User:Geo Swan/Guantanamo/Tajik captives held in Guantanamo

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On May 15 2006 the United States Department of Defense acknowledged that there have been 12 Tajik captives held in Guantanamo. The Guantanamo Bay detainment camps were opened on January 11 2002 at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. The Bush administration asserted that they could hold all captives taken in the "global war on terror" could be held there, in extrajudicial detention, without revealing their names. So far as the captive's families and friends would know, they would just disappear.

However, the Associated Press had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the names of all the captives. The Department of Defense filed justifications for why they should not be obliged to release the information the Associated Press. They justified keeping the information secret not to protect the United States "national security", but merely because they were concerned to protect the captive's privacy.

Press Reports
The magazine Mother Jones published a feature article, entitled: "The Man Who Has Been to America: One Guantanamo detainee's story". The article was based on an interview with Muhibullo Abdulkarim Umarov, a Tajik from a village named Alisurkhon. Umarov said he and a neighbor from his village, were captured while visiting a third neighbor from his village at his University in Pakistan. Umarov named his two neighbors, Mazharudin and Abdughaffor. He said they too had been sent to Guantanamo. Mazharudin is named on the official list, but Abdughaffor is not. Umarov told Mother Jones that Mazharudin and Abdughaffor were released on March 31 2004 at the same time he was.

On January 19 2007 the Government of Tajikistan acknowledged that the United States had transferred ten Tajikis from Guantanamo to Tajikistant. The Government of Tajikistan did not release the identities of the transferred men. The Government of Tajikistan also said they did not know how many Tajikis remain in Guantanamo.

The US Department of Defense acknowledged holding twelve Tajikis in Guantanamo. The DoD acknowledged convening Combatant Status Review Tribunals for five of the Tajikis held in Guantanamo. The DoD said they convened a Combatant Status Review Tribunal for every captive who was still in Guantanamo in 2005.