US has held 83 000 captive

2005-11-17 15:02

Washington - The United States has detained more than 83 000 foreigners in the four years of the war on terror, enough to nearly fill the country's largest football stadium.

The administration defends the practice of holding detainees in prisons from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay as a critical tool to stop the insurgency in Iraq, maintain stability in Afghanistan and get known and suspected terrorists off the streets.

About 14 500 detainees remain in US custody, primarily in Iraq.

The number has steadily grown since the first CIA paramilitary officers arrived in Afghanistan in 2001, setting up more than 20 facilities including the "Salt Pit", an abandoned factory outside Kabul used for CIA detention and interrogation.

Complaints of human-rights abuse

In Iraq, the number in military custody hit a peak on November 1, according to military figures. Nearly 13 900 suspects were in US custody there that day - partly because US offensives in western Iraq put pressure on insurgents before the October constitutional referendum and December parliamentary elections.

The detentions and interrogations have brought complaints from Congress and human-rights groups about how the detainees - often Arab and male - are treated.

International law and treaty obligations forbid torture and inhumane treatment. Classified memos have given the government ways to extract intelligence from detainees "consistent with the law," administration officials often say.

In Congress, senator John McCain is leading a campaign to ban cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners in US custody. The administration says the legislation could tie the president's hands, and vice president Dick Cheney has pressed to exempt the CIA.

Some detainees held for years

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. And so you bet we will aggressively pursue them. But we will do so under the law," President Bush said last week.

Some 82 400 people have been detained by the military alone in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to figures from officials in Baghdad and Washington. Many are freed shortly after initial questioning.

To put that in context, the capacity of the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field, the NFL's largest, is 91 704. The second largest, Giants Stadium, holds 80 242.

In Iraq, the defense department says 5 569 detainees have been held for more than six months, and 3 801 have been held more than a year. Some 229 have been locked up for more than two years.

Many have been questioned by military officials trained at the main US interrogation school, Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Pentagon officials say those mistreated are relatively few when the sheer numbers are considered.

- SAPA