two Canadian captives in Guantanamo, two teenage brothers, Abdurahman Khadr and Omar Khadr.[1] A total of 778 captives have been held in extrajudicial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba since the camps opened on January 11, 2002 The camp population peaked in 2004 at approximately 660. Only nineteen new captives, all "high value detainees" have been transferred there since the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush. In January 2008 there were approximately 285 detainees.
Abdurahman has described himself as the "black sheep" of his family, who was disgusted by the celebrations he witnessed of the attacks on September 11, 2001. He reported that he cooperated fully with the Americans, eventually agreeing to serve as a mole for the CIA, first in Guantanamo Bay detention camps, and later in Bosnia, where he was tasked to win the trust of Arab veterans of the Bosnian War of Independence.
Omar was captured after a skirmish in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002, where he was accused of throwing a grenade which fatally wounded Christopher Speer, an American Special Forces Sergeant.
Canadian residents and former residents in Afghanistan
In addition Guantanamo held approximately half a dozen men who had lived in Canada, either as refugees, candidates for citizenship, or illegal immigrants.
Documents published via WikiLeaks
On April 25, 2011, the whistleblower site WikiLeaks started publishing documents they called detainee assessment briefs.[2] These previously unpublished documents had been drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo, whereas all the previously published documents from Guantanamo had been drafted by the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants of the Office of Military Commissions.
Sixteen captives secret files were not available to wikileaks, including Abdurahman Khadr's.[2]
References
- ^ OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- ^ a b
Jeff Kaye (2011-05-01). "Important Files Missing in WikiLeaks Guantanamo Release". Firedoglake. Archived from the original on 2011-11-05. Retrieved 2011-11-05.
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External links
Media related to Canadian captives Guantanamo detainee assessment briefs at Wikimedia Commons