Military 'dealt swiftly' with Guantanamo abuse complaints

Military chiefs responsible for running the Guantanamo Bay prison housing Taliban and al-Qaida suspects said cases of prisoner abuse were dealt with quickly to prevent the type of scandal plaguing US officials in Iraq.

One prisoner was pepper-sprayed, another was hit repeatedly with a clock radio and a third was hosed down by a guard at the Cuba camp where 600 men are being held for alleged ties to Afghanistan’s fallen Taliban regime or Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network.

Swiftly and quietly, investigators dealt with the three formal complaints, military officials said.

Two of the guards were demoted in rank and a third was acquitted in a court martial, according to Raoul Duany, a civilian spokesman for the US Southern Command in Miami.

The first complaint surfaced in September 2002 when an army reserve specialist was accused of spraying a detainee with a fire hose. The detainee allegedly threw food and water at the passing guard who worked in the sprawling Camp Delta prison.

The guard was demoted in rank and reassigned, Duany said.

In April 2003, a detainee reportedly assaulted a guard, who then struck him twice on the head with a clock radio, Duany said.

The guard was also demoted and given 45 days of extra duty and reassigned. It was not clear if either guard was still in Guantanamo.

In the third incident, a US Air Force reserve staff sergeant was accused of using pepper spray on a detainee. The officer said he felt threatened and was acquitted of the charges.

“The cases were dealt with expeditiously so the message got across,” said Duany. “When people get to Guantanamo you get briefed on military justice, the Geneva Conventions, right use of force, and you get these briefings with continuous repetition.

"We feel confident of the procedures that we have in place at Guantanamo.”

Nevertheless, the Pentagon sent an assessment team to investigate prisoner treatment and other conditions at Guantanamo. The team is expected to issue the findings of its report in the next few months.

In its harshest rebuke yet, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in October it found the mental condition of the detainees at Guantanamo “worrying”. The Geneva-based group is the only independent group with access to the detainees.

None of the men has been charged with any crime and many have been held for more than two years with no end in sight to their trials or releases.

Officials say Guantanamo has been run professionally – not like the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq where an American guard informed commanders in January of abuses inflicted by colleagues.

The probe has since widened into a look at whether there was systematic abuse at detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

Pictures, which became public last week, show smiling American guards stripping Iraqi prisoners and sexually humiliating them.

Army Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller, who was the commander of the detention mission in Guantanamo Bay from November to 2002 to March of 2004, has been named to be the new commander of Abu Ghraib, promising sweeping reforms.