ABSTRACT
At the time of writing in spring 2021, Guantanamo Bay continues to hold the last forty prisoners who were captured and held without trial at the US Naval Base in Cuba since the US invasion in Afghanistan in 2001. Although the Obama government transferred over 700 detainees out of the camp, Obama failed to keep his election promise of closing it. “Smart solutions” technologies, pioneered in realms such as retail consumer data mining and the detection of financial fraud, appeared to enable the “connecting of dots” through profiling, data mining, social network analysis and other predictive technologies. Data have become framed as the answer to contemporary security problems and their fluid and unpredictable nature. Data derived from already existing databases – everyday financial transactions, airline passenger manifests and welfare and social security information – have become strategically important forms of intelligence to sovereign power.
