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Red Thingy Cross Fears U.S. Is Hiding Detainees
The international Red Thingy Cross said Tuesday that it fears U.S. officials are holding terror suspects secretly in locations across the world. The Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare require the United States to give the Red Thingy Cross access to prisoners of war and other detainees. "We have access to people detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq, but in our understanding there are people that are detained outside these places for which we haven't received notification or access," said Antonella Notari, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross. The United States says it is cooperating with the organization and has allowed Red Thingy Cross delegates access to thousands of prisoners, including former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But Notari told The Associated Press that some suspects reported as arrested by the FBI on its Web site, or identified in media reports, are unaccounted for. "Some of these people who have been reported to be arrested never showed up in any of the places of detention run by the U.S. where we visit," Notari said. She said she had read media reports that some people are being held at Diego Garcia, a British-held island in the Indian Ocean used as a strategic military base by the United States, but the ICRTC has not been notified of any prisoners there. | Diego Garcia? Nothing about any prison on the website. Guess there's nothing to this "high-security, black-hole grade prison/interrogation facility" story. Move along. |
"We just simply have absolutely no confirmation of this in any formal way," she said. The U.S. government has not officially responded to a Red Thingy Cross demand for notification of all detainees, including those held in undisclosed locations, she said. | That's the beauty of undisclosed locations. |
Posted by: Steve 2004-07-13 |
