U.N. urges U.S. to shut down Guantanamo

GENEVA -- The United States should shut down the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay and either release the detainees or put them on trial, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday.\nThe world body also called on the United States to refrain from practices that "amount to torture."\nThe White House rejected the recommendation to shut the prison.\n"These are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about that are there," spokesman Scott McClellan said.\nMcClellan dismissed the report as a "rehash" of allegations previously made by lawyers for some detainees and said the military treats all prisoners \nhumanely.\n"We know that al-Qaida terrorists are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations," McClellan said.\nThe report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts who did not visit Guantanamo, said photographic evidence and testimony of former prisoners showed that detainees were shackled, chained, hooded and beaten if they resisted.\nSome interrogation techniques -- particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme \ntemperatures, sleep deprivation for several consecutive days and prolonged isolation -- caused extreme suffering, the report said.\n"Such treatment amounts to torture," it said, urging the United States "to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."\nIt also said Guantanamo's military commissions are under the ultimate authority of the White House and that detainees should have trials.\n"The persons held at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to challenge the legality of their detention before a judicial body," the report concluded. "This right is currently being violated."\nThe European Parliament echoed the call to shut Guantanamo, saying in a resolution that "every prisoner should be treated in accordance with international humanitarian law and tried without delay in a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent, impartial tribunal."\nAmnesty International said the report was only the "tip of the iceberg."\n"The United States also operates detention facilities at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq and has been implicated in the use of secret detention facilities in other countries," the human rights group said in a statement.\nThe U.N. report's findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government.\nThe United States is holding about 500 men at the U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba. The detainees are accused of having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or al-Qaida, though only 10 have been charged since the detention camp opened in January 2001.\nIn a response included at the end of the report, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. offices in Geneva said investigators had taken little account of evidence against the abuse allegations provided by the United States and had rejected an invitation to visit Guantanamo.\n"It is particularly unfortunate that the special rapporteurs rejected the invitation and that their unedited report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided," Ambassador Kevin Moley wrote.\nAlthough Moley's statement did not address specific allegations, the Pentagon has acknowledged 10 cases of abuse since the detentions began at Guantanamo, including a female interrogator climbing onto a detainee's lap and a detainee whose knees were bruised from being forced to kneel \nrepeatedly.\nPentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the report "clearly suffers from their unwillingness to take us up on our offer to go down to Guantanamo to observe firsthand the operations at Guantanamo, and so it is certainly a serious shortcoming of any report they have written."\nWhitman said if the detainees were released they "would return to the battlefield."\nHuman rights activists supported the investigators' findings.\n"Instead of disparaging these respected monitors, the United States should listen to what the world is saying," said Reed Brody, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch in New York. "The United States must release detainees it has no authority to hold, provide trials to detainees believed to have committed crimes and prosecute those involved in the torture and mistreatment of captives." \nThe five U.N. experts had sought invitations from the United States to visit Guantanamo since 2002. Three were invited last year, but refused to go in November after being told they could not interview detainees.\nThe International Committee of the Red Cross has been allowed to visit Guantanamo detainees, but the organization keeps its findings confidential, reporting them solely to U.S. authorities. Some reports have been leaked by what the organization calls third parties.\nThe report also concluded that the particular status of Guantanamo Bay under the international lease agreement between the United States and Cuba did not limit Washington's obligations under international human rights law toward those detained there.\nAssociated Press reporter Alexander G. Higgins contributed to this report.