Guantanamo Bay, the United States controlled prison in Cuba, created in the aftermath of 9/11 completes 20 years today.
The prison allows detainees to be held indefinitely outside of normal laws or judicial oversight, according to various human rights bodies.
This inhumane facility was a result of the so called ‘war on terror’ by the US across the world.
During the past two decades, 780 men have passed through the facility, today, the facility holds 39 men, according to disclosures from the US government’s interagency Periodic Review Board made in October.
Here is a look at 20 years of US Torture, the story of Guantanamo Bay Prison, a story of wrongful detentions, tortures and failure of world at large.
George W Bush, the US president, issues a military order on the “Detention, Treatment and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens, in the War Against Terrorism”.
The order authorises the US to hold foreign nationals in custody without charge indefinitely, and prevents them from undertaking any legal process to challenge their detention.
A memorandum from the US Justice Department to the Pentagon explains that prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay are not eligible for habeas corpus rights protecting against arbitrary detention because they are not on US soil.
The first 20 detainees arrive at Guantanamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray and are held outdoors in wire mesh cages.
The International Committee of the Red Cross begins visiting prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. On the same day, the Bush administration rules that Guantanamo prisoners do not qualify as prisoners of war and are not entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention.
Dick Cheney, the US vice president, describes the prisoners as “the worst of a very bad lot,” adding that: “They are very dangerous. They are devoted to killing millions of Americans.”
A US federal judge dismisses a challenge to the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group.
Prisoner Yaser Esam Hamdi is transferred from Guantanamo to military custody on the mainland after it is discovered he was born in the US state of Louisiana.
Construction of the new Camp Delta, a permanent prison facility with a capacity of more than 400, is completed.
A memorandum from the Department of Justice to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advises that the president can authorise a wide range of “enhanced interrogation techniques” that would not amount to torture and therefore not be prosecutable under US law.
Even if torture did occur, the memorandum argues, the theory of “necessity” or “self-defence” could be used to eliminate any criminal liability.
One prisoner, Abdul Razaq, becomes the first inmate to be repatriated to Afghanistan.
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, approves a range of interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo including sensory deprivation, isolation, stress positions and the use of dogs to “induce stress”.
Guantanamo prison population reaches 680 detainees.
Bush designates six suspected members of al-Qaeda eligible for the first military tribunals since the second world war.
The Red Cross warns of the “deterioration in the psychological health of a large number of detainees”.
The US Supreme Court agrees to hear appeals in the Guantanamo case over whether inmates have a right to access civilian courts to challenge their indefinite detention.
David Hicks becomes the first Guantanamo prisoner to be given a lawyer.
Five military lawyers assigned to defend detainees say they believe that some of the rules drawn up for the military tribunals are unconstitutional.
The Bush administration brings the first charges against detainees. Ali Hamza al-Bahlul from Yemen and Ibrahim al-Qosi from Sudan are charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes.
The Supreme Court rules that the federal courts have the authority to decide whether non-US citizens detained in Guantanamo Bay are wrongfully imprisoned, and that the executive branch does not have the power to hold indefinitely a US citizen without basic due process protections enforceable through judicial review.
The Pentagon launches military panels, known as Combatant Status Review Tribunals or CSRTs, to determine the “enemy combatant” status of each prisoner.
Review tribunals begin.
Four former British detainees launch legal action against the US government. In the first case of its kind, Rasul, Iqbal, Ahmed and al Harith each demand $9m as compensation for alleged torture and other human rights violations. The Pentagon declares that the men are not entitled to a payout because they were captured “in combat”.
The CSRT process is completed. Of the 558 detainees assessed, 38 were judged as “no longer enemy combatants” and were made eligible for release.
The Associated Press launches legal action against the US Department of Defense in an attempt to force the release of transcripts and other documents related to Guantanamo military hearings.
The Associated Press lawsuit results in the release of nearly 2,000 pages of documents, although detainees’ names and nationalities blacked out. The documents include excerpts from prisoners’ testimonies.
US District Judge Jed Rakoff orders the government to ask each prisoner whether they want personal information that could be used to identify them to be released to the Associated Press.
Of 317 detainees who received the form, 63 said yes, 17 said no, 35 returned the form without answering and 202 did not return the form.
The Detainee Treatment Act comes into law. The Act bans the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, but severely curtails their right to challenge their detention.
UN report recommends closure of Guantanamo.
The Pentagon is ordered to release the identities of hundreds of Guantanamo prisoners to the Associated Press as a result of its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The Department of Defense releases the names of 558 people who have been held at Guantanamo Bay.
Repatriations for detainees continue for countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Two Guantanamo detainees attempt suicide and a riot breaks out in reaction to the event.
Saudi Arabian nationals Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi al-Utaybi and Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed of Yemen, die by apparent suicide.
Fourteen “high value” detainees are transferred to Guantanamo from secret sites.
The Red Cross sends a delegation to Guantanamo to meet with the 14 newly transferred prisoners.
President Bush signs the Military Commissions Act into law. The Act strips US courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus appeals from any foreign national held as an “enemy combatant” in US custody anywhere in the world.
It also narrows the scope of the War Crimes Act, by not expressly criminalising Common Article 3’s prohibition on unfair trials or “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment”. The Act will allow the CIA’s secret detention programme to continue.
Two UK residents, Ahmed Rashidi and Ahmed Belbacha are cleared by a Pentagon tribunal for release from the prison but face indefinite detention because the UK refuses to authorise their release.
Abdul Malik Abdul-Jabbar, a citizen of Kenya, is transferred to Guantanamo Bay, marking the first time since September 2004 that a detainee has been directly transferred to Guantanamo.
Repatriations of detainees to other countries continue throughout the year.
Murat Kurnaz becomes the first ex-Guantanamo detainee to testify before the US Congress, which he does from Germany via videolink.
The United States Supreme Court rules on Boumediene v Bush and Al Odah v United States that detainees at Guantanamo Bay should have a right to challenge their detention in US Federal Courts through habeas corpus petitions.
Barack Obama, then a candidate for US president, declares his intention to close Guantanamo.
A public statement admitting that a detainee was tortured is released for the first time by a senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo Bay.
The statement admitted that the treatment of a Saudi national met the legal definition of torture.
President Obama issues three executive orders: one ordering the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay in one year, another banning the use of controversial CIA interrogation techniques, and a third ordering a review of detention policy options.
May 15, 2009: Lakhdar Boumediene
Inmate Lakhdar Boumediene is transferred to France. He had been held since 2002 and had been used by lawyers to win the landmark Supreme Court case which ruled detainees at Guantanamo Bay had the right to habeas corpus.
Meanwhile, President Obama announces he will continue with the much-criticised system of military tribunals that President Bush created to try terrorism suspects, albeit in a different form.
The first detainee, Ahmed Ghailani, who is not an American citizen is brought from Guantanamo Bay to the US mainland to face a federal trial. He is eventually given a life sentence for his role in bombing US embassies.
Mohammed el Gharani, the youngest prisoner to be held in Guantanamo Bay, is released. He was 14 when he was arrested in Pakistan in 2001.
Obama admits a planned deadline for closing the facility by January 2010 will be missed.
The US Justice Department determines that nearly 50 of the remaining 196 detainees in Guantanamo Bay should be held indefinitely without charges or trial. A hand full of detainees face military tribunals through the rest of the year.
Obama signs an executive order to resume military trials at Guantanamo Bay, formally establishing a system to hold some detainees indefinitely breaking one of his campaign promises.
Attorney General Eric Holder announces a decision to prosecute five men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay.
WikiLeaks releases classified US military files, showing that Guantanamo Bay held more than 150 innocent men for years. By this time, 604 inmates have been transferred out of the prison while 172 remain detained there.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four other accused co-conspirators, are formally charged at a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay.
They appeared in public for the first time in more than three years.
Inmates launch hunger strikes over what they say are deteriorating conditions.
One of the hunger strikers, Yemeni national Moath al-Alwi, pens an opinion piece for Al Jazeera on why he is refusing food.
Lawyers for two Guantanamo Bay detainees file motions asking a US court to block officials from preventing inmates from taking part in communal prayers during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The lawyers argue that the detainees’ rights are protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
The first terrorism conviction before a US military court at Guantanamo Bay was reversed. Australian David Hicks, who had pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorism, had his conviction tossed by a US military appeals court.
US officials said Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held in Guantanamo Bay, would be released. Saudi-born Aamer had been held for 14 years and was released following a plea from the UK prime minister.
Obama proposes a “once and for all” plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and transfer remaining detainees to a facility in the US. The plan was not approved by other lawmakers and was ultimately unsuccessful.
The US transfers nine Yemeni men to Saudi Arabia from Guantanamo, including an inmate who had been on hunger strike. The transfer marked the largest group of prisoners shipped out of the naval base since Obama rolled out his plan to shut the centre before he leaves office.
Fifteen Guantanamo Bay prisoners are transferred to the United Arab Emirates, leaving 61 detainees at the jail.
Donald Trump is inaugurated as president of the United States. On the campaign trail, he had pledged to “load it (Guantanamo) up with some bad dudes”. Fewer than 50 detainees remained in the prison when Trump took office.
Trump signs an executive order to keep Guantanamo prison open. In his state of the union speech, Trump said he expected that “in many cases” captured terrorists would be sent to the prison.
The navy commander of the task force that runs the Guantanamo Bay prison, Rear Admiral John Ring, is fired for a “loss of confidence in his ability to command”.
Joe Biden, who had signalled his desire to close Guantanamo, is inaugurated as US president.
One of the men credited with creating the CIA’s torture programme testifies at Guantanamo Bay as part of a pretrial hearing for five men charged over the September 11 attacks.
Jim Mitchell defended his role in the programme as a matter of moral courage.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, along with four co-defendants appeared in a military courtroom at Guantanamo Bay for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, and Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mohammed face the death penalty in a trial by a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay that has been bogged in process.
A detainee held at Guantanamo Bay offers the first public account in a US court of torture at a CIA clandestine facility.
Majid Khan, a former resident of a Baltimore suburb, detailed being waterboarded, physically and sexually abused, and suffering other forms of torment at a CIA “black site”.
Biden signs a $770 billion military spending bill, but his White House criticises provisions in the legislation barring the use of funds to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to foreign countries or into the US unless certain conditions are met.
Biden has said he hopes to close the prison before his tenure is up but the federal government is still barred by law from transferring inmates to prisons on the US mainland.
(Inputs Al Jazeera, New York Times)
Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said that her party is willing to…
A day after National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah announced pre-poll alliance with the Congress…
The Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) called off the strike protesting the Kolkata…
The Cyber Unit Handwara has achieved significant success in its ongoing efforts to combat financial…
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi has invited Online applications for the…
Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, a Maharatna Company under the Ministry of Power, Government…
