Wikileaks: More Children Imprisoned at Guantanamo than U.S. Claimed

An examination of classified documents, including Detainee Assessment Briefs (DABs), published by the whistle blower website Wikileaks has revealed that fifteen children were imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp. That’s three more than the United States said were there.

According to Raw Story, the University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas found nearly twice as many children in GITMO as  reported to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

“This new report shows that even more children have been imprisoned at Guantanamo than our earlier research revealed,” Almerindo Ojeda of the Guantanamo Testimonials Project told Raw Story. ”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.”

Raw Story says 13 of these juvenile detainees have been released, one has been convicted of war crimes and another killed himself when he was 21.

British author, journalist and blogger Andy Worthington, arguably the world’s foremost authority on Guantanamo, counted 22 juveniles at Guantanamo at one point, including one 14-year-old.  The Pentagon has admitted that children as young as 13 at their time of capture have been held at GITMO.

Mohammed Ismail Agha, an Afghan who was 13 at the time he was detained, was, like many GITMO detainees, actually innocent. He was looking for a construction job when a militia tried to recruit him. He refused, and the militia told US forces that he was a Taliban fighter. Agha then spent 14 months as a wrongfully imprisoned guest of the US government at Guantanamo.

 

Tagged almerindo ojedo, Andy Worthington, detainee assessment briefs, Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, guantanamo children, guantanamo juveniles, guantanamo testimonials project, innocent guantanamo detainees, mohammed ismail agha, more juveniles at guantanamo, Pentagon, u.n. committee on the rights of the child, university of california davis center for the study of human rights in the americas, Wikileaks, wikileaks guantanamo