The Pentagon is preparing to release a dozen or more prisoners from the high-security compound for terrorist suspects in Cuba, possibly including some teenagers.
Some 660 prisoners from 42 countries are held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, many captured during the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Officials have declined to identify them or their countries or even say exactly how many are held.
An official said Monday that he believed juveniles were among those to be released. News that several boys between the ages of 13 and 16 were among the prisoners drew criticism earlier from human rights groups and a call for their immediate release.
One official said 20 to 30 prisoners would be released from the prison that was opened in January last year. Another said the number was 12 to 15.
A military official initially said on Monday that 22 prisoners were transferred from the Cuban facility Monday. Later, a more senior Pentagon official said the report was mistaken, and no transfers had taken place.
Defense Department officials denied that the release was the result of a complaint by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has pressed the Pentagon to move faster in determining the fate of the prisoners at Guantanamo, some of whom have been held a year and a half without charges or access to lawyers. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
In what officials have said was a strongly worded letter, Powell told Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that eight allies had complained about the holding of their citizens. He said the way the situation was being handled was undermining efforts to win international cooperation in the war on terror.
The release has been in the planning process for several weeks, Pentagon officials said.
An official said juveniles had been among those planned for release weeks ago, but that it was logistically difficult to fly them out of Cuba then because troops were busy with the war to topple and disarm former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Officials said long ago that some prisoners could be released to their countries if it was certain those countries would deal with them properly. Talks have been under way with various countries, but no results have been announced.
Countries that have said publicly they want their citizens home include Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Pakistan. Officials said they didn't know the home countries of the prisoners to be released.
Since the prison was opened, only 23 people are known to have been released. They were all men, including one who was mentally ill and another reported to be in his 70s.
Asked Sunday about the prisoners, Rumsfeld said they must be questioned by several government agencies before they can be released, including the FBI, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA and immigration officials. Some agencies are interested in pro-secuting the detainees, while others are interested in gathering intelligence information.
The defense secretary said that he, too, would like to see the process move more quickly.
Rumsfeld has said over the past year that the first priority was to interrogate the prisoners for any information they had on terrorist activities or networks. He said they could be released after it was determined there would be no charges against them, they posed no threat and they had no more useful intelligence to offer.
Pentagon officials said Friday that they had finished writing rules for trying terrorist suspects in military tribunals.
Two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, US President George W. Bush authorized the establishment of tribunals -- also called military commissions -- to try foreign suspects in the counter-terror war. The effort to write the rules under which the commissions would operate has taken a year and a half.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officials said they have some suspects in mind who might be candidates for military trials. They offered no number of trials planned, nor date they might start and said no final decisions have been made.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia