Rumsfeld: US hid Iraqi prisoner from Red Cross
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-18 08:00

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged on Thursday that he ordered the secret detention of an Iraqi terrorism suspect held for more than seven months near Baghdad without notifying the Red Cross.

Rumsfeld told reporters CIA Director George Tenet asked him last November "to take custody of an Iraqi national who was believed to be a high-ranking member of Ansar al-Islam," which the United States has called a terrorist group.

"And we did so. We were asked to not immediately register the individual (with the International Committee of the Red Cross). And we did that," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon briefing hours after President Bush again voiced support for the beleaguered Pentagon chief.

The Iraqi man remains in custody, and Rumsfeld said he has been treated humanely.

Rumsfeld did not explain the reasons for his actions, but added that "we are in the processing of registering" the man, whom he did not identify, with the Geneva-based ICRC.

Assigning a prisoner number and notifying the Red Cross are required under the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian laws.

Rumsfeld's comments came as the United States is conducting a major investigation into abuse, including sexual humiliation, of prisoners by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We should have registered him (the prisoner) much sooner than we did," Pentagon Deputy General Counsel Daniel Dellorto told the briefing.

"That's something that we'll just have to examine, as to whether there was a breakdown in the quickness with which we registered him," he said.

'GHOST' PRISONERS

Rumsfeld said the man's case was unique, but he was vague when reporters asked whether the United States was holding other "ghost" prisoners without Red Cross knowledge in Iraq.

"He has been treated humanely. There's no implication of any problem. He was not at Abu Ghraib. He is not there now. He has never been there to my knowledge," Rumsfeld added, referring to the prison on the outskirts of Baghdad where U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners.

In March, Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who investigated abuses at Abu Ghraib, criticized the holding of "ghost" detainees as "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

Rumsfeld was asked how this case differed from the practice Taguba criticized. "It is just different, that's all," he said.

Washington has linked Ansar al-Islam to al Qaeda and blames it for some attacks in Iraq. Defense officials said the man was believed to be a senior official in the group and actively organizing attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

The prisoner has been held at Camp Cropper, a high-security facility near Baghdad International Airport, and has apparently been lost in the system in recent months, according to other U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified.

A report on Thursday by the rights group Human Rights First said the United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centers worldwide, and about half operate in total secrecy.

At the White House meeting, Bush voiced support for Rumsfeld when reporters asked whether he was disappointed in the decision to hide the suspect from the Red Cross.

"I'm never disappointed in my secretary of defense. He's doing a fabulous job and America's lucky to have him in the position he's in," Bush said.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry told reporters in Detroit that Rumsfeld's order was a sign mishandling of prisoners reached high into the Bush administration.