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: Lawbeat

Watching Gitmo from afar

By Mark Obbie

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Speaking of Guantanamo watchdog journalism, The New York Times' William Glaberson and Margot Williams produced an impressive front-pager today that does what AP's David McFadden did in the story that I praised yesterday, by looking at Gitmo's prospects in the next presidential administration. But it dives much deeper, with this database tracking all of the Guantanamo detainees: biographies, details on their cases, and scans of reports that the government has released. The writers explain their mission:

The Pentagon has declined to provide a list of the detainees now being held or even to specify how many there are beyond offering a figure of “about 255.” But by reviewing thousands of pages of government documents released in recent years, as well as court records and news reports from around the world, The New York Times was able to compile its own list and construct a picture of the population still held at Guantánamo Bay.Much of the analysis is based on records of Guantánamo hearings for individual detainees, which have been made public since 2006 as a result of a lawsuit by The Associated Press. The Times has posted those documents on its Web site arranged by detainee name.

Very impressive. This doesn't negate my earlier call for on-the-scene trial coverage, which Glaberson has done a lot of but evidently has tired of recently. It does, however, remind us there's more than one way to play watchdog.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).