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ICRC criticizes US `terror' detentions

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) joined the rising criticism of the US' makeshift prison for terror suspects at Guantan-amo Bay, Cuba, on Friday, citing "worrying deterioration" in prisoners' mental health.

The prison has drawn protests from a dozen international and US groups as some prisoners approach two years there without charges or access to lawyers.

The complaint from the International Red Cross was the third last week about the prison system Presi-dent George W. Bush's administration has devised for holding and trying suspects in the war on terror.

Seven legal briefs, filed on Thursday by former US diplomats, former military judges and others, asked the Supreme Court to hear the cases of some of the 660 prisoners in Cuba as well as American Yaser Hamdi, who is being held in a Navy brig in South Carolina.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union joined four other US rights groups in filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act for records relating to allegations of torture and abuse in Guantanamo and at other US detention facilities.

The common criticism is that men and boys captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere are being held with no legal process and no indication when they might have access to one.

"They have no idea about their fate, and they have no means of recourse at their disposal through any legal mechanism,'' said Florian Westphal of the ICRC, which ended a visit there Thursday.

International rights groups say the indefinite detentions have likely promoted prisoners' hopelessness and thus contributed to 32 suicide attempts by 27 detainees.

"We have observed what we consider to be a worrying deterioration in the psychological health of a large number of the internees," Westphal said in Geneva.

The neutral, Swiss-run organization has been appealing in private to the Bush administration for due process since soon after the detention center was opened early last year, the spokesman noted.

Westphal said the ICRC, the only independent body with access to the detainees, had yet to see "any significant movement" from US officials to its long-standing request that the detainees be given legal rights in accordance with international conventions governing prisoners or war.

The Bush administration has instead designated the prisoners as enemy combatants, saying they are not subject to US courts because they are held outside the US, and can be detained under international laws of war until the end of the conflict.

US officials have said the war on terrorism could last for decades, effectively meaning some could be held for the rest of their lives.

"This is about protecting the American people," White House Scott McClellan said in response to the ICRC on Friday.

"We are at war on terrorism ... and part of that is detaining these enemy combatants to gather intelligence, seeking to prevent future attacks that may be being plotted -- that may be being planned against the United States," he said.

American and allied forces began capturing the prisoners shortly after the war against al-Qaeda started in Afghanistan in October 2001. Of well over 700 people taken to Guantanamo, only 68 have come out. Sixty-four of those were freed, and four were handed over to Saudi Arabia for continued detention, the Pentagon says.

US defense officials say they are releasing those they have no plans to prosecute, those who no longer pose a threat and those who hold no more intelligence value. The Bush administration has established a military tribunal system for trying some suspects but has yet to put any on trial.
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