Who Are the Detainees?

On Aug. 6, 2008, a military jury convicted Guantanamo detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan of supporting terrorism, making him the first convicted Guantanamo detainee who was captured after September 11, 2001. Hamdan's trial, which began in July, was not affected by a landmark Supreme Court decision from early June that found that detainees had a right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts. That ruling, reached by a slim 5-4 majority, said that the government was in violation of the constitutional right of habeas corpus for detainees Lakhdar Boumediene and Fawzi Khaled Abdullah Fahad al-Odah, both of whom had never been charged with a crime.

Guantanamo has detained 700 people over the past six years. Prior to Hamdan's conviction, Gitmo courts had sentenced only one other person--an Australian who is now free after accepting a plea bargain and serving a nine-month prison term. Hamdan's conviction, having familiarized prosecutors with the process of trying detainees, now paves the way for new trials for up to 80 Gitmo detainees. Here are some of the most notable cases of detainees held as enemy combatants by the United States.