4.04.2006
In Reversal, US Opts to Release Guatanamo Files (Reuters.com)
Mon Apr 3, 2006 7:11 PM ET13
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After four years of resisting disclosure of information on Guantanamo detainees, the Pentagon changed course on Monday and voluntarily released about 2,600 pages of documents relating to numerous prisoners.
The Pentagon generally has refused to release documents identifying the foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing security concerns such as keeping groups like al Qaeda in the dark about who is being imprisoned.
"It is an attempt to be transparent," Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said of the document release.
The Pentagon disclosed transcripts of military hearings from the second half of 2005 reviewing detainees' detention, and submissions made by their lawyers. This comes a month after it released 5,000 pages of documents under a judge's order in a freedom of information suit brought by a news organization.
Whitman told reporters they raised "interesting points, valid points" when asking if the Pentagon, by releasing the latest documents, was giving up its own previous national security concerns.
But he said that in light of losing its fight to withhold the other documents in the case filed by the Associated Press, the Pentagon "has determined that it's prudent to go ahead and release" documents not covered by the judge's previous order.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:08
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After four years of resisting disclosure of information on Guantanamo detainees, the Pentagon changed course on Monday and voluntarily released about 2,600 pages of documents relating to numerous prisoners.
The Pentagon generally has refused to release documents identifying the foreign terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing security concerns such as keeping groups like al Qaeda in the dark about who is being imprisoned.
"It is an attempt to be transparent," Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said of the document release.
The Pentagon disclosed transcripts of military hearings from the second half of 2005 reviewing detainees' detention, and submissions made by their lawyers. This comes a month after it released 5,000 pages of documents under a judge's order in a freedom of information suit brought by a news organization.
Whitman told reporters they raised "interesting points, valid points" when asking if the Pentagon, by releasing the latest documents, was giving up its own previous national security concerns.
But he said that in light of losing its fight to withhold the other documents in the case filed by the Associated Press, the Pentagon "has determined that it's prudent to go ahead and release" documents not covered by the judge's previous order.
(More ... Politics News Article | Reuters.com) ¶ 21:08
