Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
US blocks ICRC access to suspects
The US has admitted for the first time that it has not given the Red Cross access to all detainees in its custody.
The state department's top legal adviser, John Bellinger, made the admission but gave no details about where such prisoners were held.
Correspondents say the revelation is only likely to increase suspicion that the CIA has been operating secret prisons out of international oversight.
The issue has dogged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's tour to Europe.
Mr Bellinger made the admission in Geneva.
He stated that the group International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had access to "absolutely everybody" at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which holds suspects detained during the US war on terror.
When asked by journalists if the organisation had access to everybody held in similar circumstances elsewhere, he said: "No". He declined to explain further.
Until now the US administration has been careful in its language, says the BBC's state department correspondent Jonathan Beale.
It has always said that the ICRC has access to all prisoners held at US defence department facilities - leaving open the question of whether there are CIA prisons elsewhere.
Allegations 'ludicrous'
Mr Bellinger's comments will raise suspicions that high-profile terrorist suspects are being held out of international view, our correspondent says.
Mr Bellinger said some of the allegations of secret prisons were "so overblown as to be ludicrous".
The ICRC wants access to all foreign terror suspects held by the US "in undisclosed locations".
"The dialogue continues on the question. We would like to obtain information and access to them," ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said on Thursday.
Human rights groups say there is no way of knowing whether detainees being held in secret are being tortured.
On her visit to Europe, Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly denied that the US tortures prisoners.
On Wednesday, Ms Rice stressed that all American interrogators were bound by the UN Convention on Torture, whether they worked in the US or abroad.
Nato and EU foreign ministers, after meeting Ms Rice in Brussels on Wednesday evening, declared themselves satisfied with her assurances that the US does not interpret international humanitarian law differently from its allies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4512192.stm
Correspondents say the revelation is only likely to increase suspicion that the CIA has been operating secret prisons out of international oversight.
The issue has dogged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's tour to Europe.
Mr Bellinger made the admission in Geneva.
He stated that the group International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had access to "absolutely everybody" at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which holds suspects detained during the US war on terror.
When asked by journalists if the organisation had access to everybody held in similar circumstances elsewhere, he said: "No". He declined to explain further.
Until now the US administration has been careful in its language, says the BBC's state department correspondent Jonathan Beale.
It has always said that the ICRC has access to all prisoners held at US defence department facilities - leaving open the question of whether there are CIA prisons elsewhere.
Allegations 'ludicrous'
Mr Bellinger's comments will raise suspicions that high-profile terrorist suspects are being held out of international view, our correspondent says.
Mr Bellinger said some of the allegations of secret prisons were "so overblown as to be ludicrous".
The ICRC wants access to all foreign terror suspects held by the US "in undisclosed locations".
"The dialogue continues on the question. We would like to obtain information and access to them," ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said on Thursday.
Human rights groups say there is no way of knowing whether detainees being held in secret are being tortured.
On her visit to Europe, Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly denied that the US tortures prisoners.
On Wednesday, Ms Rice stressed that all American interrogators were bound by the UN Convention on Torture, whether they worked in the US or abroad.
Nato and EU foreign ministers, after meeting Ms Rice in Brussels on Wednesday evening, declared themselves satisfied with her assurances that the US does not interpret international humanitarian law differently from its allies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4512192.stm
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$135.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
He was speaking to reporters in Geneva as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Brussels on the last leg of a European tour, told European allies that U.S. treatment of detainees was within international law.
Human rights groups accuse the CIA of running secret prisons in eastern Europe and covertly transporting detainees in its war against terrorism. They say incommunicado detention often leads to torture.
The ICRC has been pressing the Bush administration for two years for information about and access to what the agency calls "an unknown number of people captured as part of the so-called global war on terror and held in undisclosed locations".
Bellinger said that the ICRC had access to "absolutely everybody" at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 500 foreign terror suspects are held.
But asked whether the ICRC had access to all detainees held elsewhere in a similar situation by U.S. forces, he replied: "No", declining to give details.
ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger raised its concerns about people held in secret locations in talks with senior U.S. officials, including Rice, in Washington in January 2004, according to the humanitarian agency's statement at the time.
"The dialogue continues on the question. We would like to obtain information and access to them," ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal told Reuters on Thursday.
Read More
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08788591.htm