Guantanamo Prisoners to Get Reviews

Long-term prisoners being held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will receive annual reviews to determine whether they should remain in custody, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday as he responded to charges that the lengthy detentions violate human rights.

The reviews would determine whether prisoners, if released, would remain a threat to the United States, officials said.

Many details of the reviews have not been worked out, officials at the Pentagon said. The composition of the reviewing panel has not been decided. The panel will make recommendations, probably to Rumsfeld, who will make the final call on whether to release a prisoner.

Prisoners will receive some kind of assistance, but it has not been decided whether that will include lawyers or military-appointed advisors to explain the process to them, officials said.

In announcing the reviews, Rumsfeld defended the continued detention of about 650 suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban supporters at Guantanamo. Human rights groups have criticized the treatment of the prisoners as well as their lack of access to lawyers.

“We need to keep in mind that the people in U.S. custody are not there because they stole a car or robbed a bank,” Rumsfeld said in remarks to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. “They are enemy combatants and terrorists who are being detained for acts of war against our country, and that is why different rules have to apply.”

Paul Butler, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for detainee operations, told reporters at the Pentagon that the detainees at Guantanamo fall into several categories: those who are no longer a threat and can be freed, those who committed war crimes and will face a military tribunal and those who remain a threat but cannot be charged.

Of those who remain a threat, a few are being turned over to the governments of their home countries. So far, four men have been turned over to Saudi Arabia and a fifth to Spain.

“The detainees are not in a legal black hole,” Butler said.

The rest will remain at Guantanamo until their status changes, to prevent them from rejoining Al Qaeda, or until the end of the war on terrorism, Butler said.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide this year whether the Guantanamo detainees can be held indefinitely without lawyers and hearings.