Calls to give US detainees legal status
Regional-USA, Politics, 6/9/2005

The White House spokesman was asked yesterday that "former President Jimmy Carter is calling for the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo to -- the U.S. commitment to human rights. Will the President do so?"

Press Secretary Scott McClellan said "First of all, as I talked about at the beginning, we are a nation that is at war. The individuals that we are talking about when it comes to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, they are dangerous individuals. They are enemy combatants for a reason, because they seek to do harm to the American people. And these are individuals that were picked up on the battlefield in the war on terrorism. This is part of winning the war on terrorism, going after and capturing or bringing to justice those who seek to do us harm.

"And in terms of Guantanamo Bay and the detainees there, we're always looking at all our alternatives when it comes to dealing with these detainees. If you'll recall, we have worked with other countries to release a number of these detainees after we have concluded that we do not believe that they posed a threat to us anymore, or that we had assurances from those countries that they would look after these individuals.And so we always are looking at our alternatives when it comes to dealing with these detainees."

Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General said yesterday: I note with interest President BushÕs statement that he is exploring all alternatives on Guantanamo and urge him to close the prison and charge the detainees under US law in US courts or release them, as this prison is a disgrace to American values and international law. He should order full disclosure of US policies and practices on detention and interrogation of prisoners and support a independent investigation into abuses. This would reassert the basic principles of justice, truth and freedom in which Americans take so much pride."

She added: However President Bush's claim that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay "are being treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention" is belied by his own Executive Order of February 7, 2002 in which he ordered such treatment "to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity." The enormous loophole he authorized gave a green light for abuse, from the use of stress positions for up to twenty-hour hours to prolonged isolation, the use of dogs and sexual humiliation. To cite just one example, in December 2002 Donald Rumsfeld personally approved those unlawful techniques for use during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. The President also denied prisoners a hearing on their status in front of a "competent tribunal" as required under Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention.

Amnesty said this week "Amnesty International fears that detainees held in incommunicado detention in the US militaryÕs Forward Operating Bases or in the secret custody of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan remain at particular risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It is not known how many detainees are in these bases. What is known is that hundreds of detainees remain in US custody, but outside any legal framework, in the two main airbases in Afghanistan - Bagram and Kandahar."

"On 28 June 2005, it will be exactly one year since the US Supreme Court ruled that the US District Courts have jurisdiction to hear appeals from those held in the US Naval Base in Guant‡namo Bay in Cuba. While none of the Guantanamo detainees has yet had the lawfulness of his detention judicially reviewed because of government intransigence, as Amnesty International has reported, at least some of the detainees there have now been visited by US lawyers seeking to file habeas corpus appeals for them. The US administration responded to the US Supreme Court decision in an entirely minimalist way that disregarded international principles, establishing instead the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) to determine if the detainee is an "enemy combatant". The CSRT is an executive body under which panels of three military officers, possibly relying on secret and coerced evidence, determine if the label 'enemy combatant should remain attached to the detainee, who has no access to legal counsel to assist him."

Previous Stories:
  More US citizens ask for the Quran due to the desecration incidents   (6/6/2005)
  OIC urges Washington to show no leniency to perpetrators of Quran desecration   (6/6/2005)
  US military admits interrogators intentionally desecrated the Quran   (6/4/2005)

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