Wikileaks reveals the US lied about the number of children in Guantanamo

Children who were in Guantanamo

The UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas reports today that military documents released by Wikileaks reveal that there were more children kept at Guantanamo than the US State Department admitted.   “This new report shows that even more children have been imprisoned at Guantánamo than our earlier research revealed,” said Almerindo Ojeda, director of the center and principal investigators for its Guantanamo Testimonials Project. “This is one more reason for a full, independent, and transparent inquiry into the policies and practices of detention we have engaged in since 9/11.”  More details about the information released by Wikileaks can be found on the Center's website.

"A 2008 study by the Guantánamo Testimonials Project found that the U.S. Department of State had underreported by 50 percent the number of juveniles seized and sent to Guantanamo." the UC Davis group says, adding that "Thirteen of the one-time juvenile detainees who were identified in the latest WikiLeaks documents have been released. Of the other two, one is the first child in history to have been convicted of war crimes, according to Ojeda. The other is reported to have killed himself in his Guantanamo cell at age 21."

Many of those that ended up in Guantanamo were picked up because they wore a particular style of watch that Taliban officials wore and others were a result of the US policy of offering tribal warlords with a 7th century mentality in poor country so much a head for "terrorists".  Naturally, they went out and found some.  Then there are the British Muslims who were in Pakistan for a wedding and crossed over in to Afghanistan for a visit when the US started its bombing spree.  They were picked up by the Northern Alliance and handed over to the US, the NA no doubt got a good price for all those it handed over as the US ruling class is very generous with taxpayer's money. This incident is covered in the movie, The Road to Guantanamo, it's worth seeing.  Here is a list from the UC Davis group's site of some of the kids who were in Gitmo. No wonder they hate Wikileaks. Guantanamo is a shameful mark on America. Here are some of the children that were kept in Guantanamo.

NAME	ISN	DATE OF BIRTH	DATE OF TRANSFER TO GTMO	AGE IN YEARS (DAYS) AT TRANSFER
MOHAMMED ISMAIL	930	DD MM 88	07 FEB 02	13 (4786) - 14 (5151)
ASSAD ULLAH	912	DD MM 88	DD DEC 02	13 (5083) - 14 (5478)
NAQIB ULLAH	913	DD MM 88	DD JAN 03	14 (5114) - 15 (5509)
MUHAMMED HAMID AL QARANI	269	DD MM 86	09 FEB 02	15 (5519) - 16 (5883)
MOHAMMED OMAR	540	DD MM 86	11 JUN 02	15 (5641) - 16 (6005)
SHAMS ULLAH	783	DD MM 86	28 OCT 02	15 (5780) - 16 (6144)
OMAR AHMED KHADR	766	19 SEP 86	27 OCT 02	16 (5882)
YUSSEF MOHAMMED MUBARAK AL SHIHRI	114	08 SEP 85	16 JAN 02	16 (5974)
ABDUL SAMAD	911	DD MM 86	06 FEB 03	16 (5881) - 17 (6245)
ABDUL QUDUS	929	DD MM 86	07 FEB 03	16 (5882) - 17 (6246)
IBRAHIM UMAR AL UMAR	585	DD MM 85	15 JUN 02	16 (6010) - 17 (6374)
ABDUL SALAM GHETAN (AL SHEHRI)	132	14 DEC 84	20 JAN 02	17 (6246)
YASSER TALAL AL ZAHRANI	093	22 SEP 84	20 JAN 02	17 (6329)
KAHLIL RAHMAN HAFEZ (HAFEZ K. RAHMAN)	301	20 FEB 84	07 FEB 02	17 (6562)
'ABD AL RAZAQ (ABDULLAH R RAZZAQ)	067	18 JAN 84	17 JAN 02	17 (6574)