U.S. military: Some detainees refuse hearings at Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Four Guantanamo Bay prisoners have refused to participate in U.S. military review hearings, leaving a panel of officers to examine the cases without testimony from the detainees, military officials said Wednesday.

That news was confirmed as Navy Secretary Gordon England was to visit the naval base to observe the review hearings, called to examine the status of hundreds of terror suspects held at the prison and to determine whether they should remain in detention.

Four detainees - two from Yemen, one from Saudi Arabia and one from Morocco - whose cases came up Monday and Tuesday "chose not to participate in the process," said Cmdr. Beci Brenton, a Navy spokeswoman.

"These are just four detainees who have historically not cooperated," Brenton said. "They've not interacted with interrogators."

A 49-year-old Yemeni was captured in battle with an AK-47 automatic rifle, Brenton said, while a 24-year-old Yemeni is accused of being a Taliban member with links to al-Qaida.

The 29-year-old Saudi fought in Afghanistan and later was captured in Pakistan, Brenton said. The Moroccan, 32, allegedly was a Taliban fighter captured by the Northern Alliance.

Two other detainees - a 24-year-old Algerian and a 24-year-old Yemeni - went before the review panel Friday and Saturday, and the second one summoned a fellow detainee as a witness, Brenton said.

The military contends the Yemeni was fighting in Afghanistan and signed an oath to Osama bin Laden. The Algerian allegedly traveled from France to Afghanistan with the help of al-Qaida and trained at a camp, Brenton said.

The detainees who appeared have not been charged and have been at Guantanamo for up to 2 1/2 years, officials said.

Recommendations by the three-member military panel have yet to be announced. Reporters will be allowed inside hearings starting Thursday, but the military says it will close portions deemed classified. Reporters are not allowed to name any prisoners.

Human rights groups criticize the process as a sham, saying the three officers assigned to hear cases cannot be considered impartial and each detainee should be allowed a lawyer.

"What you have is a process that would be suitable for resolving a dispute over a parking ticket. It's not an acceptable process," said Amnesty International's Alistair Hodgett. "It's really an after-the-fact justification for detaining people without charge or fair trial."

All 585 detainees at the U.S. base have been deemed "enemy combatants" suspected of ties to al-Qaida or the ousted Taliban regime of Afghanistan.

The military set up review panels after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that prisoners have a right to challenge their detention in American courts.

Defense lawyers say they fear the hearings could allow the government to argue in court that cases require no additional outside review.

Though a federal judge in Washington refused a Tuesday request to halt hearings for two Algerians, defense lawyers said they were pleased that Judge Richard Leon nevertheless said statements made by detainees during reviews can be excluded from court proceedings.

The review panels are separate from a military tribunal being set up to try at least four detainees, starting with pretrial hearings later this month.

Military lawyer Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, representing Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, said he has objected to being barred from his review hearing because it could harm his client's case at trial. Hamdan is charged with conspiracy to attack civilians, to murder and to commit terrorism.

Each detainee is being assigned a military officer as a "personal representative" at his review. But Swift said the officer, like panel members, is functionally a "government agent" who will not act in Hamdan's best interest.

The reviews came as three freed British detainees claimed in a report in The Guardian newspaper that they suffered systematic brutality. A report compiled by their lawyers was due to be released later Wednesday.

The military denies any major abuse at Guantanamo, though it has confirmed that two guards were demoted and a third was acquitted in a court martial after detainee complaints.