U.S. Detention Policy Remains Under Attack

On March 11, 2005, the media reported the U.S. Department of Defense is requesting support from the U.S. Department and State and other agencies in its plan to reduce by more than half the population at its detention facility in Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, in part by transferring hundreds of suspected terrorists to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen. A February 5th memorandum from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reportedly calls for broader interagency support for the plan, starting with efforts to transfer a significant number of prisoners to Afghanistan. The proposal is part of a Defense Department effort to reduce a Guant?namo population that is about 540 detainees by releasing some out-right and by transferring others for continued detention elsewhere...[more]