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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. Will Announce Policy on Afghan Detainees In Near Future

Aired January 23, 2002 - 05:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Once again the Pentagon is on the defensive for its handling of al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Pentagon officials insist they are not being mistreated.

Here's CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The governments of Germany and France Tuesday joined the chorus of international criticism aimed at the United States for its treatment of captured Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, both countries calling on the United States to treat them as prisoners of war.

The Pentagon dismisses the charge, arguing it is abiding by the Geneva Conventions, even while arguing the detainees don't qualify as POWs.

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Let there be no doubt, the treatment of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay is proper. It's humane. It's appropriate. And it is fully consistent with international conventions.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon insists this picture, which ran in a British paper under the headline "Torture," shows detainees in the process of being transferred and is not representative of the conditions under which they are being held once they are put in chain link enclosures at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

RUMSFELD: The numerous articles, statements, questions, allegations and breathless reports on television are undoubtedly by people who are either uninformed, misinformed or poorly informed.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon says the more than 150 detainees have good food, clean clothes, warm showers, exercise time, prayer mats, writing materials, Red Cross visits and first rate medical attention. What they don't have is prisoner of war status, which continues to draw fire from human rights advocates.

WILLIAM SCHULZ, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Until an appropriate tribunal, like a U.S. civilian court, determines whether they are prisoners of war, the Geneva Conventions require that they be treated like prisoners of war. MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say the United States intends to announce within a week or 10 days a comprehensive policy on the status of the detainees, including whether some, such as Taliban forces who fought for a de facto government, might be granted POW status, something that would likely be denied to al Qaeda terrorists.

RUMSFELD: And to give standing under a Geneva Convention to a terrorist organization that's not a country is something that I think some of the lawyers who did not drop out of law school, as I did, worry about as a precedent.

MCINTYRE (on camera): The Pentagon says it's detaining people who were fighting against the U.S. military. But there are at least six detainees who do not fit that description. The U.S. recently flew to Guantanamo six Algerians arrested in Bosnia who may have intelligence related to the al Qaeda terrorist network but who were not involved in the fighting in Afghanistan.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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