"US Envoy Defends Guantanamo Conditions," by Mariam Fam - AP (Cairo), 20 Feb 2006
In an interview with the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera satellite channel, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes said the about 490 prisoners held in Guantanamo were arrested for waging a war against the United States or for helping al-Qaida or the Taliban in their wars.
The interview aired with an Arabic voiceover and Hughes' direct quotes in English were not immediately available.
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the United States should close the Guantanamo prison as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a U.N.-appointed independent panel. The panel's report said the detention facility is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice.
Hughes said the U.N. report was written by people who did not visit Guantanamo.
Detainees in Guantanamo are served three daily meals that are in line with their local customs, their native languages are used, they have the right to pray five times a day in keeping with Islamic teachings, play sports and read, she said.
Hughes said the detainees were people who have made public their intention to kill as many Americans as possible and that the U.S. government had a right to defend its citizens. She added that some of those released from Guantanamo have immediately gone back to fighting and killing Americans.
U.N. investigator for torture Manfred Nowak has said that the detainees at Guantanamo "should be released or brought before an independent court." He added that the United States should give the United Nations access to other detention centers, including secret ones, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
Asked about "secret detention centers in different part of the world," Hughes said fighting the war on terror required capturing and questioning terrorists to obtain information to protect not just Americans, but people elsewhere too.
Without specifically referring to secret prisons, she said the United States believes that the information it has obtained from some captured terrorists has helped stop terror operations in different parts of the world.
She added that operations by the Unites States were in line with its commitment to international agreements and respected the sovereignty of other countries.
Allegations surfaced last November that U.S. agents interrogated key al-Qaida suspects at clandestine prisons in Eastern Europe and passed through Europe while transporting some suspects elsewhere.
I'm not a lawyer, but I have to wonder whether the characterization of Guantanamo detainees as 'warriors' by a senior USG official doesn't lend force to the argument that the US must observe the Geneva Convention at Guantanomo.
A couple of other problems with Hughes' argument are that people following this story must be well aware that the reason UN investigators did not visit Guantanamo is that US officials would not allow them to have private conversations with prisoners, and that a number of people held at Guantanamo have turned out to be neither 'warriors' nor enemies of the United States nor a threat to world security.
For background, see other posts in the Guantanamo/Detention Centers thread.
Added 21 Feb 2006 (p.m.) - also see:
"Guantanamo 7/7 Link 'Nonsense,'" by James Kirkup - the Scotsman (UK), 22 Feb 2006 (available as of 9:00 pm. EST on 21 Feb)
British officials investigating July's London suicide bombings have received no useful intelligence from detainees held at the United States military camp at Guantanamo Bay.
Whitehall officials yesterday disputed suggestions from the US military that interrogation of detainees at the Cuban camp showed some were in contact with the bombers before the attacks.
The insistence fuelled suspicions the US authorities are over-playing the role of Camp Delta in the fight against terrorism, trying to assuage British unease about the Guantanamo base.
Major-General Jay Hood, the US Army officer in charge of the camp, has told visiting British reporters that he had passed to UK intelligence agencies "information [detainees] have provided about the London bombings".
But one well-placed UK source described that suggestion as "nonsense."
This seems to be one of the reports being contradicted:
"Camp Delta Detainees 'Knew London Bombers'" - the Telegraph (UK), 20 Feb 2006
Inmates at Guantanamo Bay who are campaigning for their release at the High Court in London had contact with the terrorist cell responsible for carrying out last July's London bombings, interrogation officials at the detention camp have disclosed.
American officials responsible for running the camp say that "dozens" of the 500 detainees currently being held at Camp Delta had previously lived or worked in Britain prior to their capture in Afghanistan in 2001, but are not British citizens.
US officials responsible for interrogating the suspects say that the detainees had knowledge of the cell responsible for carrying out the bomb attacks on three Tube trains and a London bus that killed 52 people and wounded more than 700 others.
"After the London bombings we got a request from British intelligence to check whether these people had any knowledge of those responsible for carrying out the attacks," said a senior US official.
"We interviewed them and they were able to provide a great deal of information about the bombings which we passed back to London."
American officials refused to give specific details of the intelligence provided by the detainees, but said it related to the "training and organisational structure" of the terrorist cells responsible for carrying out the July 7 attack.
Major-General Jay Hood, the American officer responsible for running Guantanamo, confirmed that MI6 had made repeated requests for information about the terrorist attacks from inmates held at the detention facility....
Although human rights groups claim that detainees are not in a position to provide current intelligence four years after capture, General Hood insists they are still providing high quality intelligence....
American officials are insistent that no torture methods have been used to persuade the al-Qa'eda fanatics to co-operate.
"The most common method used to interrogate detainees is to sit down with them, watch a movie and eat pizza," said the official. "You build up a relationship with them and eventually they co-operate."
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