CUBA: UNITED STATES RESPONDS TO CONCERNS ABOUT ABUSE OF DETAINEES AT GUANTANAMO BAY

Record ID: 334731

  • Title: CUBA: UNITED STATES RESPONDS TO CONCERNS ABOUT ABUSE OF DETAINEES AT GUANTANAMO BAY
  • Date: 31st July 2004
  • Summary: (W8) GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA (JULY 28, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SECURITY GATE AT CAMP DELTA; SCU DETAINEE IN ORANGE JUMPSUIT 0.11 (U2) GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA (JULY 29, 2004) (REUTERS) 2. MV BRIGADIER GENERAL MARTIN J. LUCENTI WALKING DOWN HALLWAY 0.17 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LUCENT RESPONDING TO COMMENTS MADE BY THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS ALLEGING THAT THEY HAVE BEEN DENIED ACCESS TO DETAINEES. "I believe they've seen everyone. There may be circumstances or periods of time where they may not have had access to some people because they were going through some special process here but by and large they see everyone and I'm sure that even those, there are only limited periods of time where the ICRC would not have access to them." 0.46 (W8) GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA (JULY 28, 2004) (REUTERS) 4. SLV EXTERIOR OF GUANTANAMO BAY BUILDING; MV ROOMS WHERE TRIBUNALS WILL TAKE PLACE; MV DETAINEES WRITING 1.11 (U2) GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA (JULY 29, 2004) (REUTERS) 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED U.S. INTERROGATOR AT GUANTANAMO BAY SAYING: "Many of these folks, even though they have been here two years, some of them have not even talked for two years or the past year and a half just recently. And almost every week, we get new detainees, or not new detainees but detainees (incomprehensible) that all of a sudden start to talk. Much of their information is non-perishable because they may know for example operatives that are still at large, they may know the way that al Qaeda finances itself, different types of information that's not necessarily perishable." 1.47 (U2) GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA (JULY 28, 2004) (REUTERS) 6. SLV GUARD TOWER AT CAMP DELTA GATE; SLV BOAT PATROL OF GUANTANAMO BAY; SLV GUANTANAMO BAY AT VIEWED FROM WATER 2.04 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA
  • Country: Cuba
  • Reuters ID: LVAEYHA0BQBTST9DIC7NYG1A5IKN
  • Story Text: U.S. responds to concerns about abuse at Guantanamo Bay.

    Officials at Guantanamo Bay addressed criticisms
    about the treatment of detainees on Thursday.

    Brigadier General Martin Lucenti said recent
    International Red Cross complaints about being denied
    access to detainees were unfounded.

    "I believe they've seen everyone. There may be
    circumstances or periods of time where they may not have
    had access to some people because they were going through
    some special process here but by and large they see
    everyone and I'm sure that even those, there are only
    limited periods of time where the ICRC would not have
    access to them," Lucenti said.

    International concern about U.S. treatment of detainees
    has been considerable in the months since photos from Abu
    Ghraib prison were released. Prison photos of smiling U.S.

    soldiers posing over naked detainees prompted reactions of
    outrage worldwide.

    They also raised questions about U.S. interrogation and
    detainment guidelines.

    U.S. officials errected the detainment facility at
    Guantanamo Bay shortly after U.S. forces invaded
    Afghanistan.

    Civil rights advocates have questioned the fairness of
    holding detainees for indefinite periods of time and
    without formal charges.

    An interrogator at the facility explained the
    intelligence benefit detainees could provide the U.S. in
    its efforts to erradicate the al Qaeda network.

    "Many of these folks, even though they have been here
    two years, some of them have not even talked for two years
    or the past year and a half just recently. And almost every
    week, we get new detainees, or not new detainees but
    detainees ..... that all of a sudden start to talk. Much of
    their information is non-perishable because they may know
    for example operatives that are still at large, they may
    know the way that al Qaeda finances itself, different types
    of information that's not necessarily perishable."
    Preliminary hearings for the first trials of terror
    suspects held at Guantanamo Bay will begin next month when
    an Australian and three other foreigners go before a U.S.

    military judge, defense officials said on Friday.

    Separately, the U.S. Navy Secretary signed an order to
    begin "status review tribunals" at the U.S. base on Friday
    (July 30) that will give each of the nearly 600 prisoners
    held there a chance to challenge their indefinite detention
    as "enemy combatants." If prisoners are determined not to
    be "enemy combatants" they will be released and returned to
    their home countries.

    Most of the detainees were captured during the U.S.-led
    war in Afghanistan and have been held at Guantanamo for
    more than two years without access to lawyers or courts
    a "legal black hole" deplored by human rights groups and
    which many U.S. allies have challenged.

    The first four prisoners will be tried at the first
    U.S. military tribunals, formally called commissions
    since World War II. Australian inmate David Hicks and three
    al Qaeda suspects from Yemen and Sudan are scheduled for
    separate pre-trial hearings during the week of August 23 in
    a new courtroom in a prison at the Guantanamo base, defense
    officials in Washington told Reuters.

    Retired U.S. Army Col. Peter Brownback III will hear
    pre-trial motions, the initial legal step for the
    commissions.


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