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.
Yaser Esam Hamdi is a former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. The United States government claims that he was fighting with the Taliban against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces. He was declared an "illegal enemy combatant" by the Bush administration and detained for almost three years without charge. Born in Louisiana, he was a U.S. citizen. On October 9, 2004, on the condition that he renounce his U.S. citizenship and commit to travel prohibitions and other conditions, the government released him and deported him to Saudi Arabia, where he had been raised.
A military prison is a prison operated by the military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members of the military found guilty of a serious crime. Thus, military prisons are of two types: penal, for punishing and attempting to reform members of the military who have committed an offense, and confinement-oriented, where captured enemy combatants are confined for military reasons until hostilities cease.
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.
Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is a citizen of Qatar who was sentenced to serve a 15-year sentence in a United States federal prison, with credit for the nearly eight years he was held in detention without charges. He pleaded guilty to one count in a plea bargain after his case was transferred in 2009 to the federal court system.
Pul-e-Charkhi Prison, also known as the Afghan National Detention Facility, is the largest prison in Afghanistan. As of 2018, it holds up to 5,000 inmates and is located east of Kabul. Construction of the jail began in the 1970s by order of former president Mohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the 1980s. The prison became notorious for torture and executions after the 1978 Saur Revolution as well as during the 10 year Soviet war that followed. Some claim that between April 1978 and December 1979, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) under Nur Muhammad Taraki, executed around 27,000 political prisoners at Pul-i-Charkhi. The Afghan National Army's 111th Capital Division is based near Pul-e-Charkhi prison.
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.
Bashir Nashir Al-Marwalah is a Yemeni, who was captured in Pakistan, on September 11, 2002, and transferred to extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 837. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports that Al-Marwalah was born on December 1, 1979, in Al-Haymah, Yemen.
Omar Hamzayevich Abdulayev, also known as Muhammadi Davlatov, is a citizen of Tajikistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. The Department of Defense reports that Abdulayev was born on October 11, 1978, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. He arrived at Guantanamo on February 9, 2002.
Ali Ahmad Muhammad Al Rahizi is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 45. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts reports he was born on October 13, 1979, in Ta'iz, Yemen.
Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar (NAVCONBRIG) is a military prison operated by the U.S. Navy at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in Miramar, San Diego, California, just under 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown San Diego. It is one of three Navy consolidated brigs and is the Pacific area regional confinement facility for the United States Department of Defense. It is also known as the Joint Regional Correctional Facility Southwest. The 208,000-square-foot (19,300 m2) facility has a capacity of up to 400 male and/or female prisoners and is staffed with 31 civilian and 173 military personnel.
Mohammed Rajab Sadiq Abu Ghanim was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, for almost fifteen years. His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 44. He was eventually transferred to Saudi Arabia
In late 2008, the Department of Defense published a list of the Guantanamo captives who died in custody, were freed, or were repatriated to the custody of another country. This list was drafted on October 8, 2008, and was published on November 26, 2008. Subsequently almost two hundred more captives have been released or transferred, and several further captive died in custody in Guantanamo.
The first well-known Guantanamo Bay hunger strikes began in the middle of 2005, when detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp initiated two hunger strikes. The detainees organized several widespread hunger strikes to protest their innocence and the conditions of their confinement. According to camp authorities, other captives who engaged in long-term hunger strikes, committed suicide in June 2006. Widespread hunger strikes recurred in 2013.
