Rumsfeld: Panel to review Guantanamo detainees yearly
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Detainees are being held at the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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(CNN) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday a panel will annually review the cases of suspected terrorists detained at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The panel will make the final decision about whether the suspects remain a threat or should be released, Rumsfeld said in a speech to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce in Florida, adding some detainees may stay there indefinitely.
"America is a nation at war," Rumsfeld said. "It is a war we did not ask for, but it is a war we must fight. It is a war we must win and we will. ... Detaining 'enemy combatants' is a part of that war."
Many details of the reviews have not been worked out yet, including the composition of the panel, Pentagon officials said, according to The Associated Press.
None of the more than 600 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere after the September 11, 2001, attacks has been charged. They are being held at a maximum-security prison at the naval base.
Critics -- including a number of countries -- have opposed the absence of trials and access to defense lawyers.
Rumsfeld defended the practice, saying the detainees had not been mistreated or tortured and have provided critical intelligence. "They are being treated with the appropriate care and, yes, compassion that they did not show our people," he said.
Some continue to say they want to kill, Rumsfeld said. "The reason for their detention is that they're dangerous," he said, and keeping them off the battlefield is "just plain common sense."
During interrogation, a number of the detainees have revealed al Qaeda leadership structures, methods of funding, communication, training and travel as well as plans to attack the United States and other countries, he said.
The United States is working to release those who no longer pose a threat or no longer possess intelligence that could prove useful to U.S. authorities, he said. Already, 87 have been released, he said.
In cases of people not guilty of war crimes but still considered a threat, "the United States government would prefer to transfer [them] to their native countries for detention and/or prosecution," he said, adding that U.S. officials are negotiating with countries for such transfers.
"A few have already been returned to their home country for continued detention [or] prosecution," he said.
Rumsfeld noted the circumstances surrounding some cases are ambiguous -- not only because of the chaos of war but also because some of the detainees "violated laws of war" by wearing civilian clothes and carrying multiple identifications -- "in one case, 13 aliases."
"The United States has no desire to hold enemy combatants any longer than is absolutely necessary," he said. Still, some could be detained "for the duration of the conflict."
Rumsfeld said the idea of detaining people without lawyers or trials "seems unusual -- after all, our country stands for freedom and the protection of rights."
But, he said, critics typically consider such issues in terms of criminal law rather than the law of war -- and the two are different. "They're not common criminals," he said. "They're enemy combatants and terrorists who are being detained for acts of war against our country, and that is why different rules have to apply."
The defense chief said the suspects will be accorded a number of rights, including the presumption of innocence, the ability to appeal their detentions, the requirement that proof beyond a reasonable doubt be the standard for detention, the right to counsel, the right to present evidence or witnesses, the right to cross-examine and the right not to testify.
Exculpatory evidence will be required to be given to the defense, and double jeopardy will be barred, Rumsfeld said. The proceedings also will be open "to the maximum extent practical," he said.
The continued detentions have been a source of tension between the United States and two key allies in the war on terrorism, Britain and Australia.
Britons and Australians are among those held without trial at Guantanamo Bay, and the London and Canberra governments have been pressing for a resolution of their cases.
In December, three U.S. senators visited the facility and asked the Bush administration to come forward with plans to try the detainees or return them to their countries. (Full story)
Later this year the U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases filed by the families of men in the detention facility.
A list of prominent former judges, prisoners of war, human rights groups and retired military officials are protesting the detention in briefs filed with the court. (Full story)
One of the critics, Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, called Rumsfeld's assertion that the laws of war should apply "unacceptable".
According to Ratner, the war on terror is not a conventional war, and the rules that apply for a conventional war do not apply. He accused the Bush administration of calling its campaign against terrorism a "war" in order to adopt the looser rules that apply to military conflicts.
He said that the war against terrorism "will go on forever. That means that people will be held forever."
Instead of having their fate determined by a panel appointed by the Bush administration, the detainees should have their cases heard in regularly constituted courts, Ratner said.
"Every single human being deserves a hearing before a process that's fair, independent and in which they have a meaningful right to defend themselves," he said.
Ratner said the only reason Rumsfeld had even broached the issue was because the U.S. Supreme Court plans to address it soon. The Center for Constitutional Rights represents some of the detainees in the case.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
