Guantanamo captives' uniforms

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"Non-compliant" captives wearing orange uniforms held in Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray in 2004
"Non-compliant" captives wearing orange uniforms held in Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray in 2004

Captives held at the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp are typically issued one of two uniforms, either a white jumpsuit if the prisoner has been labelled "compliant", or an orange jumpsuit if the prisoner has been labelled "non-compliant".[1][2][3]

When the prisoners faced Combatant Status Review Tribunals or Administrative Review Board hearings, they were frequently asked to explain their uniforms to the overseeing officer, and they were considered a point in favour of further detaining or releasing the prisoner.

Once insurgents began capturing foreigners in Iraq, there was a tendency to dress them in the same orange jumpsuits as their own forces were being dressed in when delivered to Guantanamo Bay - considered by some to be a sign of the insurgents "equating" the captures.[4]

On March 16, 2006 Secretary of State legal adviser John B. Bellinger III gave a digital press conference in which he dismissed the view that all the prisoners were being held in orange jumpsuits, stating "Very few people wear orange jump suits anymore, and yet that is the image that is being left with people all around the world, that everybody in Guantanamo is wearing an orange jump suit..."[5]

A number of protests against the prison camp have seen activists dress in the iconic orange jumpsuits to draw attention to the issue.[6][7][8] In May 2006, a Turkish judge barred Loai al-Saqa, a suspected terrorist, from being brought into his own trial, because he chose to wear an orange jumpsuit for the hearing, demonstrative of his solidarity with those in Guantanamo, and his intentions to protest or resist legal authority.[9]

Two detainees in white "uniforms" stand in the doorway of their bay in Camp 4. To a certain extent, a detainee's level is determined by where he is housed, as well. Most Level 1 detainees are afforded extra privileges in Camp 4.

Detainees walk in an exercise yard in Camp 4, where they live in 10-man bays with nearly all-day access to the yard and other recreational privileges.

Detainees sit around the exercise yard in Camp 4, the medium security facility within Camp Delta at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Camp 4, highly compliant detainees live in a communal setting and have extensive access to recreation.

[edit] Guantanamo captives whose uniforms were an issue

Guantanamo captives whose uniforms were an issue
isn name notes
8 Abdullah Gulam Rasoul
  • Wore an orange uniform to his Administrative Review Board hearing.[10]
  • Explained to his Tribunal that he hadn't been assigned an orange uniform because he had done anything wrong.. He had been assigned an orange uniform because he had requested being allowed to take a shower every day, instead of once a week.[10]
22 Sahkhrukh Hamiduva
  • Sahkhrukh Hamiduva's Tribunal asked him to explain why he was wore an orange uniform.[11]
  • Sahkhrukh Hamiduva attributed his orange uniform to the severity of the allegations he faced.[11]
  • Sahkhrukh Hamiduva told his Tribunal that he had always told his interrogators the truth.[11]
84 Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev
  • Wore a white uniform to his Tribunal.[12]
  • Couldn't explain to his Tribunal why he was wearing white, not orange.[12]
154 Mazin Salih Musaid Al Awfi
  • Wore white to his Tribunal.[13]
  • Cited his white uniform as proof of his cooperation.[13]
270 Mosa Zi Zemmori
  • Wore a Khaki uniform to his Tribunal.[14]
  • Couldn't explain for his Tribunal the significance of his Khaki uniform.[14]
320 Hozaifa Parhat
  • Wore a beige uniform to his Tribunal.[15]
A: That means level one.
Q: Is that for good behavior or for some other reason?
A: Yes, I believe so. If you do not have good behavior they will not put you in level one.
489
  • Wore an orange uniform to his Tribunal.
Q. You seem extremely cooperative; I just wonder why you are still wearing an orange uniform as oppose to a tan or white one?
A. I was in psyche ward, so, because of my psych problems, I used to hurt myself, cut myself, and bang my head. So, it's been like this for the last two or three months now. They dropped the levels. The Level 2 they wear orange. In level one, they give them the ten or white colors. And now, I'm level 2, and hopefully in eighteen days I will be level 1, so I'm going to change it.
530 Dawd Gul
  • Gul's transcript records that Gul drew the attention of his Tribunal to his orange uniform[16]:
"The Detainee asked the Tribunal to look at his orange clothes. The Detainee stated mat the Tribunal can turn those black. The Detainee stated that it is all in the Tribunal's hands."
551 Fouad Mahoud Hasan Al Rabia
  • Wore an orange uniform to his Tribunal.[17]
  • Told his Tribunal that his orange uniform was not due to bad behavior.[17]
  • Told his Tribunal that he had worn a white uniform in 2003, when a computerized voice stress analysis had proved he had been telling the truth.[17]
555 Abdul Majid Muhammed
  • Wore white to his Tribunal.[18]
  • Abdul Majid Muhammed is the only Christian captive in Guantanamo.[18] He is an Iranian drug-addict who was forced to travel to Afghanistan on a drug-buy to pay off a drug-debt.
  • Testified that his life was at stake even in camp 4, the camp for compliant captives.[18]
  • Showed recent scars which he claimed were due to being jumped, in the dark, by four or five other captives wearing white uniforms.[18]
651 Usama Hassan Ahmed Abu Kabir
  • Wore a "white gown" to his Tribunal.[19]
  • Said he had been wearing white for over a year.[19]
  • Cited his white gown as proof of his compliance.[19]
679 Mohmmad Ahmad Ali Tahar

[20]
743 Hafez Qari Mohamed Saad Iqbal Madni
  • Wore an orange uniform to this Tribunal.[21]
Q: You are very cooperative, very truthful, you seem to want to make amends and I've met many individuals doing my job here and I notice that you are wearing an orange uniform. Why is that?
A: I don't know.
Q: You don't know that there are other colors or you don't know why you are still in orange?
A: I know about the other colors, I think I am still in this color of uniform, because once I tried to commit suicide after being here 191 days.
928 Khi Ali Gul
  • Khi Ali Gul's Tribunal asked him to explain why he was wore an orange uniform.[22]
  • Khi Ali Gul said that in general captives who were non-compliant were issued the orange uniforms, but he didn't understand why he had to wear one.[22]
939 Mammar Ameur
  • Wore white to his Tribunal.[23]
  • Asked his Tribunal why he, a compliant captive, wearing white, had not been allowed pen and paper, to prepare notes on the allegations he faced, when other less compliant captives had been allowed pen and paper.[23]
987 Haji Ghalib
1002 Abdul Matin
  • Abdul Matin asked his Tribunal why he had to wear an orange uniform, when he was an innocent man, while the Taliban interrogator who tortured him was in camp four, the camp for compliant captives, where he was allowed to wear a white uniform.[24]
1119 Hamidullah
  • Hamidullah's Tribunal asked him to explain why he was wore an orange uniform.[25]
  • Hamidullah explained that he had been wearing a white uniform until recently, but it was stripped from him when he responded to a guy who had yelled at him.[25]
  • Hamidullah explained that the camp rules were very strict, and it was hard to live with them, when you were an innocent man, wrongfully accused.[25]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rosa Hwang. "Inside Guantanamo Bay", CBC News, July 4, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-07-29. 
  2. ^ Adam Brookes. "Inside Guantanamo's secret trials", BBC News, Friday, 8 April 2005, 09:13 GMT 10:13 UK. Retrieved on 2007-07-29. 
  3. ^ Detention Controversy. National Geographic (April 2005). Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
  4. ^ http://www.amsc.belvoir.army.mil/articles/SBLM06-1/rejan.pdf
  5. ^ John B. Bellinger III (March 13, 2006). Digital Video Press Conference with John B. Bellinger III, Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State. United States Department of State.
  6. ^ The World can't wiat -- drive out the Bush regime. Retrieved on July 18, 2007.
  7. ^ Guantanamo Bay 5th Anniversary 'Celebrations’. Indymedia (Thursday, January 11, 2007). Retrieved on July 18, 2007.
  8. ^ Five Years of Guantanamo. National Guantanamo Coalition. Retrieved on July 18, 2007.
  9. ^ "Judge bars 'Guantanamo jumpsuit'", BBC, Monday, May 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-07-18. 
  10. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdullah Gulam Rasoul's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-6
  11. ^ a b c Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Sahkhrukh Hamiduva's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 70-80
  12. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 47-53
  13. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from Mazin Salih Musaid's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 14-26
  14. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mosa Zi Zemmori's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 27
  15. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Hozaifa Parhat'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 43-54
  16. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Dawd Gul's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 98
  17. ^ a b c Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from Fouad Mahoud Hasan Al Rabia's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, pages 13-43
  18. ^ a b c d Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Majid Muhammed's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 107-121
  19. ^ a b c Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Usama Hassan Ahmed Abu Kabir's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 116-124
  20. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mohmmad Ahmad Ali Tahar's first Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 100-116
  21. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf) from Hafez Qari Mohamed Saad Iqbal Madni's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 46-58
  22. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Khi Ali Gul's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - page 56
  23. ^ a b Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mammar Ameur's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 61-80
  24. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Matin's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 23-50
  25. ^ a b c Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Hamidullah'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 97-98