Rumsfeld Strongly Denies Mistreatment of Prisoners

WASHINGTON —  Rising to counter mounting criticism after months of favorable world opinion for the war effort, U.S. officials forcefully denied Tuesday that Al Qaeda suspects are being treated inhumanely at a makeshift military prison in Cuba.

In the last few days, critics ranging from members of British Parliament to U.S. civil rights groups have accused the United States of mistreating the detainees, who are being held in 8-by-8-foot wire cages at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and said they should be turned over to legal rather than military authorities.

The latest round of complaints apparently was triggered by photographs released over the weekend by the Defense Department showing prisoners bound and kneeling, wearing masks, earmuffs and goggles. The pictures were taken as new prisoners were brought from a plane to a corridor near their cells, and then asked to kneel so soldiers could remove their earmuffs and other articles, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon.

The restraints are used only in transit, he said, “where bad things happen,” citing the case of Al Qaeda fighters who recently killed the Pakistani guards who were moving them.

Those wearing masks were suspected of having tuberculosis, Rumsfeld said. As for the earmuffs, some defense officials have voiced concern about communication between the prisoners giving rise to a revolt.

“Let there be no doubt,” a visibly perturbed Rumsfeld said. “The treatment of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay is proper, it’s humane, it’s appropriate and it is fully consistent with international conventions.

“No detainee has been harmed. No detainee has been mistreated in any way. And the numerous articles, statements, questions, allegations and breathless reports on television are undoubtedly by people who are either uninformed, misinformed or poorly informed.”

At the base, 158 detainees have been flown in and are being housed in wire cages in what is dubbed Camp X-Ray, because the military guards can see them at all times.

Lt. Col. Bill Costello said that, despite the continuing criticism, the detainees are being fed well, treated by doctors when necessary and soon will be ministered by a Navy Muslim cleric being dispatched to the Caribbean base.

Costello said the cages are temporary, adding that contractors and Navy Seabees are busy erecting enough of the two-man cells to hold 2,000 detainees. He said that no orders have been received to build permanent holding cells or courtrooms, should any military tribunals be held there.

“We are constantly adding new things,” he said. “Things are maturing to a point and, while we’ve taken a few tumbles [in the press], things are still moving along.”

The criticisms challenge the way the U.S. military is going about the imprisonment, interrogation and prosecution of war prisoners, who are to be tried by military tribunal--more than 50 years after military tribunals were held at the end of World War II.

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has accused the Bush administration of ignoring fundamental due process rights for the detainees. The American Civil Liberties Union has argued the detainees should be tried in the federal court system because the White House has not shown that military tribunals will “advance justice or preserve national security.”

Similar complaints have been raised overseas.

In London, some government authorities have expressed concern about the treatment of three British nationals incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, although a team of British observers reported to Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday that the British citizens had no complaints about their treatment.

“If the British subjects are not accused of crimes in the United States, they should be tried in the United Kingdom,” said Kevin McNamara, a Labour Party official. “And if they are tried in the United States, they should not be subject to the death penalty or to a military tribunal.”

In the Netherlands, some officials have begun demanding that the U.S. afford the detainees the same rights as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. “In the fight [against terrorism] we need to uphold our norms and values,” said Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Jozias van Aartsen. “That applies to prisoners today.”

German authorities issued a statement criticizing the handling of detainees, and in the Philippines, tensions are mounting over an increased U.S. military presence to help local authorities combat terrorism there.

The Red Cross and other groups insist that the U.S. treat the detainees under the Geneva Convention for war prisoners, which would preclude American authorities from interrogating them. But Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials argue that the 158 males at Guantanamo Bay don’t qualify as POWs.

Red Cross officials visited the base late last week but have yet to discuss publicly what they found.

At the Pentagon, in the room where half-hour briefings usually start and end on time, Rumsfeld spoke for more than an hour in a briefing dominated by the detainee issue and volunteered to stay until all questions were answered, although he eventually cut off remaining questioners.

The current prison is a makeshift affair to be replaced by prefabricated units that would be more durable but not permanent, he said. A contract now being considered by senior defense officials calls for walled facilities with one wall of mesh wire that opens into a common hall, like a standard prison.

Yet even now, Rumsfeld said, the detainees have warm showers, toiletries, water, clean clothes, blankets, “culturally appropriate meals,” prayer mats, medical care, exercise and writing materials. Critics who liken their treatment to “torture” are spouting “utter nonsense,” he said.

The Pentagon refuses to call them “prisoners,” a status Rumsfeld and others said confers legal rights on them. When questioned about that, Rumsfeld repeatedly said he would defer to “the lawyers” at the Pentagon, at one point noting that he had dropped out of law school.

“We are giving them the treatment that is appropriate under the Geneva Convention,” he said. “I think that the legal questions I’m going to leave to the lawyers.”

In Los Angeles, meanwhile, the military cleared a hurdle Tuesday when a federal judge expressed “grave doubts” about whether he has jurisdiction to act on a lawsuit challenging the detention of these suspects in Cuba.

In another development, officials said John Walker Lindh of California, the “American Talib,” was en route to the United States, where he will be turned over to the Justice Department. He has been charged in federal court in Alexandria, Va., with conspiring to kill U.S. nationals in the fight in Afghanistan, and also with providing support and material to the Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorist organizations.

He has been held on the warship Bataan. Because he will not be tried by the military, he won’t be sent to Cuba. “He will go where they want him,” Rumsfeld said.