Wikileaks Releases GITMO Docs

By aaroncynic in News on Apr 25, 2011 7:20PM

Wikileaks released nearly 800 documents pertaining to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay on Sunday that contain information about their lives and treatment, along with threat assessments of hundreds prisoners who have gone through the facility. The documents contain assessments of 759 of the 779 prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay prison, 172 of which still remain at the facility today. Officials in the Obama administration called the disclosed “unfortunate” and suggested their release poses potential harm to American citizens.

The Detainee Assessment Briefs (DABs) highlight the intelligence value of each detainee and describe the threat level each would have if released from custody. The New York Times reports the DABs show prisoners were held without trial based on a “strikingly subjective evaluation of who they were, what they had done in the past and what they might do in the future.” The documents show that many detainees have severe mental illnesses and that often information coming from interrogations, some of which involved torture, was unreliable. In many cases, US commanders found “no reason for transfer” of detainees to Guantanamo Bay, but the prisoners went unreleased for years.