A series of secret, never-before-published photos of the original inmates at an American prison at Guantanamo Bay has been published.
Photographs published Sunday by the New York Times show scenes of people in handcuffs, blindfolded and earmuffs when they arrived at the controversial prison in 2002.
The Times notes that the only images ever leaked from a prison off the coast of Cuba were published by WikiLeaks in 2011.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, we now see some of the first photographs of the first prisoners to arrive, just months after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The photos were taken to make Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other leaders in Washington look at the start of detentions and interrogations during the war.
Al Qaeda / Taliban detainee taken on board US Air Force C-141 Starlifter from Kandahar, Afghanistan
Officers of the 115th Military Police Battalion (BCH) accompany the detainee from the bus for treatment in the X-ray camp detention center
The detainees are visible not only blindfolded, but some of them have their hands taped together, trying to move around, trying to see something outside their blindfolded.
The photos show David Hicks, an Australian captured during the Taliban battle as he was led down the ramp of a cargo plane.
Prisoners were given handcuffs to make it easier for soldiers to move. Soldiers at the time noted that prisoners were fairly easy to lift because they could be malnourished.
One of the photos shows the detainee kneeling and walking away from the door so that the guard could give him food that shows everything from oranges to chopped carrots and beans.
Initially, each prisoner was given an ISO military rug, which the pioneers used as mattresses and prayer rugs.
Security forces assist al-Qaeda / Taliban detainee on Guantanamo detention center bus
The detainees are visible not only blindfolded, but some of them have their hands glued together with scotch tape trying to move around, trying to see something outside their blindfolds.
Prisoners were given handcuffs to make it easier for soldiers to move. Soldiers at the time noted that prisoners were fairly easy to lift because they could be malnourished
Detainees at X-Ray Camp spend most of their day in prayer, using a rug given to them by the military as a prayer rug.
None of the soldiers have been identified, although a signature from 2002 indicates that the two soldiers were in the 115th Military Police Battalion, which was later sent to the equally controversial Abu Ghraib prison.
The detainees were cured of various diseases at Fleet Hospital Twenty, which is the main medical institution.
On January 11, 2002, the military banned any photos that were in place from CNN and the Miami Herald. Instead, a naval photographer sent out photos of the first 20 inmates kneeling at Camp X-Ray, an early mini-camp for prison inmates.
About 780 men and boys were taken to the Gitma under President George W. Bush, who called the prisoners “the worst of the worst.”
However, only 18 people in prison have ever been charged and only five have been convicted.
Only 35 people remain in prison, 10 of them awaiting trial. President Barack Obama has been suspended from closing Guantanamo, but recent administrations are slowly reducing the number of people still detained.
A series of secret, never-before-published photos of the original inmates at a U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay has been released
Photographs published Sunday by the New York Times show scenes of people in handcuffs, blindfolded and earmuffs when they arrived at the disputed prison in 2002.
The detainees are being cured of various diseases at Fleet Hospital Twenty, which is the main medical institution
Detainee in camp X-Ray kneels with his hands behind his head while lunch is placed in his detention center
Yasser Essam Hamdi kneels during one of the five prayers performed by detainees every day
About 780 men and boys were taken to the Gitma under President George W. Bush, who called the prisoners “the worst of the worst.”
However, only 18 people in prison have ever been charged and only five have been convicted.
In 2021, DailyMail.com reported that of the remaining Guantanamo prisoners, 17 were considered “high-value” and would probably never be released.
But the remaining “low-value detainees” pose no danger, and nine of them are theoretically already officially recognized as safe for release.