Guantanamo Often Held The Wrong Men

America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men

By Tom Lasseter
Courtesy Of McClatchy Newspapers

Mohammed Akhtiar was among the more than 770 terrorism suspects imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They are the men the Bush administration described as "the worst of the worst."

But Akhtiar was no terrorist. American troops had dragged him out of his Afghanistan home in 2003 and held him in Guantanamo for three years in the belief that he was an insurgent involved in rocket attacks on U.S. forces. But they had the wrong guy. Local anti-government insurgents had fed false information to U.S. troops.

An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments. » read more

ABOUT THIS SERIES:

An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad.

Day One: We got the wrong guys
Day Two: 'I guess you can call it torture'
Day Three: A school for Jihad
Day Four: 'Due process is legal mumbo-jumbo'
Day Five: 'You are the king of this prison'

READ THE EVIDENCE:

Browse an archive of documents obtained by McClatchy in the course of this investigation.

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