2.18.2006
Defiant US Presses on with Construction of Maximum-Security Prison Complex (Telegraph.co.uk)
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 17/02/2006)
America is pressing ahead with the construction of a complex of high-security jails at Guantanamo Bay despite calls from the United Nations for the prison camp to be closed.
The US military has just finished building a $16 million (£9 million) 100-bed maximum-security prison, and a second jail capable of holding 200 prisoners is due to be completed this summer.
Senior officers at Guantanamo say they aim to have all of the 500 detainees currently held at the US Naval base housed in the maximum security prisons, which are based on a state-of-the-art jail in Idaho.
Work on the jails is continuing despite a call from the authors of a UN human rights report for the immediate closure of Guantanamo and prosecution of American officials found guilty of torturing the inmates.
The White House last night dismissed the report as a "discredit to the UN". "They haven't even looked into the facts, all they've done is look at the allegations," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "We know that al-Qa'eda terrorists are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations."
(More ... Telegraph | News | Defiant US presses on with construction of maximum-security prison complex) ¶ 18:41
(Filed: 17/02/2006)
America is pressing ahead with the construction of a complex of high-security jails at Guantanamo Bay despite calls from the United Nations for the prison camp to be closed.
The US military has just finished building a $16 million (£9 million) 100-bed maximum-security prison, and a second jail capable of holding 200 prisoners is due to be completed this summer.
Senior officers at Guantanamo say they aim to have all of the 500 detainees currently held at the US Naval base housed in the maximum security prisons, which are based on a state-of-the-art jail in Idaho.
Work on the jails is continuing despite a call from the authors of a UN human rights report for the immediate closure of Guantanamo and prosecution of American officials found guilty of torturing the inmates.
The White House last night dismissed the report as a "discredit to the UN". "They haven't even looked into the facts, all they've done is look at the allegations," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "We know that al-Qa'eda terrorists are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations."
(More ... Telegraph | News | Defiant US presses on with construction of maximum-security prison complex) ¶ 18:41
