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Incomplete records hinder Gitmo efforts

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Incomplete, scattered and contradictory records are hurting efforts to determine the fates of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees, documents show.

U.S. President Barack Obama's pledge to close the U.S. prison camp faces vexing questions over how to deal with approximately 245 detainees there because records of the terrorism charges against them are lacking, scattered haphazardly or contain information inadmissible in court because it may have been obtained through torture, The Washington Post reported Monday.

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Records indicate one detainee, a Somali man, had terror charges against him brought and then dropped without explanation, as well as putting him Sudan and Pakistan at the same time, the Post said.

The newspaper said about 60 detainees who have been cleared for release by the Bush administration are still in the camp while an additional 21 detainees are almost certain to face trial in either U.S. federal court, courts-martial or some new incarnation of the current system of Bush's military commissions.

But legal experts say lack of evidence and other issues have been deemed problems for nearly 60 other detainees who could be prosecuted, leaving 100 or so prisoners, some of whom are deemed extremely dangerous, whose fates are unclear.

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