Bush Backs Rumsfeld in Hiding of Iraq Prisoner

Charles Aldinger, Reuters

President Bush voiced support for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday after the Pentagon said Rumsfeld ordered the detention of a terrorist suspect in Iraq who was held for more than seven months without notifying the Red Cross.

"I’m never disappointed in my secretary of defense. He’s doing a fabulous job and America’s lucky to have him in the position he’s in," Bush told reporters at the White House when asked if he was disappointed at Rumsfeld’s move.

"The secretary and I discussed that for the first time this morning," added Bush, sitting next to Rumsfeld. He noted that the secretary had called a news conference later in the day and would address the issue.

Bush has stood firmly by Rumsfeld amid continuing calls for his resignation from some Democrats in Congress and other critics, who say the U.S. invasion of Iraq was not justified and that the Pentagon was ill-prepared to deal with the violence that has continued in that country.

Earlier on Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed that Rumsfeld ordered military officials to hold a suspected member of the Ansar al-Islam guerrilla group last November at the request of CIA Director George Tenet without telling the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Washington has linked Ansar al-Islam to al Qaeda and blames the group for some attacks in Iraq.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters the United States was now moving to end the shadowy status of the man, who was not identified, and allow access to him by the ICRC.

Both assigning a prisoner number and notifying the Red Cross are required under the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian laws.

RED CROSS WILL BE NOTIFIED

"I will acknowledge that the ICRC should have been notified about this prisoner earlier," Whitman said. "He will be assigned an identification number and, if appropriate, moved into the general prison population."

Whitman said it was appropriate to hold detainees for brief periods without notification if they were viewed as an "active threat" in wartime. But he acknowledged that the man was held too long under those conditions in this case.

In March, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, the U.S. Army officer who investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, criticized the practice of allowing so-called "ghost detainees" as "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

News of the man’s detention came as the United States continued to conduct a major investigation into the abuse, including sexual humiliation, of prisoners by the U.S. military in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Whitman confirmed a report in Thursday’s New York Times that Tenet — who has announced plans to leave his CIA post in July — had asked Rumsfeld to order the detention last year after the "high-value" detainee, believed to have been actively involved in planning attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq, was captured.

"The director of central intelligence (Tenet) wanted him held without notification while the CIA worked to determine his value," Whitman said.

The man has been held at Camp Cropper, a high-security facility near Baghdad Airport, and had apparently been lost in the system in recent months, according to other U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified. Whitman said the military’s Central Command had recently sought clarification from the Pentagon on the status of the detainee.

"He has been treated humanely," Whitman told Reuters.

Although the United States says that all prisoners in Iraq are treated humanely and strictly under rules of war established by the Red Cross, the Times said the prisoner and other so-called "ghost detainees" were hidden largely to prevent the ICRC from monitoring their treatment and conditions. WASHINGTON (Reuters)

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