Off topic - AP News story on treatment of al-Qaida prisoners.
January 13, 2002
Terror Suspects Get Harsh Treatment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:17 p.m. ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- They shuffle off the plane in leg irons, hands
bound with plastic cords, heads hooded by empty sandbags. U.S. Marines bark
at each fumbling man to keep his hands on the shoulders of the man hobbling in
front of him.
For long minutes, the Marines lead the chained detainees in aimless circles --
disorienting them, in case any might one day try to find his way out solo.
The prisoners may be Taliban, or al-Qaida -- or neither -- but all are suspects in
international terrorism, high-risk detainees who are watched night and day by
Marines with M-16s on the other side of a high roll of concertina wire.
For the Marines based at the shrapnel-strewn Kandahar airport, keeping the 391
prisoners behind the wire is a priority until U.S. military planes fly them off to a
more permanent jail at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Marines make a watchword of avoiding the mistakes of Mazar-e-Sharif in
northern Afghanistan, where an uprising by Taliban prisoners led to three days of
fighting that killed a CIA agent and hundreds of detainees.
``We've got some dangerous folks in here. We're not going to risk the lives
because we didn't do something,'' said Lt. James Jarvis, a Marine spokesman.
For the 30 new arrivals disgorged Saturday down the ramp of a U.S. military
cargo plane, that meant a search for weapons. It's thorough. For the Marines, the
prime mistake at Mazar-e-Sharif was the failure by the northern alliance guards to
rid prisoners of grenades and other arms they smuggled in.
The Marines use surgical scissors to cut the clothes off all new arrivals, most of
whom these days are coming in from Pakistan, where authorities are tracking
down Taliban and al-Qaida members who fled across the border.
The detainees are issued simple uniforms. They can keep their caps, beards and
Qurans, the Islamic holy book. Prayer beads are taken away. Bands with
identifying numbers are clamped on their right wrists.
The first FBI team to be deployed in a combat zone takes their photos,
fingerprints and a DNA sample from hair, FBI unit chief Brent Mosher said. The
FBI workers also take biographical information, although there are doubts about
the accuracy of the data prisoners give, Mosher said.
Jarvis said information from the prisoners may eventually help anti-terrorism
efforts in the United States or other countries.
``We've gotten lots of information from these folks, some of it actionable and
some of it helps us understand the organization of the Taliban and the al-Qaida
network.''
Doctors at an infirmary inside the mud-walled prison compound inspect the new
arrivals and provide any needed treatment, said Navy Cmdr Jim Ritchie.
Surgeons open old, infected bullet wounds and clean them. Orthopedists tend to
old fractures that healed untreated.
``It's clear a lot of them thought a doctor was a mythical beast,'' Ritchie said.
Many men come in sick and malnourished. Some are grateful just for the care,
even if it's for a condition the doctors here can't do much for such as arthritis.
Others, more medical-savvy, ask for extras like multivitamins, Ritchie said. The
answer is no.
American John Walker is not among the detainees in Kandahar. He and a handful
of other suspects are on the USS Bataan, an amphibious assault ship in the
Arabian Sea.
The Marines treat the detainees under Geneva Convention rules for prisoners of
war. In fact, though, their status is undetermined. It will be up to investigators in
Guantanamo to determine whether each man is a terror suspect or just an Afghan
who fought for the Taliban government.
In diet, at least, the Marines treat their prisoners as one of them. They receive the
same boxed MREs, or meals-ready-to-eat, as the Marines, although the plastic
spoons are removed as potential weapons.
The detainees eat squatting on the dirt floors of open-sided tents, each of which
is surrounded by a coil of razor wire. Three more coils, bulldozed dirt barriers
and mud walls stand between them and freedom.
U.S. troops, including military police, watch from eight wooden watch towers
surrounding the compound. A rapid response team stands ready outside.
Floodlights mounted on poles fashioned from the rotors of old Soviet helicopters
light the compound like a football field at night.
The International Red Cross is allowed to visit the men day or night, said Jarvis,
the Marine spokesman. The Red Cross workers can bring mail from families, and
a Quran if detainees ask. One detainee asked for a Bible.
Treatment by Marines is short of amenities. But Jarvis said any roughness is
inadvertent.
``We're here as a result of September 11th, for the firefighters and police officers
who couldn't be here,'' Jarvis said. ``If you talk to a lot of their families we're
doing too much for them. But it's not a do-unto-others-type situation. It's
professional.''
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press |
