The Pentagon late last night released its most extensive list of foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay by providing the names and nationalities of 558 detainees who went through a hearing process there.
The Pentagon posted the 11-page list on its website in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Associated Press.
Starting with the arrival from Afghanistan of the first group of 20 shackled and masked detainees on January 11th, 2002, the United States had never until now released a comprehensive list of the names and nationalities of the prisoners at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Pentagon long resisted providing the information, citing security concerns such as preventing al-Qaeda from knowing who was imprisoned.
The United States previously identified some detainees in legal documents, while the names of hundreds had been made public by their relatives or lawyers.
On March 3rd, the Pentagon released more than 5,000 pages of documents relating to military hearings given to detainees at the base, which formally identified hundreds of the detainees as the result of a court order in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Associated Press.
The Pentagon released about 2,600 pages of additional documents on April 3rd with more information on the military review hearings given to detainees.
Although the new list provided by the Pentagon contained 558 names, there are now about 490 detainees at the Guantanamo base the Pentagon said.
Rights activists have condemned the indefinite detentions and the prisoners' lack of legal rights. UN rights investigators have called for the closure of the prison.
Only 10 of the detainees at Guantanamo have been charged and not one of the trials has been completed. Most of the detainees were captured in Afghanistan and the Pentagon accused many of complicity with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
The Pentagon had designated the detainees as "enemy combatants," denying them the rights accorded to prisoners of war under international agreements.