freedetainees.org

By ANDY WORTHINGTON

Late last Thursday evening, I joined in the widespread celebrations — at least in those parts of the world that care about the injustice of holding people in prison without charge or trial — that attended the repatriation of al-Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj from Guantánamo, his home for the last six years, to Sudan.

Although a few news outlets have briefly mentioned some of the other men released with Sami — two of his compatriots, a Moroccan and five Afghans — their stories remain largely unknown. However, as a result of the research I undertook for my book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, I’m able to shine some light on their stories, which otherwise are unlikely to receive much coverage — if at all — outside their home countries.

While none have the extraordinary impact of Sami’s story — which, I note, has the Pentagon so scared that three officials told ABC News on Friday that he was “a manipulator and a propagandist,” who produced a “constant drumbeat of allegations” about the treatment of prisoners in Guantánamo — they do nothing to support the administration’s constantly unraveling claim that the prisoners are “the worst of the worst.” This claim, made by Rear Admiral John D. Stufflebeem on January 28, 2002, has been parroted at the highest levels of government in the years since, even though 501 prisoners have now been released, and the administration has stated that it only intends to try between 60 to 80 of the 273 prisoners who remain in Guantánamo.

VISIT ANDY’S BLOG TO READ THE REST OF “Who are the prisoners released with Sami al-Haj…..