-Caveat Lector- http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/28/wguan28.xml&s
Sheet=/news/2002/01/28/ixnewstop.html WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Al-Qa'eda prisoners 'hide stones as weapons' By Toby Harnden in Washington (Filed: 28/01/2002) DETAINEES at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been caught hiding stones in their cages for possible use as weapons against military guards, senior US army officers have revealed. The details of the potential dangers presented by the captives further undermined the position of Gen Colin Powell, the secretary of state, who has argued that they should be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. During a visit to Camp X-Ray yesterday, Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, insisted: "They are not PoWs. They will not be determined to be PoWs." Brig Michael Lehnert, commanding troops at the base, said earlier that there were signs of a structure and activities emerging among the prisoners that could be a prelude to an act of violence or escape attempt. "We're seeing that some leaders are beginning to emerge. Many have received training and are observing activities such as security procedures. Many appeared disciplined and very patient." In the first major unauthorised leak of the Bush administration, the Washington Times obtained a White House draft memorandum saying Gen Powell had called on the president to reconsider his decision to classify the inmates as "unlawful combatants". Al Gonzales, the White House counsel, wrote in the memo that Gen Powell asked Mr Bush to announce that the captives would be declared subject to the Geneva Convention. "I understand, however, that al-Qa'eda and Taliban fighters could be determined to be PoWs but only on a case-by-case basis following individual hearings before a military board," he wrote. The leak appeared to have come from the Pentagon, many of whose officials view Gen Powell as bowing to pressure from the European Left and State Department officials who served under Bill Clinton. Moving to limit the damage, the White House said the memo was a draft and did not reflect Gen Powell's true views. But the "draft" was forwarded to senior figures in the administration under a covering letter signed by Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser. Revealing the Bush administration's scepticism about the value of the Geneva Convention, Mr Gonzalez wrote that Mr Bush's statement that the war on terrorism was "a new kind of war" had in some respects made it irrelevant. "In my judgement, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions requiring that captured enemy be afforded such things as commissary privileges, scripts [advances of pay], athletic uniforms and scientific instruments." He concluded: "On balance, I believe that the arguments [by Gen Powell] for reconsideration and reversal are unpersuasive." There are 158 detainees from 25 countries - including three from Britain - in Camp X-Ray with 302 more awaiting transfer once it has been expanded. The inmates are held in cages eight feet by eight feet with concrete floors and wooden roofs. Some have tried to scratch out grids or messages on the floors and others have been caught hiding stones picked off the scrubby ground. Brig Lehnert said: "Most of these individuals are warriors. They were taken off a battlefield and we can recognise certain tendencies as a result of their backgrounds." *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! 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