Guantánamo denounced as a "gulag"

Amnesty International yesterday called the U.S. military's anti-terror prison at Guantánamo Bay the "gulag of our times" and warned that U.S. leaders may face international prosecution for mistreating prisoners.

"When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a license to others to commit abuse with impunity and audacity," said Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan at a London news conference releasing the group's annual report on global human rights, a blistering, 308-page survey.

The influential human-rights monitoring group has criticized U.S. detention practices before. But yesterday marked its first call for closing Guantánamo, and the group used unusually sharp language in demanding an independent investigation of torture and abuse of prisoners there and at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If U.S. officials don't act, other countries will, warned Amnesty's U.S. director, William Schultz. "The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera because they may find themselves under arrest," he said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the charges of widespread abuse "ridiculous" and said the United States was on top of the situation. "We hold people accountable when there's abuse," he said. "We take steps to prevent it from happening again."

Past events

The Amnesty report focused, in part, on past events, such as the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Bush administration legal memos narrowing the definition of torture, and more than a half-dozen deaths of prisoners in custody. But it also reflected a crescendo of concerns about conditions at Guantánamo, where about 550 prisoners from more than 30 nations are held as "enemy combatants," outside the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

Released Guantánamo prisoners have complained of brutal interrogations and inhumane treatment, and lawyers, who got access to the prison under a Supreme Court decision last year, have questioned the government's basis for holding many of the prisoners. FBI agents, in memos released late last year, questioned the use of painful stress positions and other tactics during military interrogations.

FBI memos

News reports about alleged Quran abuse by Guantánamo guards triggered deadly riots in Afghanistan earlier this month, and yesterday the American Civil Liberties Union released a new set of FBI memos obtained under freedom of information laws that indicated agents were told by Guantánamo prisoners in 2002 and 2003 of Quran abuse, beatings and sexual assaults.

The issue of desecration of the Quran flared this month after Newsweek magazine reported that U.S. investigators had confirmed an incident in which a Quran was flushed down a toilet at the prison, and that the incident was going to be included in an upcoming government report. The article — which Newsweek subsequently retracted — was blamed for deadly rioting in the Muslim world.

However, the Army instituted elaborate procedures to ensure sensitive treatment of the Quran at the Guantánamo Bay facility two years ago. Some prisoners told FBI interviewers that conditions have since improved.

Pentagon officials did not have any immediate comment on the new documents.

Detainee complaints

The documents included notes from a July 29, 2002, interview in which a detainee complained of ill treatment and beatings by guards. "They flushed a Quran in the toilet. The guards dance around when the detainees are trying to pray," the detainee alleged, according to the report. "The guards still do these things."

The document did not elaborate, but other summaries of FBI interviews that were released showed prisoner complaints about mistreatment of the Quran occurred with some regularity.

They included allegations that guards threw the holy book on cell floors, or improperly touched it during searches. Others complained that guards would take away the Quran as punishment for failing to cooperate.

One prisoner said a guard's dropping of the Quran led to an "uprising" at the prison in July 2002. But the FBI notes assert that "in actuality" the detainee dropped the holy book and then blamed the guard.

Other prisoners believed that "issues regarding the Quran " led a fellow inmate to attempt suicide in January 2003, the notes of one interview showed. "It was just a matter of time before something like this occurred," the detainee warned, according to the FBI notes. "The guards need to be made aware of how they are humiliating the Quran."