McCain Still Concerned About Guantanamo

01/27/2006

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) - Interrogation methods at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are still a concern, Sen. John McCain said Friday, calling on authorities to process the cases of prisoners held for as long as four years without charge.

Some 500 men accused of links to Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime or the al-Qaida terror network continue to be held at the prison camp. Only a handful of the prisoners have been charged.

“What I was concerned about and continue to be concerned about is interrogation methods,” McCain told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

“Now, if they want to keep them in Guantanamo or Des Moines, Iowa, that’s not a critical issue to me,” the Arizona Republican and former Vietnam POW said. “What is critical, is that we adhere to treaties that we are signatories to and observe basic human rights and obey the law that we just passed concerning cruel and inhumane and degrading treatment.”

Calling for more congressional involvement over Guantanamo, McCain also called for the prisoners’ cases to be processed and heard.

“All human beings, no matter how evil they are, have the right to some kind of adjudication ... There should be some kind of system set up so their cases can be decided.”

The U.S. government has classified the men as “enemy combatants,” a designation that does not give them the same legal protections as they would have under the Geneva Conventions. Many have little contact with lawyers or the outside world.

FBI documents sent to The Associated Press in 2003 showed cases of prisoner abuse shortly after the camp opened in January 2001. Additional documents showed other cases as the detention mission grew, specifically with the use of female guards and interrogators using aggressive and sexually charged techniques with the detainees, most of whom are Muslim. whom are Muslim.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who ran the Guantanamo camp from October 2002 to March 2004 and has been linked to the abuse scandal, has declined to answer questions in two courts-martial cases involving the use of dogs during interrogations.

Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have called for the prison camp to be closed.

Actress Angelina Jolie urged “all Americans ... to keep our eyes open and not just assume that because it’s our country, and we love our country and we’ve had trust in our country in the past, that we couldn’t possibly be doing such horrible things.”

However, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai said Friday the camp would cease to be on his country’s radar once some 100 Afghans imprisoned there are returned.

“When the Afghans leave that facility, it’s none of our business what happens there,” Karzai said at a news conference at the forum.

He said he expected a facility to house Afghan prisoners to be completed within two years.

Sen. John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican, said Congress would be diligent in ensuring human rights were protected at the U.S. prison camp.

“I think everyone understands that it has served an important purposes in dealing with enemy combatants,” he told AP. “But everyone also hopes and believes that we’ll reach a point where the progress in our effort to combat terrorism makes it unnecessary.”