US: Newly released documents show that most detainees at Guantánamo Bay are men from humble backgrounds who are not "combatants" in any commonly understood sense and have few apparent links with senior figures in terrorist groups.
A federal court ordered the Pentagon to release 5,000 pages of transcripts from military tribunals that determine if detainees should be classified as "enemy combatants". The detainees are not told all the evidence being considered against them and receive little opportunity to plead their case effectively.
One man appears to have been arrested simply because he wore a Casio watch, a brand allegedly favoured by terrorists for use as bomb timers, and another was a Kasakh apple-seller who had been captured by the Taliban and forced to work as a cook's helper.
"I never carried a weapon with me, and I've never been in any kind of armed fight . . . I always knew America as a democratic country and always heard positive things about America. I believe that after 9/11 America became very aggressive and that's probably the only reason I'm here," he told a tribunal.
Hafizullah Shah, a farmer who said he had never left his village before being arrested, was picked up because he was wearing an olive-green jacket.
"I was just walking in the street, and I was captured. The next thing I found out is that I am sitting here," Mr Shah said.
Habib Noor, from Lalmai, Afghanistan, is accused of owning a compound that attackers fled to after ambushing US special forces and Afghan military forces. Mr Noor said he knew nothing about the incident that day, which he had spent at the village bazaar.
"I was just making sacks to sell at the bazaar to make money for my family. I would like to go home because I am worried about them," he told the tribunal.
The tribunals are conducted by military officers who question detainees about some accusations against them but do not reveal the full extent of evidence against them.
One transcript shows British detainee Feroz Ali Abbasi, who was eventually released in January 2005, trying to argue that he should have prisoner-of-war status under international law before being shut up by a US air force colonel.
"Mr Abbasi, your conduct is unacceptable and this is your absolute final warning. I do not care about international law. I do not want to hear the words 'international law' again. We are not concerned about international law," the colonel says.
The Pentagon was obliged to release the transcripts after a judge upheld a freedom of information action taken by the Associated Press. The US administration has kept most details about Guantánamo secret since it opened, refusing UN inspectors, congressmen and journalists permission to speak to detainees.
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