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WASHINGTON, Feb 13: About 650 Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects who are in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will have their detentions reviewed by a new panel once a year.
This was stated by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld before a three-member board, which would determine whether detainees were an ongoing threat to the US, says a BBC website report on Friday. Those adjudged to pose no threat would be released, Mr Rumsfeld said.
About 650 alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere are being held at the maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay prison.
Mr Rumsfeld added that the US was planning to hold many of the detainees for "as long as necessary." "We need to keep in mind that the people in US custody are not there because they stole a car or robbed a bank," Mr Rumsfeld told 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."
NOT POWs: Human rights groups and some foreign governments have criticized the detainees' treatment and the lack of trials or access to lawyers.
The US insists that they are not prisoners of war and can be tried by military tribunals. In Miami, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld launched a broad defence of America's indefinite detention of hundreds of foreign terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay, saying interrogations of these prisoners had yielded vital information, adds Reuters.
