US to release secret orders on interrogating prisoners

THE Pentagon will release secret orders from US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on interrogating terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay following intense criticism of US treatment of prisoners.

The officials said some details of guidelines issued by Mr Rumsfeld earlier this year would be made public quickly in order to show that some 600 Taliban and al-Qaida suspects held at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay were not being tortured.

Treatment of the Guantanamo detainees, including interrogation methods, has come under scrutiny after a major scandal over abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by US forces at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.