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05/31/2005 Archived Entry: "talking points"

Cheney ‘offended’ by human rights report
Bush blasts Amnesty report on Guantanamo

The Bush Administration Was For Amnesty International Before It Was Against It
In the past, when it was convenient to the Administration, they did not hesitate
to cite Amnesty to make its case. And nowhere did the Administration need more
help than in selling the Iraq war.

United States of America - Amnesty International - 2005

At least three child detainees were among those released, but at least
two other people who were under 18 at the time of their detention were
believed to remain in Guantánamo by the end of the year.

The investigations found that there had been “approximately 300 recorded cases
of alleged abuse in Afghanistan, Guantánamo and Iraq.” On 9 September, Major Paul Kern,
who oversaw one of the military investigations, told the Senate Armed Services Committee
that there may have been as many as 100 cases of “ghost detainees” in US custody in Iraq.

During the year, released detainees alleged that they had been tortured or ill-treated
while in US custody in Afghanistan and Guantánamo. Evidence also emerged that others,
including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and the ICRC, had found that
such abuses had been committed against detainees.

BBC NEWS | Americas | ICRC raises Guantanamo conditions
Red Cross Reports Claims of Quran Abuse at Guantanamo

US detention related to the events of 11 September 2001 and its aftermath - the role of the ICRC
Juveniles at Guantanamo Bay
The ICRC believes that the US continues to detain two juveniles i.e. detainees
under 18 years of age at Guantanamo Bay. International law recognises that juveniles
in detention have special needs and must therefore be treated differently from adults.

For many detainees at Guantanamo Bay more than two and a half years have passed since
their arrest. The ICRC has always maintained that those detainees remaining in
Guantanamo Bay should either be charged and tried, released, or be placed within
a legal framework that governs their continued detention.

the ICRC is increasingly concerned about the fate of an unknown number of people captured
as part of the so-called global war on terror and held in undisclosed locations. For the ICRC,
obtaining information on these detainees and access to them is an important humanitarian
priority and a logical continuation of its current detention work in Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay. Dialogue continues with the US authorities to resolve this issue.