Published in The Observer, Online version, Vol. 9 No. 4 - March 4, 2004
By Antonie Boessenkool
When Dena Gudaitis, a graduate journalism student at American University, was assigned her final research project for her seminar class last fall, she took the opportunity to do something no one else – including the national media – had done. With hours of research and numerous interviews, Gudaitis says she has put together the most complete list of identities of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Camp Delta, which houses prisoners from the war on terror, is located on the American Naval base at Guantanamo, on the southeastern corner of Cuba. Gudaitis has listed the names, ages and nationalities of 61 detainees on her Web site.
“Everyone who has been following this issue has pieces and parts of the puzzle,” Gudaitis said. “Each group has been following different individuals for different reasons. Each detainee identity is a piece of a larger puzzle.
My job as a student journalist was to put as many pieces of the puzzle together as I could,” she added.
The United States leased the 45 square miles at Guantanamo Bay from Cuba in 1903. Despite severing diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961, the United States continues to operate the base, guarding the fence-line on a round-the-clock basis. In the past 50 years, Guantanamo has harbored refugees fleeing Haiti and Cuba.
For the last two years, Guantanamo has become a topic of debate for human rights groups and international organizations. Detainees have been denied rights, such as legal representation, afforded prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.
The U.S. government position is that detainees are “unlawful combatants,” not “prisoners of war” because they were not organized under a national army. Recently, several nations have pressured the U.S. government to return detainees to their native countries.
Gudaitis was able to build the list by sifting through dozens of reports from U.S. and international news outlets that revealed the identities of some detainees. Sources included the BBC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Washington Post and Chechnya Weekly. With each report, Gudaitis added another name to the list.
Gudaitis spent more than 150 hours on the project over the course of 16 weeks. Her research included scouring more than 50 newspapers and reports.
Gudaitis stresses that the list is not a complete list of the more than 650 detainees at Guantanamo. To date, she said, the U.S. government refuses to confirm or deny the identities of any detainee. Also, the authenticity of the names depends on the integrity of the news source, she cautioned. “As far as I know, nobody else has
attempted to make one list to include what the international community has discovered,” she said.
Other highlights of Gudaitis’ project include analysis of different perspectives on the treatment of the detainees and a copy of a letter written by a detainee to his family in Kuwait, translated by the International Red Cross.
Gudaitis’ project is more than a class assignment. The information is important for everyone, she said.
“Many of these detainees have been in U.S. custody for over two years without any legal indictment or proceeding,” she said. “If the government is not revealing the identities of who they have in their custody, it is the journalist’s job to investigate to obtain that information.
“People should be concerned about how the government is setting precedent over the treatment of people during times of war,” she said. “The United States is a world leader and its treatment of detainees sets an example for other nations to follow.” Gudaitis’ complete project can be viewed at the School of Communication website.
The site includes all of Gudaitis’ research, plus the list of detainee identities.
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