Guantanamo detainees treated well, attorney general says
Dismisses calls for controversial facility to be closed down
WASHINGTON—U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales painted a brilliant portrait of the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay yesterday, touting its "state-of-the-art'' medical care, healthy meals and unprecedented legal protections for detainees.
Gonzales mounted the defence of the much-criticized facility in Cuba during a speech in London as mounting calls for the closure of the camp come from U.S. allies and the United Nations.
He also said his government does not use the airspace or landing strips of countries in Europe or anywhere else to transport detainees to places where they will be tortured.
"Not all of the facts about Guantanamo seem to be widely known,'' Gonzales told the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
"Detainees are permitted access to state-of-the-art medical care, healthy meals consistent with their cultural and religious requirements, and opportunities to observe their religious beliefs.''
Calls for the shutdown of the prison camp have come from Britain, France, Germany and the United Nations and the release last week of some 5,000 pages of testimony from military panels held at the prison have softened the edges on some of those who the U.S. have called the worst of the worst.
While some of the testimony clearly indicates detainees bent on killing Westerners, others appear to be perplexed as to why they have been detained, in some cases for three years or more.
"For so long we were told these were the most evil, the most dangerous, the ones who would chew through fuel lines to bring a plane down,'' said Jumana Musa, advocacy director for Amnesty International USA. "We were made to think that each one was an individual Osama bin Laden.
"While some clearly deserve prosecution, these stories undermine the administration's argument that none of these people can be released.''
Gonzales told his British audience that he is not aware of any other nation in history that has afforded such procedural protections to enemy combatants, including access to civilian courts. He said more than 265 detainees have been transferred out of the Cuban prison, but 15 have returned to fight and have been recaptured or killed on the battlefield.
"Some say that in pursuing the war on terror America has failed to respect human rights and the rule of law,'' he said.
"Nothing could be further from the truth. Dealing with captured terrorists is a difficult challenge in this very different kind of war and we are constantly working to improve our detainee policies and procedures.''
The U.S., he said, is a great defender of human rights and the rule of law.
Almost 500 prisoners remain, including Canadian teen Omar Khadr, who appears before a tribunal again next month to face murder charges.
Gonzales said many of those remaining are highly dangerous, including "terrorist trainers, bomb makers, terrorist financiers, bodyguards for Osama bin Laden and potential suicide bombers.''
Gonzales received some backing for his arguments yesterday from a Belgian senator who had visited Guantanamo for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which had urged Washington set a date to close the camp.
Anne Marie Lizin, an outspoken critic of the prison who is preparing a report for the OSCE, told Belgian newspapers that operations had improved and treatment of detainees had become "more humane."
"The prison lives up to European norms; the jail cells are even bigger than those in Belgium,'' she said.
Gonzales also delivered a highly nuanced denial that his government engages in the practice of rendition, saying Washington does not transport anyone to a country if the administration believes it "more likely than not" that the individual will be tortured.
He added that Washington seeks assurances "where appropriate'' that transferred persons will not be tortured.
"We do not use the airports or air space of any country in Europe or anywhere in the world for the purpose of transporting a detainee to a country where he will be tortured,'' he said.
However, on the same day Gonzales was speaking, The Guardian newspaper in London reported the Tony Blair government admitted aircraft suspected of being used by the CIA to transport detainees to secret interrogation centres had used British military airfields.
Britain's armed forces minister, Adam Ingram, told the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Menzies Campbell that two aircraft landed 14 times in Britain between October 2003 and May 2004.
The government did not call them CIA planes in a letter released to the British media.
In Canada, documents obtained by The Canadian Press indicate 20 planes with alleged CIA ties have made 74 flights to Canada since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
