Pentagon plans to release nearly a third of detainees

Los Angeles Times Apr. 25, 2006 12:00 AM

The Pentagon plans to release nearly a third of those held at the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba because they pose no threat to U.S. security, an official of the war crimes tribunal said Monday.

Charges are pending against two dozen of the remaining 330 prisoners, the chief prosecutor said. But he left unclear why the majority faces neither imminent freedom nor a day in court after as much as four years in custody without an indictment.

Only 10 of the roughly 490 reputed enemy combatants currently detained at the U.S. naval facility have been charged so far, and none with capital offenses, leaving the majority of the U.S. government's prisoners from the war on terror in limbo and the war crimes tribunal exposed to allegations by international human rights advocates that it is illegitimate and abusive.

The decision to release the 141 detainees, the largest group to be reclassified and moved off the island, follows a yearlong review of their cases in which interrogators also determined that these men hold no further intelligence value.

Longtime critics of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility said the release announced Monday marked a significant milestone in the four years the base has been used as a prison for suspected terrorists.

The prison has been dogged by allegations of torture and brought choruses of international condemnation.