U.S Government Won't Appeal Guantanamo Court Order

Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Rasul Kudaev (file photo) (RFE/RL) 24 February 2006 -- The U.S. government has indicated it does not plan to appeal a federal judge's order to release the identities of hundreds of detainees at the American naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

The order would force the Pentagon to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list yet of those who have been imprisoned in Cuba.

U.S. authorities now hold about 490 prisoners at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to terrorism, the majority of them captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only a few have been officially identified.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York ordered the Defense Department to release uncensored transcripts of detainee hearings and their identities to the Associated Press, the news agency that is seeking the information.

The judge ordered the government to hand over the documents by 3 March.

(AP)