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WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay Terrorist Secrets Revealed
Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose.
Al-Qaeda terrorists have threatened to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” on the West if Osama Bin Laden is caught or assassinated, according to documents to be released by the WikiLeaks website, which contain details the interrogations of more than 700 Guantanamo detainees.
The files detail the background to the capture of each of the 780 people who have passed through the Guantanamo facility in Cuba However, the shocking human cost of obtaining this intelligence is also exposed with dozens of innocent people sent to Guantanamo – and hundreds of low-level foot-soldiers being held for years and probably tortured before being assessed as of little significance.
The Daily Telegraph, along with other newspapers including The Washington Post, today exposes America’s own analysis of almost ten years of controversial interrogations on the world’s most dangerous terrorists. This newspaper has been shown thousands of pages of top-secret files obtained by the WikiLeaks website.
The disclosures are set to spark intense debate around the world about the establishment of Guantanamo Bay in the months after 9/11 – which has enabled the US to collect vital intelligence from senior Al Qaeda commanders but sparked fury in the middle east and Europe over the treatment of detainees.
The files detail the background to the capture of each of the 780 people who have passed through the Guantanamo facility in Cuba, their medical condition and the information they have provided during interrogations.
Only about 220 of the people detained are assessed by the Americans to be dangerous international terrorists. A further 380 people are lower-level foot-soldiers, either members of the Taliban or extremists who travelled to Afghanistan whose presence at the military facility is questionable.
At least a further 150 people are innocent Afghans or Pakistanis, including farmers, chefs and drivers who were rounded up or even sold to US forces and transferred across the world. In the top-secret documents, senior US commanders conclude that in dozens of cases there is “no reason recorded for transfer”.
However, the documents do not detail the controversial techniques used to obtain information from detainees, such as water-boarding, stress positions and sleep deprivation, which are now widely regarded as tantamount to torture.
The Guantanamo files confirm that the Americans have seized more than 100 Al-Qaeda terrorists, including about 15 kingpins from the most senior echelons of the organisation.
The most senior detainee at the facility is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the operational commander of Al-Qaeda and the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who will face a military tribunal later this year after plans for a full-scale trial in New York were abandoned.
His 15-page-file discloses that he was plotting Al-Qaeda attacks around the world in Asia, Africa, America and Britain. It concludes: “Detainee had numerous plots and plans for operations targeting the US, its allies, and its interests world-wide.”
It adds: “Detainee stated that as an enemy of the US, he thought about the US policies with which he disagreed and how he could change them. Detainee’s plan was to make US citizens suffer, especially economically, which would put pressure on the US government to change its policies. Targeting priorities were determined by initially assessing those that would have the greatest economic impact, and secondly which would awaken people politically.”
It can also today be disclosed that:
- *A senior Al-Qaeda commander claimed that the terrorist group has hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe which will be detonated if Bin-Laden is ever caught or assassinated. The US authorities uncovered numerous attempts by Al-Qaeda to obtain nuclear materials and fear that terrorists have already bought uranium. Sheikh Mohammed told interrogators that Al-Qaeda would unleash a “nuclear hellstorm”.
- The 20th 9/11 hijacker, who did not ultimately travel to America and take part in the atrocity, has revealed that Al-Qaeda was seeking to recruit ground-staff at Heathrow amid several plots targeting the world’s busiest airport. Terrorists also plotted major chemical and biological attacks against this country.
- A plot to put cyanide in the air-conditioning units of public buildings across America was exposed along with several schemes to target infrastructure including utility networks and petrol stations. Terrorists were also going to rent apartments in large blocks and set off gas explosions.
- About 20 juveniles, including a 14-year old boy have been held at Guantanamo. Several pensioners, including an 89 year old with serious health problems were incarcerated.
- People wearing a certain model of Casio watch from the 1980s were seized by American forces in Afghanistan on suspicion of being terrorists, because the watches were used as timers by Al-Qaeda. However, the vast majority of those captured for this reason have since been quietly released amid a lack of evidence.
- Bin Laden fled his hideout in the Tora Bora mountain range in Afghanistan just days before coalition troops arrived. The last reported sighting of the Al-Qaeda leader was in spring 2003 when several detainees recorded he had met other terrorist commanders in Pakistan.
Guantanamo Bay was opened by the American Government in January 2002 at a military base in Cuba. The establishment of the controversial facility required a special presidential order as “enemy combatants” were held without trial.
A series of controversial torture-style techniques were also approved to be used on prisoners and many foreign Governments, including the British, pressed for their citizens to be released. However, the files disclose that British intelligence services apparently co-operated with Guantanamo interrogators.
Barack Obama had pledged to close the facility and hold open trials for those found to have committed crimes. However, the US President has failed to fulfil his pledge amid concerns over the admissibility of evidence collected during torture.
The files disclosed today also show that American military commanders implicitly acknowledged that dozens of people were incorrectly captured and sent to Guantanamo.
Many of the details are likely to be seized upon by human-rights campaigners and add to pressure of George W Bush, the former US President, to apologise for the operation of the camp.
For example, Muhammed al Ghazali Babaker Mahjoub, was the director of orphanages for a Saudi charity working in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The charity was suspected of having financial links to Al Qaeda and Mahjoub was therefore arrested and transferred to Guantanamo because of “his knowledge of displaced persons in and around Pakistan and Afghanistan, specifically the orphan population.”
But, after a year in detention, and several interrogations in which he co-operated fully, the US military concluded his information was “not valuable” and that the charity worker had no links to any terrorist organisation. He was released.
An analysis of the Guantanamo files shows that at least 150 people were assessed by the Americans as innocent and released.
A total of about 200 detainees are classified as genuine international terrorists by the American military, with the remainder being mid or low level foot-soldiers.
599 detainees have already been released – some to prisons in other countries. About 180 people are still held at Guantanamo.
In the coming days, The Daily Telegraph will expose the crucial role that Britain has played in the global terrorist network that has been documented by those held at Guantanamo – with London emerging as a key “crucible” where extremists from around the world are radicalised and sent to fight jihad.
- Posted in
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28 Comments so far
Show AllAmericans DON"T CARE. We really don't care, please don't bother us with this stuff. We are being strip-searched in airports and don't care about that, why would we care about some people in Gitmo. Even better, THEY know we don't care. get it.
I also believe that far too many do not care and can't even be bothered to discuss the many ways our country is failing especially when it cames to a discussion of the Obama presidency, our military aggression around the world, the economy and lack of jobs, etc. In a so called progressive city like Santa Fe, I expect more , but am always dissappointed. If we're not gonna have these discussions now, then when ? What will it take ?
"Do you admit that you are not just a farmer?"
"Yes! Yes! Please turn off the electricity!"
(Aside, "Crank it up a bit more, Charlie.") Screams!
"Do you admit that you are a terrorist masterminding diabolical acts?"
"Yes! Please stop the pain or kill me! I'll confess to anything!"
"OK, Charlie, turn it off, we've got another terrorist. Put him in solitary."
Ah yes, what did Superman used to say? "Truth, justice and the American way."
Superman? Maybe he was a closet progressive (or is that a 'phone booth progressive?).
There's truth. There's justice. And then there's the American way...
[Or insert name of empire du jour]
Every day in every way the news gets badder and badder.
I might remind you that rather a lot of people were stating these facts prior to this particular article. Thus the news is not getting worse but, thanks to those like Manning and Assange and others, the news is getting a more widespread audience.
This is, in fact, old news.
"...which are now widely regarded as tantamount to torture."
Nothing tantamount about it. It was torture.
"Detainee’s plan was to make US citizens suffer, especially economically"
Well they certainly succeeded in doing that. We've spent trillions on illegal invasions and occupations to the neglect of our needs here at home. And now that the future is looking pretty grim economically we have nothing to fall back on.
Also the Patriot Act fundamentally changed the relationship of US citizens to their government, taking away many rights.
The US empire would eventually have ended anyway but Al-Qaeda helped insure that it will be an especially painful, explosive end instead of a quiet decline.
We can't blame it all on Al-Qaeda since most of the problems were caused by our completely misguided reaction to the 9/11 attack but surely Osama bin-Laden died a happy man. (It seems unlikely that he is still alive.)
"Many of the details are likely to be seized upon by human-rights campaigners and add to pressure of George W Bush, the former US President, to apologise for the operation of the camp."
If there were any justice George W. Bush would spend the rest of his days in a cell in the Hague and Obama would be impeached, but one thing I have finally learned is that there is seldom any justice. There certainly hasn't been any for the nonterrorists held at Guantanamo.
[Detainee stated that as an enemy of the US, he thought about the US policies with which he disagreed and how he could change them.]
Most americans would advise that person to attain citizenship and then vote for change. After all that's what they (US Citizens) do.
Hey folks, guess what, they don't hate us for 'freedoms'.
Since this is in clear violation of the habeus corpus clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 9, clause 2) . . . where are all the "constitution-loving" Tea Partiers decrying the obvious?
Oh right . . . they're watching American Idol.
Hello Seventhson,
I disagree about them watching American Idol. They are American Idol/Idle/Idiots.
I guess you missed the memo: Barry deleted the habeas corpus clause out of the Constitution. That quaint notion was obsolete. After all, everything changed after 9/11. Right?
Bush deleted Habeas Corpus, Obama didn't reinstate it. Please don't write Bush out of this egregious history.
Or you can just call them Obubya.
"A series of controversial torture-style techniques..."
There is no controversy except among those who do not wish to be held accountable. But that won't happen unless we get some justice-style jurisprudence.
Easily defined.....
What "they" do is torture, what "we" do is not.
hey - "something had to be done" - tough luck.
A senior Al-Qaeda commander claimed that the terrorist group has hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe which will be detonated if Bin-Laden is ever caught or assassinated. The US authorities uncovered numerous attempts by Al-Qaeda to obtain nuclear materials and fear that terrorists have already bought uranium. Sheikh Mohammed told interrogators that Al-Qaeda would unleash a “nuclear hellstorm”.
europe can do that all by itself.........it has lots of potential for 'accidents'
•People wearing a certain model of Casio watch from the 1980s were seized by American forces in Afghanistan on suspicion of being terrorists, because the watches were used as timers by Al-Qaeda. However, the vast majority of those captured for this reason have since been quietly released amid a lack of evidence.
did they get their watches back??...................
WTF?
Why the **** is CD linking to articles from the right wing Telegraph now?
This article deliberately plays down the scale of the torture and abuse.
"Al-Qaeda terrorists have threatened to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” on the West if Osama Bin Laden is caught or assassinated".....
Meanwhile, instead of just threatening, the USA has actually itself already been releasing nuclear hellstorms all over the place courtesy of depleted uranium rounds (DU) etc.
Anyway, ol' Osama seems to be a figment of imagination these past several years with no video footage ever shown, just ersatz audio recordings, which also stops viewers from seeing the fake Osama puppet the USA had been utilising for many years.
Hmmm.....election time coming up? - Or a US military push need some reason? - Then crank out another Osama audio tape. They're bestsellers in the mainstream media.
Well, at least we have righted this horrible wrong and closed down Guantanamo just as Obama said that he would upon taking office. Oh wait, that's right -- the opposite of that happened. Instead of closing it down, Obama codified indefinite detention and declared that military commissions would go forward.
Impeachment is too good for that rat bastard.
By the way, thank you Bradley Manning, if you were the one responsible for sharing this vital information with the world.
This article is a piece of shit and should not have been given the credibility of posting on CD. Threaten to release "nuclear hellstorm." Which country's military/industrial cabal built 30,000 nuclear bombs, including neutron bombs designed to kill all life, but leave infrastructure intact? Placed missiles in Europe within 5 minutes flight time of Moscow, etc.?
The unsubstantiated "mastermind" claim is parroted. I just wish the people running the U.S. government had half a brain, let alone master minds. Even someone with half a brain can watch the footage from 9/11 and realize that asymmetrical airplane impacts could not cause symmetrical collapses of skyscrapers into dust into their own footprints.
Also they left out that Sheik Mohammad confessed to betting on baseball while coaching the Reds after the 356th time he was given the Chinese Water Torture.
The military contractors et al have run our country completely amok.
It makes me very sad to see how sick my country has become.
"Al-Qaeda terrorists have threatened to unleash a “nuclear hellstorm” on the West..."
Al-Qaeda has demonstrated over the last decade that they are not even capable of handling conventional explosives.
Tokyo Electirc & GE, through their reckless behavior, are currently unleashing a "nuclear hellstorm" on the west.
America changed presidents but didn't change course at all and their tolerance for human rights abuses has never been higher than under Obama. The rise in racism and the attacks on women and minorities and the complete indifference about holding people without charges as long as they feel like it give the lie to their crap about loving freedom.
I wonder when the Wikileaks will inform the world about the innocent Muslim U.S. citizens who have been corralled into Federal U.S. prisons and left to rot. Prison is hell regardless of location when you are innocent. These men have been sent as far away as possible from family and friends, They have fewer privileges such as visitors or phone calls than other prisoners Why don't they get the publicity that the prisoners of Gitmo get? Not that it matters because we know nobody who can do anything about it cares and those of us who do care have no power to do anything.
John Pilger wrote in CD 3,28,10 "Western war-states such as the U.S. and Britain are not threatened by the Taliban or any other introverted tribesmen in faraway places, but by the antiwar instincts of their own citizens. Consider the draconian sentences handed down in London to scores of young people who protested Israel's assault on Gaza in January last year. ..First offenders have received two and a half years in prison for minor offences that would normally carry custodial sentences."
The US government is the world's leading torture & murder organization. Not only do they provoke illegal wars but they also torture and murder innocent people and children in the USA and export their crimes to their allies. In the past they had MKULTRA and COINTELPRO, now they have Gang Stalking (Organized stalking) and Electronic Harassment (Electronic Torture) making Guantanamo Bay look like a holliday resort. These are methods and weapons that are used to eliminate thousands of innocent people every year without trial and without evidence by driving them into suicide, a psychiatric patient, a crime, death by continuous suffering. Electronic torture = cooking people alive! And while commiting these horrible crimes and violations of human rights, they talk about plausible deniability. They are all sick. Bush is criminal, and so is Obama. They all belong in jail for life.
Peter Mooring
See also:
STOPEG Foundation (STOP Electronic Weapons and Gang Stalking):
http://www.stopeg.com/
People cooker:
http://www.peoplecooker.com/
Peter Mooring on the web:
http://www.petermooring.nl/blog/
Electronic torture:
http://www.electronictorture.com/
The Hidden Evil website by Mark Rich:
http://www.thehiddenevil.com
Search by Google:
microwave torture
electronic mind reading
electronic mind control
Etc.