Guantánamo: The Definitive Prisoner List (Part 2)

Please support my work!

First published in March 2009, this list was updated on January 1, 2010, when 574 prisoners had been released (42 under Obama), and 198 remained, and was updated again on July 12, 2010, when 591 prisoners had been released, and 181 remained.

The following list (also see Part 1, Part 3 and Part 4) is part of an ongoing project (now in its fifth year) to record the stories of all the prisoners held at the US prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The first fruit of this research was my book The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison, published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon (US and UK), in which I related the story of Guantánamo, established a chronology explaining where and when the prisoners were seized, told the stories of around 450 of these prisoners, and provided a context for the circumstances in which the remainder of the prisoners were captured.

Between November 2007 and February 2009, I also published 12 online chapters telling the stories of over 250 prisoners that I was unable to include in the book (either because they were not available at the time of writing, or to keep the book at a manageable length), and since May 2007 I have written over 650 articles about Guantánamo, for a variety of publications, expanding on and updating the stories of all 779 prisoners. In particular, I have covered the stories of the 199 prisoners released from Guantánamo since June 2007 in unprecedented depth. I have also covered the stories of the 27 prisoners charged in Guantánamo’s Military Commission trial system in more detail than is available from most, if not all other sources, and have endeavored to do the same with the Guantánamo prisoners’ habeas corpus petitions, covering the 51 cases decided to date in the District Court in Washington D.C. (37 of which have been won by the prisoners) as thoroughly as possible.

As a result, this is the most comprehensive list ever published of the 779 prisoners who have been held at Guantánamo, providing details of the 591 prisoners who have been released (and the dates of their release), and the 181 prisoners who are still held (including the prisoners cleared for release but not freed under President Bush, and, where possible, identifying some of the 97 remaining prisoners cleared for release by President Obama’s Guantánamo Review Task Force). I will, of course, continue to update it as more prisoners are released.

The list provides links to my articles or online chapters telling the stories of over 400 prisoners, and, where these are not available online, provides references for the chapters in The Guantánamo Files where their stories can be found. The stories of 87 prisoners remain unknown, because they were released in 2003 or 2004, and the Pentagon has not been obliged to publish any information relating to these men, and their stories have not surfaced in the media or in research undertaken by NGOs.

It is my hope that this project will provide an invaluable research tool for those seeking to understand how it came to pass that the government of the United States turned its back on domestic and international law, establishing torture as official US policy, and holding men without charge or trial neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects to be put forward for trial in a federal court, but as “illegal enemy combatants.”

I also hope that it provides a compelling explanation of how that same government, under the leadership of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, established a prison in which the overwhelming majority of those held — at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total — were either completely innocent people, seized as a result of dubious intelligence or sold for bounty payments, or Taliban foot soldiers, recruited to fight an inter-Muslim civil war that began long before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and that had nothing to do with al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or international terrorism.

Andy Worthington, London, July 2010

How to use the list

In the categories below, ISN refers to the Internment Serial Number by which the prisoners are (or were) known and identified in Guantánamo, followed by the prisoners’ status (released, cleared for release, still held, or, in five cases, deceased), their names (with just some of the many different permutations noted, in some cases), their nationality, and links or references to chapters in The Guantánamo Files. Links on the release dates feed into articles published when the prisoners were released.

Of the prisoners cleared for release, some, as indicated, were cleared by military review boards under the Bush administration, others (37 at the time of writing) had been cleared by judges in US courts, who had granted their habeas corpus petitions, and 97 had been cleared by the Obama administration’s interagency Task Force, which reviewed their cases last year. The Task Force has not announced the names of the prisoners it has cleared (although many are the same as those cleared under Bush, and the figures also include those cleared by the courts). As a result, several dozen prisoners in these lists have also been cleared, but I am unable to provide details.

To establish more context, the chapters in the book, and the online chapters, deal with the following places in which the prisoners were seized (or, in other cases, their rendition and torture in secret prisons):

Captured in Afghanistan: Chapters 2, 3, 9, 10, 14, 17, Website Extras 1, 2, 7, 8, 11, 12
Captured crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan: Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, Website Extras 3, 4, 5, 6
Captured in Pakistan: Chapters 12, 13, Website Extras 9, 10
Subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and/or detention in secret prisons: Chapters 16, 20, Website Extras 11

In addition, Chapter 8 refers to imprisonment at the US prison at Kandahar airport, Chapter 11 deals with the early months of Guantánamo’s existence, Chapter 14 also deals with imprisonment in the US prison at Bagram airbase, Chapter 15 refers to torture and abuse in Guantánamo, Chapter 18 refers to legal challenges, and Chapter 19 refers to hunger strikes, suicide attempts and medical malpractice.

The 779 prisoners held at Guantánamo (Part 2)

ISN – Status – Name – Nationality – References

Captured in Afghanistan and held in Qala-i-Janghi (Nov 01)

Captured crossing from Afghanistan to Pakistan (Dec 01)

Afghans captured in Afghanistan (Nov-Dec 01)

347 RELEASED JUL 03 Mohammadullah (Afghanistan) No information
348 RELEASED MAR 04 Zumarikourt, Aziz Khan (Afghanistan) Chapter 10
349 RELEASED OCT 02 Sadiq, Mohammed (Afghanistan) Chapter 10 (he was 88 years old), mentioned in The Guantánamo Files: AlterNet interviews Andy Worthington
350 RELEASED MAR 03 Ehsanullah (Afghanistan) Chapter 8
351 RELEASED MAR 04 Ghofoor, Abdullah (Afghanistan) No information
352 RELEASED NOV 03 Sayed, Abdul Hadi (Afghanistan) No information
353 RELEASED JUL 03 Waheed, Abdul (Afghanistan) No information
354 RELEASED NOV 03 Ghani, Nabu Abdul (Afghanistan) No information
355 RELEASED MAR 03 Malang, Nassir (Afghanistan) No information
356 RELEASED SEP 02 Razaq, Abdul (Afghanistan) Chapters 8, 14 (schizophrenic), mentioned in The Guantánamo Files: AlterNet interviews Andy Worthington
357 RELEASED APR 05 Rahman, Abdul (Afghanistan) Chapter 3
358 RELEASED MAR 03 Sargidene, Mohammed (Afghanistan) Chapter 9
359 NO ISN (probably an Afghan prisoner released from Kandahar/Bagram before transfer to Guantánamo)
360 RELEASED MAR 03 Edmondada, Abdullah (Afghanistan) No information
361 RELEASED MAR 03 Abdul Rahman, Murtazah (Afghanistan) Website Extras 7
362 RELEASED MAR 03 Torjan, Shaibjan (Afghanistan) No information
363 RELEASED MAR 03 Ghafoor, Shai Jahn (Afghanistan) No information
364 RELEASED MAY 03 Kakar, Mohammed (Afghanistan) No information
365 RELEASED JUL 03 Layar, Sabit (Afghanistan) No information
366 RELEASED MAR 04 Khan, Hazrat Sangin (Afghanistan) No information
367 RELEASED MAY 03 Yaqub, Mohammed Yusif (allegedly the alias of Taliban leader Mullah Shahzada) (Afghanistan) Chapter 9, also see If the US administration had behaved intelligently, ex-Guantánamo inmate who blew himself up would never have been released

Mostly captured in Afghanistan (Nov-Dec 01) and held in Sheberghan until early 02

368 RELEASED SEP 07 Hawsawi, Amran (Saudi Arabia) Chapter 12
369 RELEASED JAN 2010 (in Slovakia) CLEARED (under Bush) El Gazzar, Adel Fattough Ali (Egypt) Chapters 12, 19, mentioned in Guantánamo’s refugees, also see Three Neglected Ex-Guantánamo Prisoners in Slovakia Embark on a Hunger Strike, “It was better in Guantánamo,” Complains Egyptian Held in Slovak Detention Center, Who Are the Three Ex-Guantánamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Slovakia?
370 RELEASED JUL 07 Al Hizani, Abd (Abdullah Al Zahrani) (Saudi Arabia) Website Extras 7
371 RELEASED JUL 04 Yadel, Brahim (France) Chapter 7
372 RELEASED NOV 07 Al Shihri, Sa’id (Saudi Arabia) Chapter 7
373-432 NO ISN (probably Afghan prisoners released from Kandahar/Bagram before transfer to Guantánamo)
433 RELEASED JUN 09 Sadkhan, Jawad (Iraq) Chapter 15, mentioned in Refuting Cheney’s Lies: The Stories of Six Prisoners Released From Guantánamo
434 Al Shamyri, Mustafa (Yemen) Website Extras 1
435 RELEASED JAN 09 Said, Hassan Abdul (Iraq) Website Extras 8
436 RELEASED DEC 07 Al Usaymi, Nayif (Saudi Arabia) Website Extras 7
437 RELEASED FEB 07 Al Nasir, Faizal (Saudi Arabia) Website Extras 7
438 RELEASED NOV 07 Al Khalif, Hani (Saudi Arabia) Website Extras 7, Guantánamo Transcripts: Ghost Prisoners Speak After Five And A Half Years, and “9/11 hijacker” Recants His Tortured Confession
439 RELEASED DEC 07 Al Ghatani, Khalid (Saudi Arabia) Website Extras 7
440 Bawazir, Mohammed (Yemen) Chapter 9
441 Al Zahri, Abdul Rahman (Yemen) Website Extras 7, Guantánamo Transcripts: Ghost Prisoners Speak After Five And A Half Years, and “9/11 hijacker” Recants His Tortured Confession
442 RELEASED JUL 03 Maula, Abdul (Pakistan) Website Extras 7
443 RELEASED NOV 03 Khan, Juma (Afghanistan) No information
444 RELEASED MAY 03 Wali, Jihan (Pakistan) Website Extras 7
445-451 NO ISN (probably Afghan prisoners released from Kandahar/Bagram before transfer to Guantánamo)
452 RELEASED SEP 09 (in Ireland) Jabbarov, Oybek (Abu Bakir Jamaludinovich) (Uzbekistan) Chapter 10, also see Guantánamo’s refugees, At Christmas, Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Is Reunited With His Family
453 RELEASED MAR 04 Nasim, Mohammed (Afghanistan) No information
454 RELEASED MAR 04 Adam, Mohammed Sadiq (Uzbekistan) No information, probably Afghan Uzbek
455 PROBABLY RELEASED JAN 2010 (in Switzerland) CLEARED (under Bush) Hamidullah, Ali Sher (Uzbekistan) Website Extras 8
456 RELEASED MAR 04 Hamdullah (Afghanistan) No information
457 RELEASED APR 05 Gul, Mohammad (Afghanistan) Chapter 10
458 RELEASED OCT 06 Sarajuddin, Abib (Afghanistan) Chapter 10
459 RELEASED APR 05 Zaman, Gul (Afghanistan) Chapter 10
460 RELEASED FEB 06 Zaman, Khan (Afghanistan) Chapter 10
461 CLEARED (under Bush) Al Qyati, Abdul Rahman (Yemen) Website Extras 8
462-488 NO ISN (probably Afghan prisoners released from Kandahar/Bagram before transfer to Guantánamo)
489 RELEASED OCT 09 (in Belgium), WON HABEAS PETITION (Jun 09) Al Ginco, Abdul Rahim (Janko) (Syria) Chapters 10, 19, mentioned in Refuting Cheney’s Lies: The Stories of Six Prisoners Released From Guantánamo, also see Guantánamo: A Prison Built On Lies, Andy Worthington Discusses Guantánamo on Democracy Now!, Why Did It Take So Long To Order The Release From Guantánamo Of An Al-Qaeda Torture Victim?, Guantánamo And The Courts (Part Three): Obama’s Continuing Shame, “Respect My Anonymity,” Says Guantánamo Prisoner Released in Belgium
490 RELEASED MAR 04 Al Harith, Jamal (UK) Chapter 10
491 RELEASED JUN 06 Turkistani, Saddiq Ahmed (Saudi Arabia) Chapter 10
492 RELEASED FEB 04 Vakhitov, Aryat (Russia) Chapters 8, 10, 18
493 RELEASED SEP 07 Bukhari, Abdul Hakim (Bukhary) (Saudi Arabia) Chapter 10
494 RELEASED AUG 06 Noorallah, Haji (Afghanistan) Website Extras 8
495 RELEASED SEP 04 Rafiq, Mohammed (Pakistan) Chapter 9
496 RELEASED NOV 07 Rahman, Fizaulla (Afghanistan) Chapter 10

Back to the top

Guantánamo: The Definitive Prisoner List (Part 2)

Please support my work!

The 779 prisoners held at Guantánamo (Part 2)

Archives

In Touch

Categories