US plans detention for life

[<bleeding_heart>]

THE Bush Administration is planning for possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts.

Citing intelligence, defence and diplomatic officials, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon and the CIA had asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for those it would not set free or turn over to courts at home or abroad.

The Defence Department, which holds 500 prisoners at its base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, plans to ask the US Congress for $32.1 million to build a 200-bed jail to hold detainees who are unlikely to go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, defence officials told the newspaper.

The new prison, dubbed Camp 6, would allow inmates more comfort and freedom than they have now, and would be designed for prisoners the Government believes have no more intelligence to share.

"It would be modelled on a US prison and would allow socialising among inmates," the paper said.

"Since the global war on terror is a long-term effort, it makes sense for us to be looking at solutions for long-term problems," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. "This has been evolutionary, but we are at a point in time where we have to say, 'How do you deal with them (suspects) in the long term'?"

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lieutenant-Colonel Ellen Krenke of the Air Force, had no information on the reported plan.

The outcome of a review under way would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counter-terrorism operations.

One proposal would transfer large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre into new US-built jails in their home countries, it said.

The prisons would be operated by those countries, but the State Department, where this idea originated, would ask them to abide by recognised human rights standards and would monitor compliance, a senior administration official was quoted as saying. - REUTERS

Source

[Stellar]

This is just wrong.