John Simpson: how Gitmo came to be

John Simpson, in a BBC commentary on the recently-released footage of British soldiers beating the daylights out of some Iraqi teenagers (probably in 2003) and why nobody is surprised, explains how many, and probably most, of the detainees and abductees still being held in Cuba came to be there:

In total, 60% are there because they have been accused of being associated with a group which the US government regards as a terrorist organisation.
Most detainees are regarded as enemy combatants.
Among the criteria reportedly used to define an enemy combatant are these: possession of a rifle; possession of a Casio watch; and wearing olive drab clothing.

In Afghanistan it has long been regarded as normal for every adult male to have a gun, because there was so much violence in the country.
Casio watches and olive-coloured clothes can be bought in every market in every town in the country.
But where do all these prisoners come from, anyway?
According to the Pentagon, 95% of them were not captured by the Americans themselves.
Some 86% were handed over in Afghanistan and Pakistan after a widespread campaign in which big financial bounties were offered in exchange for anyone suspected of links to al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
The US lawyers quote the text of one of the notices the Americans handed out: "Get wealth and power beyond your dreams… You can receive millions of dollars helping the anti-Taleban forces catch al-Qaeda and Taleban murderers.
"This is enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life."
So, according to the figures supplied by the Pentagon, it looks as though more than 440 men out of the total of 517 at Guantanamo were handed over to the Americans in Afghanistan and Pakistan as a direct result of these bounties.