Military panel backs detainee, plans Guantanamo release

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Military panel backs detainee, plans Guantanamo release


WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. military panel has determined that one detainee at the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was incorrectly classified an "enemy combatant" and will be allowed to return to his home country, Navy Secretary Gordon England said Wednesday.
England declined to release any information about the person, including his name and nationality.

Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, England said the State Department has been notified of the decision to release the detainee and will make arrangements for the person's return home.

The person has been informed of the decision to release him and he has been moved from behind bars to a "transition facility" at Guantanamo Bay until travel arrangements are completed, England said.

The secretary said he did not believe the U.S. government would give the person any kind of financial or other compensation. He did not know how long the person has been at Guantanamo Bay.

When pressed, England declined to say that this person had simply been held by mistake.

"I'm not sure it's that clear cut," he said. "He was determined to be an enemy combatant at different times. We now have more data available. A different group of people came to a different conclusion" about his status.

The final decision was made by Rear Adm. James M. McGarrah after reviewing the work of a three-person military panel. England said the detainee appeared before the panel but did not present any witnesses to testify on his behalf.

Of 30 detainee cases reviewed under a process that started Aug. 13, his is the only one that resulted in a decision favorable to the detainee.

This person is not, however, the first detainee released from Guantanamo Bay. England said that about 150 have been let go as a result of other administrative processes that determined they were not a security threat to the United States.

England said that by the end of this year all of the approximately 585 people held at Guantanamo Bay will have their cases reviewed by panels formally known as Combatant Status Review Tribunals.

England did not explain what, if anything, was learned during the review that led to the determination that the person who will be released was not an enemy combatant. He said it was more complex than simply concluding that the person was an innocent bystander imprisoned by mistake.

"It's a judgment call," he said, referring to the process of weighing all available information about each detainee. He said they had been trained to confound interrogators about the extent of their involvement with either al-Qaeda or the Taliban militia that supported the terrorist network in Afghanistan.

Most of the people held at Guantanamo Bay were captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Since the reviews began Aug. 13, 55 individuals' cases have been heard by three-person military panels and determinations have been approved in 30 of them. Twenty-nine have been confirmed as "enemy combatants," England said, and are properly being held behind bars.