Government releases list of Guantanamo detainees
San Juan, Puerto Rico – The U.S. government Wednesday released the first list of detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison – the most extensive accounting yet of the hundreds of people held there, nearly all of them labeled enemy combatants.
In all, 558 people were named in the list, provided by the Pentagon in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit by The Associated Press. They were among the first swept up in the U.S. global war on terrorism for suspected links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
The list is the first official roster of Guantanamo detainees who passed through the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process in 2004 and 2005 to determine whether they should be deemed “enemy combatants.” Those named are from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and 39 other countries. Many have been held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years. Only a handful have faced formal charges.
Among the detainees on the list was Muhammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who reportedly was supposed to be the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Although his presence at Guantanamo had been reported, the military had previously declined to confirm it.
The detainees on the list came from 41 countries. The largest number – 132 – came from Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan followed with 125, then Yemen with 107.
The names of many detainees were disclosed publicly for the first time on March 3, when the Pentagon released about 5,000 pages of transcripts to AP.
AUSTIN, Texas
Dismissal of charge against DeLay upheld
A state appeals court sided with former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Wednesday, upholding a lower- court ruling that dismissed a felony conspiracy charge against him.
DeLay, who announced this month that he is resigning from Congress, still faces a money- laundering charge and another conspiracy charge stemming from the financing of state legislative races in 2002.
A lower-court judge dismissed a conspiracy charge against the Republican in December, agreeing with defense arguments that a conspiracy law did not cover election-code violations when the alleged offense was committed in 2002. The Legislature amended the law in 2003 to include the election-code violation.
ST. LOUIS
Catering worker may have shot 4th woman
A catering-service employee who shot to death three women – including two of his bosses – and then committed suicide may also have killed a fourth woman.
The fourth body was found Wednesday in a St. Louis apartment of a friend of gunman Herbert Chalmers.
The victim was in her late 20s or early 30s, and Chalmers was known to stay at the apartment, police said. Shell casings at the scene were similar to those found at the site of Tuesday’s killings.
The motive for the shooting was not clear. “Until we know who she is and put together her last moments, we have no idea,” a police spokesman said.
On Tuesday, Chalmers, a 55-year-old kitchen worker, killed an estranged girlfriend, 53-year-old Sylvia Haynes, at her apartment, then went to the catering service where he was employed and killed two of his bosses, Cleo Finninger, 79, and Finninger’s daughter, Christine Politte, 44. He then took his own life in the parking lot.
ATLANTA
Image on screen spurs airport bag search
Officials shut down all security checkpoints at the nation’s busiest airport for about two hours after a “suspicious image” was detected in a screening machine.
After a hand search of bags, nothing matching the image was found, said Willie Williams, Transportation Security Administration director at Hartsfield- Jackson International Airport. He declined to say what the image appeared to be but said authorities continued to analyze it.
Earlier in the day, a spokeswoman said a possible homemade bomb had been detected.
ORANJESTAD, Aruba
Coast guard searches for missing teenager
The Aruban coast guard searched offshore Wednesday for missing teenager Natalee Holloway, authorities said. Officials again refused to give any details about a 19-year-old man arrested over the weekend in connection with the year-old case.
The public prosecutor’s office said the coast guard was using sonar and other equipment to check an unspecified area off the Caribbean island. The search, the latest of many for the missing Alabama teen, was in its fourth day but had not previously been disclosed.
KABUL, Afghanistan
1 hurt in explosion near U.S. Embassy
A massive explosion believed to have been caused by a rocket shook the Afghan capital late Wednesday near the U.S. Embassy compound, wounding an Afghan security contractor.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said the blast did not occur on embassy property, and no Americans were injured.
