Add the International Committee of the Red Cross to the list of those kept in the dark before Saturday's Guantánamo prisoner exchange.
The Geneva-based organization that advocates for prisoner rights around the globe said the Pentagon, unusually, did not invite delegates to the remote base in advance to interview the five Afghans on their willingness to leave, or conduct medical checkups.
"The fact that the ICRC was not notified in advance of the detainees' transfer was unusual, and we are following up with the authorities," Red Cross spokeswoman Anna Nelson told the Miami Herald on Monday, in reply to a query.
The Obama administration similarly withheld its statutory 30-day notice from members of Congress when it released five Taliban detainees who'd been in custody for more than a decade in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahal of Idaho. Instead, the Pentagon notified Congress on Saturday as the exchange was under way.
Also Monday, the prison camps clamped a lid of secrecy on what went on at the detention center over the weekend.
Carol Rosenberg
The Miami Herald