White House comments on Guantanamo detention center

Here follows are some of the responces by the White House Spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday regarding the detainees in Guantanamo.

Question: What about the closing of Guantanamo?

McClellan: And in terms of Guantanamo, I think we have to step back and keep in mind who is at Guantanamo Bay. We are a nation at war. The President, last week, talked about the Patriot Act and the important tools that provided, and he talked about how the terrorists are very patient; they want us to grow complacent. The further we get away from September 11th, it's easy to kind of forget about the impact that has had on the world. The President will never forget. We remain a nation at war. The individuals who are at Guantanamo Bay are dangerous terrorists who seek to do harm to the American people. And the President is committed to doing everything he can to keep America safe and protect the American people.

Now, in that context, the President believes that we should always be looking at our options of how best to protect the American people, and that means how to deal with detainees, as well. We have a clear strategy moving forward, but we should never limit our options when it comes to protecting the American people and winning the war on terrorism. And that's where it stands.

Question: So you're not ruling out the possibility that Guantanamo could be closed?

McClellan: I think the President addressed the question last week and said we're always looking at all alternatives for how best to protect the American people. And nothing has changed since that time period.

Question: Can I just -- I just want to follow up on one point that's related to this. When the Vice President comes out and says, let's not forget that these are bad people, and when you reiterate the point that they are -- were swept up on the battlefield and believed to have been somehow involved in terrorist acts, doesn't it sort of miss the point that there's a large question that has to be asked here, which is, what do you do with these people? We know, based on accounts of people who are involved in this, that there's only so much intelligence value that they are providing. And there's a big question going forward about what do you do with detainees when you're in the middle of a war that doesn't end, when they have no legal rights and they're in this sort of black hole.

So instead of just saying that they're bad people, does the President worry that he's got to say something, he's got to deal with this in a way that tells the world and the American people that, you know, we do have some plan here?

McClellan: You bring up some good points. I don't think it's just saying that they are bad people. I mean, they are dangerous people. What we don't want is for these people to be released only to return to the battlefield, where they can carry out attacks again against Americans, or innocent civilians. There have been -- and Secretary Rumsfeld talked about this recently -- at least a dozen or so individuals that were released from Guantanamo Bay, and they have since been caught and picked up on the battlefield seeking to kidnap or kill Americans.

And you bring up a very good question, too, when you say what do you do about these individuals. We are a nation at war; these are enemy combatants and these are people that are dangerous. They have been involved in plots to attack America, or they otherwise seek to do harm to the American people. And so that's something we're always looking at. We're always looking at our options. And we're not ever going to limit our options. We released a number of individuals to their countries of origin, which is something we would prefer to do. We don't want to hold these individuals any longer than is necessary. We've released them to their country of origin when those countries have provided assurances that they're going to look after them, or when we felt that they no longer posed a risk to us, or that we had -- and that we had gotten all the intelligence value out of them to help disrupt and prevent attacks from happening in the first place.

But the individuals that are there, they're there for a reason. They are enemy combatants; they are dangerous individuals. And we have to keep that in mind when we're talking about this.

Question: One follow-up on this. What are the criteria that would be used to come up with a different location? Would one of them be that, fair or unfair, Guantanamo Bay is being -- is now consistent with something that's undermining America's credibility, undermining America's claim to be ruled by law and to uphold the rule of law?

McClellan: Well, a couple things. One, I wouldn't even

venture to speculate about "what ifs" or anything of that nature. The President has said that we always keep all our options open and we always look at all alternatives. That's what he said; it's nothing more than that at this point.

In terms of I think you're talking about allegations of abuse and that nature, the Pentagon recently had a briefing with Secretary Rumsfeld and General Myers, and I think they really put this is a good context. They talked about how there have been 370-some criminal investigations into charges of misconduct involving detainees. We've had 68,000-some detainees in detention since September 11th. You have some 525,000 men and women who are serving in our military or who have served in our military in Iraq or Afghanistan or at Guantanamo Bay.

So when you boil it down, I think they said there is a hundred substantiated charges of allegations of abuse and a little more than a hundred people that have been held to account. You're talking about less than 1 percent that have been found to have committed illegal acts against detainees, as Secretary Rumsfeld recently pointed out.

The point I'm making is that our military, our men and women in uniform adhere to the highest standards. And that includes when it comes to treating detainees humanely. Our military expects high standards to be met and our military does not tolerate or condone it when individuals do not meet those standards, as our actions to hold people accountable demonstrate.

Question: (are) the interrogation techniques described in the Time Magazine article acceptable because of the high-value nature of the detainees questioned?

McClellan: This is -- this individual that you do reference, Mr. Kahtani, is a dangerous terrorist. He is what is considered a high-value detainee, someone who was trained to resist interrogation techniques. He is someone who followed the al Qaeda training manual when it came to providing false information and misleading interrogators. He is also someone that we believe was intent on participating in the September 11th highjackings that led to the deaths of 3,000 innocent civilians. That was the day we were attacked and we went to war. He is someone who has provided us valuable intelligence when it comes to disrupting plots or better understanding al Qaeda so that we can prevent attacks from happening in the first place.

In terms of interrogation techniques, I think that, if you'll recall, we had a briefing just about a year ago with the White House Counsel and the Pentagon Counsel, as well as his Deputy, and the Deputy Chief of the Army for Intelligence. And I think in that briefing they pointed out -- and they discussed some of these very issues -- and they pointed out how all interrogation techniques, actually authorized, have been carefully vetted, are lawful and do not constitute torture. The President made it very clear through his February -- I think it was a February 2002 directive, that the military is to treat all detainees humanely and to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva. (end of question and answer text).

The Pentagon responded to the Time Magazine report saying: "The compromised classified interrogation log is in reference to a single individual, Mohamed al Kahtani, a detainee believed to be the intended 20th Hijacker in the 9/11 attack that killed more than 3,000 innocent people and injured countless others. He was captured on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border after fleeing the fighting in Tora Bora. In February 2002, due to his affiliation with al-Qaida, he was transported to Guantanamo for detention."

The Pentagon added "He is an al-Qaida operative with strong ties to senior al-Qaida leadership, including Osama Bin Laden. He trained at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and tried to enter the U.S. in August 2001. His attempt to enter the U.S. from the Middle East on a one-way airline ticket and $2,800 in cash was foiled by immigration officials at the Orlando International Airport. Instead of meeting Mohamed Atta, the lead September 11th hijacker who was waiting for him at the airport, Kahtani returned to the Middle East. Had Kahtani succeeded in entering the U.S., it is believed he would have been on United Airlines Flight 93, the only hijacked aircraft that had four hijackers instead of five."

The Pentagon added "The interrogation of Kahtani has enabled the Department of Defense to gain a clear picture of Kahtani’s strong connection to al-Qaida leadership to include Osama Bin Laden. For example, while Kahtani repeatedly offered various cover stories ranging from claims of being in Afghanistan to buy falcons to claims he was coming to the U.S. to buy a used car, interrogations were able to uncover the truth."

The Pentagon said "More than 68,000 detainees have been held in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo and the vast majority of them have been released. There are only approximately 520 detainees in custody in Guantanamo. While more than 200 detainees have departed Guantanamo."

Worth noting that Time magazine described in a report Monday the transcripts and the log of the treatment of a single "high-value" detainee. The report showed such things as the interrogator "Began teaching the detainee lessons such as stay, come, and bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog." It is not clear how other detainees who are "low-value" or "no-value" are being treated, and what is their number relative to the so-called "high-value" detainees, and if they all have to be subjected to these interrogations before a determination is made on their status.