{"id":790,"date":"2011-04-25T12:30:48","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T16:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=790"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:57:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:57:41","slug":"opening-the-guantanamo-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/04\/25\/opening-the-guantanamo-files\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening the Guant\u00e1namo Files"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"color: #505050\"><em>\u00a0Anthony Kammer<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">On April 24, the Guant\u00e1namo files,\u00a0a cache of leaked documents containing dossiers on 759 detainees were made available to the public via a number of\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/projects.washingtonpost.com\/guantanamo\/\" target=\"_blank\">major<\/a>\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/guantanamo-files\/\" target=\"_blank\">news<\/a>\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" title=\"More from guardian.co.uk on The Guant\u00e1namo files\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/guantanamo-files\">outlets<\/a>\u00a0and through the Wikileaks\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/wikileaks.ch\/gitmo\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>. The Obama Administration\u2019s early response is available\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2011\/04\/25\/135690850\/administration-responds-to-guantanamo-documents\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. Both the revelations of the documents themselves and way the leak was published are proving to be fascinating and important developments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">The documents\u2013memoranda from JTF-GTMO, the Joint Task Force at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, to US Southern Command in Miami, Florida\u2013have revealed information on detainees, on U.S. information-gathering practices, and on the conditions at\u00a0Guant\u00e1namo.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">Among the revelations so far:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"color: #505050\">\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit\"><span id=\"more-4964\" style=\"font-style: inherit\"><\/span>Many of the detainees at Guantanamo are \u201c<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-13184845\" target=\"_blank\">not dangerous.<\/a>\u201d Among the prisoners were a\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2011\/apr\/25\/guantanamo-files-children-old-men\" target=\"_blank\">senile old man and a fifteen-year-old<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit\">More generally, the military\u2019s risk assessment methods have\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/25\/world\/guantanamo-files-flawed-evidence-for-assessing-risk.html\" target=\"_blank\">considerable flaws\u00a0<\/a>that have resulted in the release of many dangerous detainees while less dangerous detainees were kept.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit\">As the Guardian\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2011\/apr\/25\/guantanamo-files-lift-lid-prison\" target=\"_blank\">described<\/a>, \u201cUS authorities relied heavily on information obtained from a small number of detainees under torture. They continued to maintain this testimony was reliable even after admitting that the prisoners who provided it had been mistreated.\u201d<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit\"><a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/25\/world\/guantanamo-files-suicide-as-act-of-war-or-despair.html\" target=\"_blank\">Suicides<\/a>\u00a0are a regular threat and form of resistance at the camp.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit\">The documents contain accounts of abusive and coercive\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/092.me\/\">question<\/a>ing. (see for example the\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/projects.nytimes.com\/guantanamo\/detainees\/63-mohammed-al-qahtani\" target=\"_blank\">file on\u00a0Mohammed al Qahtani<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-style: inherit\">The U.S.\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #000000\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2011\/apr\/25\/guantanamo-files-isi-inter-services-intelligence\" target=\"_blank\">listed<\/a>\u00a0the Pakistani Intelligence service as a terrorist organization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">The actual leak itself is proving interesting in its own right.\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/25\/world\/guantanamo-files-lives-in-an-american-limbo.html\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>\u00a0last night that it had not obtained the files from Wikileaks but from \u201canother source on the condition of anonymity\u201d and would be sharing the files with\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2011\/04\/25\/135690218\/military-documents-detail-life-at-guantanamo\" target=\"_blank\">NPR<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2011\/apr\/25\/what-are-guantanamo-files-explained\" target=\"_blank\">the Guardian<\/a>. Wikileaks, which had obtained the files from Bradley Manning,\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.journalism.co.uk\/news\/guardian-double-crossed-by-wikileaks-over-guant-namo-leak\/s2\/a543836\/\" target=\"_blank\">reportedly<\/a>\u00a0did not share the documents with the New York Times directly but proceeded to leak them on its own site and in conjunction with other organizations such as the\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/wikileaks-discloses-new-details-on-whereabouts-of-al-qaeda-leaders-on-911\/2011\/04\/24\/AFvvzIeE_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post<\/a>,\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net\/news\/americas\/2011\/04\/201142561524783918.html\" target=\"_blank\">Al Jazeera<\/a>, and others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #505050\">In explaining why some news organizations were cut out of the loop, David Leigh of the Guardian had the\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.journalism.co.uk\/news\/guardian-double-crossed-by-wikileaks-over-guant-namo-leak\/s2\/a543836\/\" target=\"_blank\">following<\/a>\u00a0to say, \u201cThis is all because of Julian Assange\u2019s feuding with the Guardian and the New York Times, and what he\u2019s decided to do now is cut us out of it and distribute the files to a range of right-wing newspapers, including the Telegraph.\u201d\u00a0Although the story is still unfolding, the relationships between organizations like Wikileaks and traditional media outlets are certain to carry serious implications for understanding how journalism operates. (For an excellent overview of that discussion see Yochai Benkler\u2019s\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/http:\/\/www.benkler.org\/Benkler_Wikileaks_current.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">A Free Irresponsible Press: Wikileaks and the Battle over the Soul of the Networked Fourth Estate<\/a>). As Glenn Greenwald\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit;color: #3f6dcf\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110727121526\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/ggreenwald\/status\/62481389752295424\" target=\"_blank\">remarked<\/a>\u00a0today, \u201cWikiLeaks has generated more newsworthy scoops over the last year than all media outlets combined.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Anthony Kammer On April 24, the Guant\u00e1namo files,\u00a0a cache of leaked documents containing dossiers on 759 detainees were made available [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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