Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, is a United States military base and detention camp located on 120 square kilometers (45 sq mi) of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which the U.S. leased for use as a coaling station and naval base in 1903. The lease was $2,000 in gold per year until 1934, when the payment was set to match the value in gold in dollars; in 1974, the yearly lease was set to $4,085. The base is on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas U.S. Naval Base. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Cuban government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil and called it illegal under international law, alleging that the base was imposed on Cuba by force.
The Judge Advocate General's Corps, also known as the "JAG Corps" or "JAG", is the legal arm of the United States Navy. Today, the corps consists of a worldwide organization of more than 730 commissioned officers serving as judge advocates, 30 limited duty officers (law), 500 enlisted members and nearly 275 civilian personnel, all serving under the direction of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy.
Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the base. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command. Since January 2002 the command has operated the Guantanamo Bay detention camps Camp X-Ray and its successors Camp Delta, Camp V, and Camp Echo, where detained prisoners are held who have been captured in the war in Afghanistan and elsewhere since the September 11, 2001 attacks. From the command's founding in 2002 to early 2017, the detainee population has been reduced from 779 to 41. As of May 2019, the unit is under the command of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Timothy C. Kuehhas.
Colonel Frederic L. Borch is a career United States Army attorney with a master's degree in national security studies, who served as chief prosecutor of the Guantanamo military commissions. He resigned his commission in August 2005 after three prosecutors complained that he had rigged the system against providing due process to defendants. He was replaced by Robert L. Swann
Guantánamo Bay is a bay located in Guantánamo Province at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the largest harbor on the south side of the island and it is surrounded by steep hills which create an enclave that is cut off from its immediate hinterland.
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, G-Bay, GTMO, and Gitmo, which is on the coast of Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Indefinite detention without trial and torture have led the operations of this camp to be considered a major breach of human rights by Amnesty International and a violation of Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution.
Charles D. Swift is an American attorney and former career Navy officer, who retired in 2007 as a Lieutenant Commander in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He is most noted for having served as defense counsel for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a detainee from Yemen who was the first to be charged at Guantanamo Bay; Swift took his case to the US Supreme Court. In 2005 and June 2006, the National Law Journal recognized Swift as one of the top lawyers nationally because of his work on behalf of justice for the detainees.
Abdul Majid Muhammed is a citizen of Iran who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 555. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts estimate he was born in 1978, in Zahedan, Iran.
Matthew Mark Diaz is a former active-duty Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) and Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAGC) officer in the United States Navy. In mid-to-late 2004, Diaz served a six-month tour of duty in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as deputy director of the detention center's legal office. Early in 2005 as LCDR Diaz was concluding his tour, he sent an anonymous greeting card to The Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York civil liberties and human rights group. The card contained the names of the detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. In July 2006, the United States government formally charged Diaz in a military court with five criminal counts related to the sending of these names, the most serious being that he intended to harm national security or advantage a foreign nation, a violation of the Espionage Act. In May 2007, he was convicted by a seven-member jury of military officers on 4 of 5 counts. He served a 6-month prison sentence and was dismissed from the military.
Heather N. Cerveny is a service member of the United States Marine Corps. In October 2006, she became the focus of national attention after her report about alleged mistreatment of detainees held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba was leaked to the media.
Kevin M. Sandkuhler is an American lawyer, and retired Brigadier General in the United States Marine Corps. His 2003 memo expressing concerns about the US interrogation of terrorism suspects, released in 2005 after a declassification request by Senator Lindsey Graham, received national and international attention.
Rob Wyda was the District Judge of Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair, one of the largest magisterial districts in Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1999, he was elected three times. He announced his candidacy for a seat on the Pennsylvania Superior Court in March 2013, but withdrew a few weeks later.
Ralph H. Kohlmann is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Patrick M. McCarthy is a retired American lawyer and officer in the United States Navy. He was appointed Commander on July 12, 2001. He was appointed Captain on May 23, 2006.
Suzanne Lachelier is an American lawyer and Commander in the United States Navy reserves. She is among the military attorneys assigned to defend detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. She is the first defense lawyer to be allowed to a top-secret location, known as Camp 7 or Camp Platinum, where former CIA detainees are held at Guantanamo. Lachelier is notable for the legal struggle she waged in order to meet her client, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who had refused to leave his cell.
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist at the New York Times. Long a military-affairs reporter at the Miami Herald, from January 2002 into 2019 she reported on the operation of the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, at its naval base in Cuba. Her coverage of detention of captives at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has been praised by her colleagues and legal scholars, and in 2010 she spoke about it by invitation at the National Press Club. Rosenberg had previously covered events in the Middle East. In 2011, she received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for her nearly decade of work on the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
William K. Lietzau is an American lawyer, former U.S. Marine Corps Judge Advocate, and former government official. In September 2013, Lietzau resigned as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Rule of Law and Detainee Policy, after informing his staff in July. In March 2020, the Department of Defense announced that he would become the next Director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.
Michael E. Dunlavey is a former Major General in the United States Army. Following his retirement from the Army he was elected a State Judge in Erie Pennsylvania.
Stephen Gill is an American lawyer, from Massachusetts, and an officer in the United States Naval Reserve.
