Fifteen Saudi Guantanamo detainees arrive home 
A US Army soldier walks through a cell block at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, in 2004. Fifteen Saudi prisoners were transferred from a military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Saudi Arabia after an agreement was reached with Riyadh, the Pentagon said. (AFP/Pool/File/Mark Wilson)
May 19, 2006
Yahoo NewsRIYADH (Reuters) - Fifteen Saudi Arabian detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay naval base arrived home on Friday after being freed from U.S. custody, the kingdom's Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said.
He said in comments carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that the 15 named men "will be made subject to the country's laws."
Prince Nayef said the kingdom was trying to secure the release and return of the remaining Saudi detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Last Wednesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said 16 Saudi nationals would be released from Guantanamo Bay then jailed and put on trial in Saudi Arabia, if a review of their cases shows a trial is justified.
Eight Saudis have previously been released from Guantanamo Bay, where the United States has been holding more than 500 detainees since the Taliban and al Qaeda were ousted from Afghanistan in late 2001, including more than 100 Saudis.
At least five of the earlier released detainees were freed by Saudi Arabia last year after they completed their jail sentences.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities were from Saudi Arabia, as was al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Nearly all of the prisoners at Guantanamo, in Cuba, are being held without charge and some have been held for more than three years.
U.N. Urges U.S. to Shut Guantanamo Prison
Military police watch detainees in a holding area inside the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002.
GENEVA (AP) - The United States should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and avoid using secret detention facilities in the war on terror, the U.N. panel that monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty said Friday.
The Committee Against Torture also said detainees should not be returned to any country where they could face a "real risk" of being tortured.
The criticism, contained in an 11-page report, followed a hearing in Geneva this month on U.S. adherence to the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture. The criticism carries no penalties beyond international scrutiny, but human rights observers say it could influence U.S. public opinion and hence the government.
The committee said it was worried that detainees were being held for protracted periods with insufficient legal safeguards and without judicial assessment of the justification for their detention.
"The state party should cease to detain any person at Guantanamo Bay and close the detention facility," the panel of 10 independent experts said.
The White House noted Friday that President Bush said earlier this month he would like to close the Guantanamo detention center, but he was waiting for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on whether inmates can face military tribunals.
"I very much would like to end Guantanamo; I very much would like to get people to a court," Bush said in an interview with ARD German television.
U.N. investigators were invited to inspect the facilities at Guantanamo but chose not to, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
"It is important to note that everything that is done in terms of questioning detainees is fully within the boundaries of American law," Snow said.
Further, Snow said the United States makes sure that prisoners are provided with food, clothing and other basic necessities and have the opportunity to worship.
"In short," Snow said, "we are according every consideration consistent with not only the law but the needs of safety and security at Guantanamo to the people who are there."
State Department legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, who led the U.S. delegation at the U.N. panel hearing, said the committee appeared not to have read a lot of the information Washington had supplied - or had ignored it.
"There are a number of both factual inaccuracies and legal misstatements about the law applicable to the United States," Bellinger told The Associated Press.
Last week, Britain's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, also urged the United States to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, saying its existence was "unacceptable" and a discredit to the U.S. tradition of freedom.
The U.N. committee also expressed concern about allegations that the United States has established secret prisons, where the international Red Cross does not have access to the detainees. The report did not specifically say that such prisons existed, but stated the United States "should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its de facto effective control."
Washington should also "investigate and disclose the existence of any such facilities and the authority under which they have been established and the manner in which detainees are treated," the report said.
The Pentagon on Monday handed over the first list of everyone who has been held at Guantanamo Bay, and none of the most notorious terrorist suspects were named, raising questions about their whereabouts.
The list also did not specify what has happened to former Guantanamo Bay detainees, heightening concern some could be in secret U.S. detention centers or in torture cells of prisons in other countries.
Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at prison, the military said Friday.
The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, said Cmdr. Robert Durand.
Earlier in the day, three detainees in another part of the prison attempted suicide by swallowing prescription medicine they had been hoarding.
The detainees who took part in the clash with guards were moved to higher-security sections. Those who attempted suicide received medical treatment, the military said. Their names were not released.
There have been 39 suicide attempts at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, the military said. At least 12 were by Juma'a Mohammed al-Dossary, a 32-year-old from Bahrain.
Guantanamo Bay holds detainees suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
The panel said the United States must also halt all forms of torture committed by its personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq and investigate allegations thoroughly, prosecuting any staff found guilty.
"The state party should take immediate measures to eradicate all forms of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by its military or civilian personnel, in any territory under its jurisdiction," the report said.
It said the United States also "should rescind any interrogation technique - including methods involving sexual humiliation, 'water boarding,"short shackling' and using dogs to induce fear - that constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in all places of detention under its de facto effective control."
Water boarding is a controversial technique in which a subject is made to think he is drowning. Short shackling involves shackling a detainee to a hook in the floor to limit movement.
The panel was also concerned the United States was sending suspects, without judicial review, to states where they may be tortured, a process known as "extraordinary rendition."
The United States should "cease the rendition of suspects, in particular by its intelligence agencies, to States where they face a real risk of torture," the report said. "The state party should always ensure that suspects have the possibility to challenge decisions."
Andreas Mavrommatis, a Cypriot rights expert who chaired the committee's review of the United States, said the report should not be blown out of proportion because the United States has "a very good record of human rights" overall.
"Yes, we have identified certain" problems in the war on terrorism, Mavrommatis told reporters. "We are telling them we hope to have a dialogue, and we trust that they might take the necessary measures to improve."
The United States made in its first appearance before the U.N. Committee Against Torture in six years earlier this month, addressing a series of issues ranging from Washington's interpretation of the absolute ban on torture to its interrogation methods in prisons such as Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo.
It said some techniques "have resulted in the death of some detainees during interrogation" and criticized vague U.S. guidelines that "have led to serious abuse of detainees."
Bellinger said the U.S. record had improved.
"There have been allegations of abuse which we have fully investigated and we have tightened our laws and our procedures, so we believe that we are already working very hard to address the areas of concern raised by the committee," he said.
Bellinger added that the United States was working "very hard" to address concerns about Guantanamo, but that critics had failed to come up with suggestions on what to do with the detainees.
"If you add in the recommendation in this report that Guantanamo ought to be closed but large numbers of people can't be sent back to certain countries, there's not really a very good solution," he said.
There have been about 800 investigations into allegations of mistreatment in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. delegation said. The Defense Department found misconduct and took action against more than 250 service personnel; there have been 103 courts martial and 89 service members were convicted, of whom 19 received sentences of one year or more.
The panel asked the United States to report back within a year with its response to several of its concerns and recommendations.
These include the panel's concerns about secret prisons, extraordinary rendition and the use of interrogation techniques that have resulted in deaths.
"We hope that the United States takes to heart these criticisms and recommendations and begins a significant shift in its policies, including at a minimum immediate access to the prisoners that are in secret detention facilities," Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press.
The committee "has clearly rejected the United States position that it can shield its civilian CIA operations from the scrutiny of the committee," Daskal added.
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Associated Press reporters Alexander G. Higgins and Bradley S. Klapper contributed to this report. Guantanamo Prison Guards, Inmates Clash May 19, 2006
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military said Friday.
The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, said Cmdr. Robert Durand.
Detainees used fans, light fixtures and other improvised weapons to attack the guards as they entered a communal living area to stop a prisoner who was trying to hang himself, Durand said.
Earlier in the day, three detainees in another part of the prison attempted suicide by swallowing prescription medicine they had been hoarding.
The detainees who took part in the clash with guards were moved to higher-security sections.
Those who attempted suicide received medical treatment, the military said. Their names were not released.
The incidents occurred on the same day the military transferred 15 Saudi detainees to their country, leaving about 460 detainees at Guantanamo.
There have been 39 suicide attempts at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, the military said. At least 12 were by Juma'a Mohammed al-Dossary, a 32-year-old from Bahrain.
Guantanamo Bay holds detainees suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
Links:US 'must close secret prisons'VideoUN group calls on US to shut Gitmo Video
