The Torturer's Dilemma: Analyzing the Logic of Torture for Information

the reasons for holding the detainees at GTMO. These summaries included the following statement:
“the United States Government has previously determined that the detainee is an enemy combatant.
This determination is based on information possessed by the United States that (…),” indicating that
the summaries were not allegations but conclusions previously arrived at. A detailed examination of
these summaries by Denbeaux and Denbeaux (2006) finds disturbing trends regarding the nature of this
information. Among the 517 detainees held as enemy combatants, and whose summaries were
examined, fully 55% were not accused of having any hostile acts against the US, but were rather held
on the basis of being connected in some degree to al Qaeda, the Taliban, or other groups considered by
the US to be hostile in some fashion. 96 While 60% were categorized as belonging to 'al Qaeda' (32%)
or 'al Qaeda and Taliban' (28%), the vast majority of these were considered only to be 'associated with'
these groups (57% of 'al Qaeda' and 78% of 'al Qaeda and Taliban'), with a large minority categorized
as 'members' (34% and 19%, respectively). A very small minority were given the strongest
classification of 'fighter for' (9% and 3% respectively). Only among those classified as 'Taliban' (22%
of the total) do 'members' make up a plurality (48%), but 'fighters' still represented a small minority
(16%). Among all detainees, the breakdown for 'fighters', 'members' and 'associates' is as follows: 8%,
30% and 60%, respectively, with 2% having no alleged connection to any group at all. (pp. 9, 10)
Detainees were also categorized by the authorities that had captured them. This information is
particularly important, since it gives some idea of the provenance of the allegations made against them.
It turns out that only 5% of the detainees held at GTMO as enemy combatants had been captured by US
forces: 36% had been captured by the Pakistani government, and 11% by the Northern Alliance, the
anti-Taliban coalition. A full 44% had been captured by unidentified persons. This last category is
highly problematic, in that these detainees were captured at a time when the US government was
offering bounties for members of al Qaeda and the Taliban, raising the possibility that some portion of
them were taken by bounty hunters and sold regardless of actual ties to either group. (p. 15) Lt. Col.
Anthony Christino, senior watch officer for the joint Intelligence Task Force – Combating Terrorism in
2003, has alleged that “most of the approximately 600 detainees at Guantanamo (…) at worst had
supported the Taliban in the civil war it had been fighting against the Northern Alliance before the
September 11 th attacks, but had had no contact with Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda.” (Observer,
96 It should be noted, however, that many of those other groups were not necessarily viewed as dangerous by all sections of
the US government: several enemy combatants were held for being associated with groups whose members 'would be
allowed into the United States by the Department of Homeland Security.” (Denbeaux and Denbeaux, p. 17)
110