Guantánamo Bay - Timeline
9 January 2009, 11:42AM
The first detainees were flown to Guantánamo Bay military prison in January 2002 hooded, shackled and tied down like cargo.
2001
11 September - Nearly 3,000 people are killed when four planes are hijacked and crashed into various sites across the USA, including the World Trade Center in New York.
14 September - Congress passes a resolution giving the President unprecedented authorisation to use force against 'nations, organisations and individuals' whom he determined were connected in any way with the attacks or with future acts of international terrorism.
17 September - President George W Bush signs a memorandum apparently authorizing the CIA to set up detention facilities outside the USA and containing specific information relating to the sources and methods by which the CIA was to implement this detention programme. This memorandum remains classified.
7 October - The USA leads military action against the Taliban government and members of al- Qa'ida in Afghanistan.
13 November - President Bush issues a military order on the 'Detention, Treatment and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens, in the War Against Terrorism', authorising the Pentagon to hold non-US citizens in indefinite custody without charge. The order prohibits any detainee held under it from seeking any remedy in any proceeding in any US, foreign or international court. If any detainee were to be tried, the trial would be by military commission - an executive body, not an independent or impartial court.
28 December - Memorandum from Justice Department to the Pentagon advises that because Guantánamo Bay is not sovereign US territory, the federal courts should not be able to consider habeas corpus petitions from 'enemy aliens' detained at the base.
2002
11 January - The first detainees are transferred to Guantánamo from Afghanistan and are held in wire mesh cages in an area known as Camp X-Ray.
7 February - President Bush signs memorandum stating that no Taliban or al -Qa'ida detainee will qualify as a prisoner of war and that Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions will not apply to them either. Common Article 3 requires fair trial standards and prohibits torture, cruelty, and 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.'
5 April - Detainee Yaser Esam Hamdi is moved out of Guantánamo to military custody on the mainland after he is discovered to have US nationality.
28 April - Detainees are moved from Camp X-Ray to Camp Delta.
1 August - A memorandum from the Justice Department to then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advises that the President can authorise torture, that interrogators may cause severe pain before crossing the threshold to torture, and that there are a wide range of acts that might amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which would not amount to torture and therefore not be prosecutable under US law prohibiting torture by US agents outside the USA. Even if torture did occur, the memorandum argues, the theory of 'necessity' or 'self-defence' could be used to eliminate any criminal liability.
1 August - An 18-page Justice Department memorandum advises the CIA on the legality of "alternative interrogation methods". This memorandum remains classified.
2 December - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approves interrogation techniques for discretionary use at Guantánamo that include hooding, stripping, sensory deprivation, isolation, stress positions and the use of dogs to 'induce stress'. He rescinds this blanket approval six weeks later, stating that his authorisation of such techniques is to be sought on a case-by-case basis.
4 and 10 December - Two Afghan detainees die in US custody in Bagram as a result of torture or other ill-treatment.
2003
14 March - A memorandum to the Pentagon from the Justice Department claims that "any effort by Congress to regulate the interrogation of enemy combatants would violate the Constitution's sole vesting of the Commander-in-Chief authority in the President". It also claims that if interrogation methods were inconsistent with US obligations under the UN Convention against Torture, but were justified by necessity or self-defense", "we would view those actions still as consistent ultimately with international law". Furthermore the memorandum argued that if a US interrogator were to harm an "enemy combatant" in a way that could be said to constitute a criminal act, it could be a defence against criminal liability that the interrogator was acting in order to prevent attacks against the USA by al-Qa'ida.
April - Secretary Rumsfeld authorises interrogation techniques including isolation, 'environmental manipulation' (such as adjusting temperature), and 'sleep adjustment'. Additional techniques could be requested on a case-by-case basis.
27 May - The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) meets senior US officials in Washington, DC and, in relation to Guantánamo, urges the US authorities "to institute due legal process and to make significant changes for the more than 600 internees held there".
June - Qatari national Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is declared an "enemy combatant" by presidential order and transferred from the US criminal justice system to military custody in South Carolina.
3 July - The Pentagon announces that President Bush has made six Guantánamo detainees eligible for trial by military commission. Two of the six were subsequently released without charge or trial to the UK.
2004
30 January - The ICRC expresses its concern that the "US authorities have placed the internees in Guantánamo beyond the law. This means that, after more than eighteen months of captivity, the internees still have no idea about their fate, and no means of recourse through any legal mechanism. Through its visits, the ICRC has been uniquely placed to witness the impact this uncertainty has had on the internees. It has observed a worrying deterioration in the psychological health of a large number of them."
28 April - Photographs of torture or other ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are broadcast by CBS News and subsequently around the world.
May - Guantánamo's Camp 5 is opened, and receives its first detainees.
28 June - The US Supreme Court rules in Rasul v. Bush that US courts can consider challenges to the legality of the detention of the Guantánamo detainees.
7 July - The Pentagon announces the formation of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals - panels of three military officers allowed to rely on classified or coerced evidence against detainees denied legal representation and presumed to be 'enemy combatants', broadly defined, unless they prove otherwise.
14 September - Administrative Review Boards, similar to CSRTs, are established to conduct "discretionary" annual reviews to determine if detainees should continue to be held by the USA.
November - A challenge brought on behalf of Yemeni detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan in federal court leads to the suspension of military commission pre-trial proceedings.
2005
25 May - Amnesty calls for Guantánamo to be closed. The call is subsequently joined by UN experts, former US Presidents Carter and Clinton, heads of state from Europe and elsewhere, and other human rights and legal organisations.
30 December - President Bush signs into law the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which bans the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees but severely curtails the right of Guantánamo detainees to judicial review of the lawfulness or conditions of their detention.
2006
27 February Five UN experts issue a report on the detainees at Guantánamo concluding, among other things, that international human rights law is applicable to their situation; that the detainees are entitled to challenge the lawfulness of their detention in a court of law; that the attempt by the US administration to redefine "torture" is "of utmost concern"; that interrogation techniques authorized by the administration violate international law; that the absence of impartial investigations into abuses violates the USA's obligations; and that the conditions of detention "have resulted in profound deterioration of the mental health of many of the detainees".
10 June - Three detainees die at the facility, apparently after committing suicide.
29 June - The US Supreme Court, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, rules that the military commissions as constituted under the 2001 Military Order violate US and international law. The Court also rules that Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions does apply, reversing the 2002 presidential determination.
6 September - President Bush announces the transfer to Guantánamo of 14 detainees who had been held in secret CIA detention centres ('black sites').
17 October - President Bush signs into law the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which strips the US courts of jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus appeals from any foreign national held as an 'enemy combatant' in US custody anywhere in the world; authorises the President to establish new military commissions to try such detainees; and narrows the scope of the USA's War Crimes Act, by not expressly criminalising Common Article 3's prohibition on unfair trials or 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.' President Bush announces that the Act will allow the CIA's secret detention programme to continue.
October/November - The US government seeks to have all pending habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of Guantánamo detainees prior to the passage of the MCA, thrown out of court. The government argues on national security grounds that whatever the 14 newly transferred detainees know about the CIA programme - including interrogation techniques and the location of secret facilities - must not be revealed.
December - Camp 6 opens at Guantánamo.
13 December - A federal judge dismisses Salim Ahmed Hamdan's habeas corpus petition on the grounds that the MCA strips the federal courts of jurisdiction to consider such appeals.
2007
20 February - The US Court of Appeal rules in Boumediene v Bush that federal courts lack jurisdiction under the MCA to hear habeas corpus appeals from Guantánamo detainees.
30 March - Australian national David Hicks becomes the first Guantánamo detainee to be convicted by military commission. Under a pre-trial agreement he pleads guilty to "providing material support for terrorism" and is sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, which he will serve in Australia.
27 April - The Pentagon announces that it has transferred Iraqi national 'Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi to Guantánamo. Prior to his transfer he had been held in secret CIA custody.
4 June - Charges against two Guantánamo detainees- Omar Khadr, a Canadian national, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national- are dismissed during military commission arraignment proceedings as both had been designated "enemy combatants" rather than "unlawful enemy combatants" as required under the MCA. The government wins an appeal against this decision in the newly established Court of Military Commission Review, and proceedings against Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan resume in November and December.
7 June - Amnesty International and five other human rights organizations publish the names and details of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret CIA custody and whose current whereabouts remain unknown.
11 June - A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit rules that the military detention of Ali Saleh Kablah al-Marri must end because "the President lacks the power to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain" him. The Court finds that, as a legal resident in the USA, Ali al-Marri was entitled to certain constitutional protections, including the right not to be deprived of his liberty without due process of law. The full Court subsequently agrees to rehear the case, and oral arguments are presented on 31 October. Ali al-Marri remains in indefinite military detention.
29 June - The US Supreme Court agrees to take the Boumediene v Bush case.
20 July - President Bush issues an executive order authorizing and endorsing secret detention. The order determines that common Article 3 applies to the CIA's secret detention programme and states that the CIA programme will fully comply with the obligations of the USA under common Article 3, provided that "the conditions of confinement and interrogation practices of the programme" remain within the limits set out in it.
9 August - The Pentagon announces that the CSRTs had determined that all 14 detainees transferred to Guantánamo in September 2006 met the criteria for designation as "enemy combatants".
16 October - The Pentagon announces that it is granting a lawyer access to Majid Khan, one of the 14 transferred from secret CIA custody in September 2006.
5 December - The US Supreme Curt hears oral argument in the Boumediene v Bush case.
2008
5 February - The CIA Director confirms that "waterboarding" was used in 2002 and 2003 by the agency as an interrogation technique against three detainees held in secret custody.
14 March - The Pentagon announces that it has transferred Afghan national Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani to Guantánamo. Prior to his transfer he had been held in secret CIA custody.
13 May - The US government refers capital charges against five Guantánamo detainees for joint trial by military commission. The five - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, 'Ali 'Abd al-'Aziz 'Ali and Mustafa al Hawsawi - are accused of involvement in the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA. Prior to their transfer, they were subjected to enforced disappearance, held in secret custody by the CIA for up to four and a half years.
June - The US government reveals to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child that approximately 2,500 children have been held in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. It says that approximately 90 of them have been held in the US air base in Bagram in Afghanistan, with 10 children there as of April 2008. It says that it has held eight children in Guantánamo. It later revises this to 12.
12 June - The US Supreme Court, in Boumediene v Bush, rules that the detainees held in Guantanamo as "enemy combatants" have the right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention in a court of law. The Supreme Court declares as unconstitutional attempts by the administration and Congress (through the 2006 Military Commissions Act) to strip the detainees of their right to habeas corpus and dismisses as deficient the substitute scheme established by the administration and Congress to replace habeas corpus proceedings.
15 July - By five votes to four, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rules that the Congress has empowered the President to detain Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri as an "enemy combatant". July/August The first trial takes place before a military commission convened under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni national, is convicted by a panel of six US military officers of "providing material support for terrorism" and acquitted of "conspiracy". He is sentenced to five and a half years, but is credited with time already spent in detention. In November 2008, Salim Hamdan was transferred to Yemen to serve the remaining one month of his sentence.
7 October - A US federal judge orders the US government to release into the USA the 17 Uighur detainees still held in Guantánamo. The government had earlier conceded that the 17 men are not "enemy combatants". The government appeals the decision and their release is indefinitely postponed.
11 November - Amnesty International and five other human rights organizations call on European governments to provide international protection to Guantánamo detainees who will not be charged with any crime but who cannot be returned to their country of origin for fear of torture or other human rights violations.
20 November - The US District Court for the District of Columbia orders five of six men seized in Bosnia and Herzegovina in January 2002 to be released, and rules that the government can keep the sixth in detention. The six men become the first of the men still held in Guantánamo and labelled by the USA as so-called "enemy combatants" to have their habeas corpus petitions ruled on following the US Supreme Court's Boumediene judgment in June 2008.
5 December - US Supreme Court agrees to hear the case of Qatari national Ali al-Marri, detained in the USA as an "enemy combatant" since June 2003. At issue will be whether Congress, in passing the Authorization for Use of Military Force (see 14 September 2001), authorized the indefinite military detention of a legal resident seized on US soil who the government alleged to have conspired with al Qa'ida to carry out attacks against the USA.
11 December - US Senate Armed Services Committee releases executive summary of its findings on detainee abuses in the "war on terror". Among them is the conclusion that "senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of legality, and authorized their use against detainees". It also finds that "aggressive" interrogation techniques authorized in 2002 by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for use in Guantánamo had also made their way to Afghanistan and Iraq.
11 December - Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado says Portugal is willing to accept Guantánamo detainees who cannot return to their home countries, and sends a public letter to his European Union counterparts urging them to do the same.
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