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Americas rights commission says U.S. should prove it is guarding against torture of terror suspects
Wed Mar 19, 7:02 PM ET

By KATY DAIGLE, Associated Press Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The United States should prove it is guarding against the torture of terror suspects, the OAS Commission on Human Rights said Wednesday.



The Washington-based commission also said U.S. authorities should disclose to which other countries it is sending suspects, and whether those transferred are being held, interrogated, tried or released.


About 650 men suspected of links to al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s ousted Taliban regime are being held without charge at the U.S. naval based in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hundreds more are detained at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.


The Center for Constitutional Rights filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights after it said it documented cases of detainees being transferred to Jordan, Egypt and Morocco, where the use of torture during interrogations has previously been reported.


The Pentagon (news - web sites) has acknowledged transferring some detainees from Guantanamo to other countries, but will not say how many or where. Pentagon officials could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.


"It's a very aggressive stance for the OAS to take -- demanding information not just on Guantanamo but from detention missions outside the hemisphere," said Michael Ratner of the New York-based center.


The commission has no powers of enforcement over the United States, which has ignored other commission opinions on the detainees.


But Ratner said the commission "establishes a moral and legal authority that demonstrates the U.S. could be violating the law."


The ruling comes the same week that prisoners recently released from Bagram said they had been beaten, deprived of sleep or made to stay naked on a sheet of ice.


U.S. military officials have challenged the claims, saying they do not use methods that constitute torture.


Earlier this month, U.S. military coroners ruled the deaths of two prisoners at Bagram were homicides. The men, who died in December, had been beaten and one had a blood clot in his lung. No one has been charged in the killings.


Human rights groups have criticized the United States for refusing the detainees access to lawyers or U.S. courts.


They also question whether interrogators' methods might be contributing to suicide attempts at Guantanamo. The military says 16 prisoners have made 22 attempts to kill themselves, most using bed sheets or pieces of clothing to try to hang themselves.


U.S. authorities say detainees could be freed, transferred or tried by U.S. military tribunals yet to be established.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030320/ap_wo_en_ge/cb_gen_guantanamo_human_r...