Gee, this is rich! And predictable! The Bush administration wants to imprison for life the Guantanamo Bay detainees that they do not even have enough evidence to convict.
And the U.S. is building prisons in Arab countries to hold the terrorist prisoners. This is really becoming insane. Prisons built and sponsored by America will be targets for every kind of terrorist attack on a continuing basis. Who comes up with these bad ideas, anyway?
Guantanamo suspects face a life in captivity
By Alec Russell in Washington
(Filed: 03/01/2005)
The Bush administration is drawing up a long-term plan for al-Qa'eda suspects at Guantanamo Bay, including building a prison where they could be held for the rest of their lives without ever appearing in a court of law.
Defence officials told the Washington Post that the Pentagon was preparing to ask Congress for $25 million for a 200-bed prison, known as Camp 6, to hold suspects it does not have enough evidence to convict.
Guantanamo Bay detainees take reading lessons from an instructor
Another proposal being discussed is transferring many Afghan, Yemeni and Saudi detainees - the majority of the 500 suspects at Guantanamo Bay - to new US-built prisons in their own countries.
Local officials would run the prisons but the US would monitor them for compliance with human rights standards.
Officials said the new facility for Guantanamo Bay prisoners was intended for those thought to have no more information on al-Qa'eda and would allow them more freedom and comfort than they had at present. A site for the facility has not been decided.
Human rights groups and many of America's allies say there is little hard evidence against many of the Guantanamo Bay suspects. But the Pentagon and the CIA argue that the post-September 11 era requires a new tougher approach and that many of the suspects are hardened terrorists who, if released, would plot fresh atrocities.
"Since global war on terror is a long-term effort, it makes sense for us to be looking at solutions for long-term problems," Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said.
Sen Richard Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said: "It is a bad idea. We must have a very careful, constitutional look at this."
Sen Carl Levin, the senior Democrat on the armed services committee, said: "There must be some semblance of due process if you are going to detain people."
The report coincided with the administration's decision quietly to shelve its controversial stance on torture, effectively repudiating a Justice Department memo arguing that the president could waive international decrees on "harmful acts".
telegraph.co.uk |
