After years of confinement, many detainees at Guantanamo Bay say they feel they may never receive justice, according to transcripts of hearings obtained by The Associated Press (AP).
Fewer than one in five of detainees allowed a hearing last year even bothered to show up for it.
The frustrated words of men, some of whom admit fighting with the Taliban but swear they would go peacefully home if released, illustrate the seething tension at a prison where hundreds are held without charge. The transcripts also underscore that the US allegations against the men are often as difficult to substantiate as they are for the detainees to refute.
Sometimes the allegations alarmed even the panels of military officers charged with determining whether a detainee should be freed.
Rahmatullah Sangaryar stood accused of "planning biological and poison attacks on United States and coalition forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan" and of possessing anthrax powder and a liquid poison.
The Afghan detainee said he was captured only with muddy clothes, possessed no anthrax and never planned such an attack. The officer in charge of the panel seemed to grope for a response.
"Do you know of anyone who would accuse you of such an act? This is so serious," the unidentified officer exclaimed. "I am trying to understand why it is here in front of me, this allegation against you."
The military has released a greater number of detainees from Guantanamo Bay than the roughly 340 men who are there today. As of last Thursday, the US had transferred or released about 435 prisoners from Guantanamo to more than two dozen nations since the detention center opened in January 2002. Most were subsequently released by their home countries.
But last year, the Administrative Review Board (ARB) panels determined that 83 percent of the detainees whose cases they deliberated were too dangerous to be sent away, and authorized only 17 percent for transfer to other countries.
After the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request, the Pentagon on Friday handed over transcripts of 64 hearings in which the detainees appeared last year.
The transcripts provide a rare opportunity to hear from the detainees themselves, and show increasing despair and frustration.
"It appears that our lives don't mean anything to the Americans. ... I have a feeling that I might be here until my death,'' Mohammed Nasir Khusruf, a 60-year-old detainee from Yemen, told the ARB.
At the ARBs detainees are unable to confront those who have made statements against them. They are not provided with attorneys. The administration of US President George W. Bush has denied the detainees access to civilian courts and only three are charged with war crimes under a new military commissions system.
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