U.S. questions Afghan war prisoners

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- U.S. investigators started interrogating 158 detainees of the Afghan war at this remote U.S. outpost Wednesday, and postponed the arrivals of others to concentrate on the questioning.

In Washington, President Bush brushed aside an international outcry over treatment of the detainees, telling legislators that they "should be proud" of the U.S. treatment of terrorist suspects.

And White House spokesman Ari Fleischer cast the detainees as suicidal fanatics who would "engage in murder once again" if set free.

Military officials in Guantanamo said the detainees were not allowed lawyers as officers from several U.S. civilian and military agencies questioned them on a variety of subjects including the training of terrorists.

The interrogations are taking place in a tent set up at Camp X-ray, the hastily built detention center fortified by three rows of fences topped by coils of razor wire and watchtowers and patrolled by attack dogs.

"We have a large enough population to begin interviews," said Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert, the Marine in charge of the detention camp at the U.S. Naval base on Cuba's eastern tip.

The current prisoner population would allow the military to "remove detainees who have been interviewed from the general population," he told reporters. "It wouldn't do to have them comparing notes."

Questions of identity

Lehnert said they have suspended flights carrying prisoners from Afghanistan, in part because processing new arrivals could interfere with the interrogations.

The last flight, on Tuesday, raised the population to 158. All are suspected terrorists who fought for al-Qaida or the ousted Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered that network.

Because Guantanamo officials won't identify inmates by nationality, they have refused to say whether a flight last week carried six Algerian terrorist suspects arrested by Bosnian authorities and turned over to the United States, as U.S. military in Kandahar had reported.

However, Britain, Sweden, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Australia have said citizens of their country are among detainees in Guantanamo.

Several European government and human rights activists have complained about treatment of prisoners, after newspapers published photographs of newly arrived detainees with their eyes blinded by blacked-out goggles, their hearing impaired by ear muffs and their noses covered by surgical masks. U.S. military say the precautions are necessary during the daylong flights from Kandahar.

Germany's foreign ministry said Wednesday it called in the U.S. ambassador to discuss the treatment of the terrorism suspects, including the conditions of their detention.

In London, a delegation of British Muslims told a U.S. official the United States had humiliated and degraded the prisoners.

Amnesty International also has said the 8-by-8 foot cells made of chain-link fences are smaller than international standards demand.

Muslim cleric arrives

Military officials have stressed that the cells are temporary. By Wednesday, workers had built 220 such cells with walls of chain-link fence under a corrugated metal roof, and more were being built by the day, said Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello. Sixty more should be ready by Friday, he said

The military is awaiting approval to build a more permanent prison that would meet U.S. prison requirements.

The Red Cross and several European countries demanded this week that the detainees be recognized as prisoners of war.

Under the Geneva Conventions, POWs must be tried under the same procedures as U.S. soldiers, by court-martial or civilian court, not through military commissions as the Bush administration has proposed. Lehnert said no decision had been made on the prisoners' status. "Once it is determined ... I will be told whether they will be given legal counsel," he said.

The military was "being guided" by the Geneva Conventions, but "to say we're following every aspect of the Geneva Convention would be inaccurate," Lehnert said.

He said the interrogations would help authorities determine whether detainees should be sent elsewhere.

A petition by U.S. human rights activists was put on hold Tuesday in Los Angeles as a federal judge said he had doubts about his court's jurisdiction. The petitioners want the detainees' identities disclosed and more details on why they're being held.

On Wednesday, 400 copies of the Quran Muslim holy book, with passages in Arabic and English, were delivered to the camp for distribution to prisoners. A Bangladeshi-born Muslim Navy cleric, one of 12 in the U.S. military, was to arrive later Wednesday. Among other things, camp officials want to discuss whether detainees should be allowed to grow back the long hair and beards that devout Muslim men wear and that were shaved off in detention.

Lehnert said there have only been minor incidents with detainees: One bit a guard on the arm last week, another spat on a guard on Tuesday. The prisoner was separated from the rest and taken to another cell until he calmed down, officials said.

About 230 detainees remain at a U.S. base at Kandahar airport, in southern Afghanistan.