Judge Wants Detainees’ Identities Released

NEW YORK — A federal judge ruled Monday that the Defense Department must release the identities of hundreds of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Associated Press.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff told the government to provide the information in the form of unedited copies of transcripts and documents related to 558 military hearings in which detainees were permitted to challenge their incarcerations.

Most of the hundreds of prisoners at the U.S. prison in Cuba have been held since January 2002 without being charged or publicly identified, which has troubled human rights groups. The prison was set up after the 2001 war in Afghanistan.

Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the documents last year. The government turned over the transcripts of 558 tribunals but edited out facts about each detainee’s identity.

The judge gave the government until Wednesday to decide whether to appeal to the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and ask him to suspend his order.

Earlier, the judge rejected government arguments that the detainees’ names should be kept secret to protect their privacy.