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A Guantanamo Index

By JOANNE MARINER

Wednesday, Nov. 07, 2007

Year in which Cuba signed a perpetual lease giving the United States "complete jurisdiction and control" over the Guantanamo Bay naval station: 1903

Number of days that the longest-held detainees have, to date, been held without charge at Guantanamo: 2,127

Number of people who have been held in military detention at Guantanamo: 778

Number of people currently held at Guantanamo: approximately 320

Number of Guantanamo detainees who were sent back to their home countries: nearly 450

Number of Guantanamo detainees who were sent to Albania: 8

Number of Uighurs (members of an ethnic minority from Western China) who were sent from Guantanamo to Albania: 5

Number of other people in Albania who speak the Uighur language: 0

Age of the oldest prisoner ever held in military custody at Guantanamo: approximately 75-78 (As he put it, "How could I be an enemy combatant if I was not able to stand up?")

Age of the youngest prisoner ever held in military custody at Guantanamo: 13

Number of juveniles previously held at Guantanamo: at least 6

Number of apparent suicides at Guantanamo: 4

Number of attempted suicides at Guantanamo: many dozens

Percentage of Guantanamo detainees reportedly taking antidepressants such as Prozac: 20

Number of countries in which Guantanamo detainees were arrested: at least 17

Number of countries whose nationals have been held at Guantanamo: 43

Number of Western countries whose nationals have been held at Guantanamo: 9

Number of Western countries whose nationals remain at Guantanamo: 1

Number of non-Western countries whose nationals remain at Guantanamo: nearly 30

Number of "high value" detainees currently held at Guantanamo: 15

Number of detainees, in addition to the 15 "high value" suspects, whom the New York Times reported in 2004 were closely linked to al Qaeda: two dozen

Number of detainees whom the U.S. alleges conspired in the September 11 terrorist attacks: 5

Number of people who were held at Guantanamo who the U.S. admitted were not "enemy combatants": 38

Bounty that the U.S. government paid to Afghan warlords and Pakistani police for turning over people that they claimed were linked to the Taliban or Al Qaeda: $5,000

Percentage of detainees who were arrested by Afghan or Pakistani forces, and then handed over to U.S. forces (of those for whom arrest information is known): 86

Percentage of detainees not alleged to have committed a hostile act against the United States: at least 55

Number of farmers, aid workers, missionaries, and refugees who were entirely unconnected to terrorism or armed conflict, but who were arbitrarily arrested and wrongly held at Guantanamo: unknown, but undoubtedly hundreds

Number of Guantanamo detainees whom a U.S. court has ordered to be released: 0

Number of Guantanamo detainees who, at some point during their detention, have been charged with a crime: 12

Number of detainees who have been convicted of a crime: 1

Number of detainees who have been convicted of a crime after a full trial: 0

Number of former Guantanamo detainees who have written books about their experience in U.S. custody: 8

Number of former Guantanamo detainees who have written books describing abuses in U.S. custody: 8

Number of hours, according to a Boston FBI agent who witnessed the incidents and complained about them, that two Guantanamo detainees were left chained in a fetal position, so that they had urinated and defecated on themselves: between 18 to 24

Number of medical experts who signed a 2006 letter urging the United States to stop force-feeding detainees at Guantanamo and to close down the prison: 250

Percentage of people in 26 countries surveyed in a 2006 BBC poll who said that they disapprove of Guantanamo prison and of U.S. treatment of detainees: 69

Number of independent human rights experts with U.N. mandates who have been barred from interviewing detainees at Guantanamo: 6

Number of family members who have been allowed to visit their detained relatives at Guantanamo: 0

Amount that former Guantanamo detainees are compensated for the years of their life spent in detention: 0

Chances that a former Guantanamo detainee will ever be compensated for the years of his life spent in detention: practically zero

Cost (in millions of dollars) of Camp 6, the newest prison at Guantanamo, which opened in December 2007: 38

Approximate annual cost (in millions of dollars) of running Guantanamo, not including military salaries: 100

Odds that the next president of the United States will inherit the mess at Guantanamo: 9 out of 10


Joanne Mariner is a lawyer with Human Rights Watch in New York. Her articles on Guantanamo can be found in FindLaw's archive.

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