The images released for the first time show the first detainees entering the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison, which the United States wants to keep completely secret for 20 years, the prison’s opening date.
The New York Times reported Sunday that it obtained the images from the US National Archives through the Freedom of Information Act.
The newspaper noted that previously there were no images of prisoners wrestling with guards or images of how hunger strikers were treated by being chained and forced to eat.
He added: “The pictures that have been published about this prison show American forces escorting prisoners to prisons.”
But new photos published by an American newspaper show the first prisoners brought from Afghanistan.
The newspaper noted that they were transported by American cargo planes.
These pictures show the detainees with handcuffs and blindfolds as well as earplugs to make sure that the prisoner does not feel around.
The newspaper noted that the photos were taken by military photographers to be transferred to senior military leaders led by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (who died in 2021) to show the process of arrest and interrogation in its early stages.
U.S. officials blocked media photographers as the first detainees entered Guantanamo Bay.
The United States opened the Guantanamo Bay detention center in January 2002 under former President George W. Bush, where detainees suspected of links to al-Qaeda and even the Taliban are detained and interrogated.
At its peak, there were 780 detainees at Guantanamo, but few were charged with crimes.
In recent years, there have been reports of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners, while 532 prisoners were released during the Bush administration.
While former US President Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo Bay when he took office, members of Congress opposed the idea of transferring prisoners to the United States, and 197 prisoners left during his reign.
While one prisoner was released during the presidency of former US President Donald Trump, only one prisoner has left since Biden took office, but 15 have been acquitted.
For its part, the Associated Press on February 19, 2022, revealed that the administration of current US President Joe Biden is working to lay the foundations for the release of Guantanamo detainees. Closer to closing it
The United States currently holds 39 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and Washington has been criticized by human rights groups for closing the prison, which has accused Washington of harassing detainees.
In October 2021, Majid Khan, a former Pakistani prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, recounted the “horrific” details of torture and “rape” during his detention.
In a 39-page letter read to the audience, Khan, who grew up in Pakistan with his family before migrating to the United States, states that he was locked up for days on end in secret, naked, foodless cells in the CIA. Prisons in unknown countries
Khan was transferred to various secret locations between 2003 and 2006 and spoke of brutal interrogations, while putting his masked face in an ice bucket and keeping his head under water until he spoke.
“They kicked until I begged them to stop,” Khan said.
Interrogators threatened to take revenge on his family in the United States and rape his sister.
His glasses were broken, and he stressed that he was almost blind without them, indicating that he “waited three years to get another pair.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
