*EPF404 06/17/2004
Defense Department Report, June 17: Iraq Operational Update
(U.S. did detain an unregistered Iraqi terrorist, Rumsfeld says) (550)

U.S. military forces in Iraq detained a known, high-ranking Iraqi terrorist for seven months without notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross at the specific request of CIA Director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said June 17.

At a Pentagon news briefing, Rumsfeld said the detainee, who has not been named, was not mistreated and was not lost in the military prison system in Iraq.

"I was requested by the director of central intelligence to take custody of an Iraqi national who was believed to be a high-ranking member of [the terrorist group] Ansar al-Islam," he said. "And we did so. We were asked to not immediately register the individual. And we did that."

Rumsfeld would not disclose the reasons for not identifying the detainee before now, but said, "we are in the process of registering" the man. He said the status of the detainee was brought to the attention of senior-level Pentagon staff late last month.

"He has been treated humanely. There's no implication of any problem. He was not at Abu Ghraib [military prison]. He is not there now. He has never been there to my knowledge," Rumsfeld said. A separate Army investigation has been underway at the Abu Ghraib prison for improprieties committed by several military guards beginning late last year against approximately 20 Iraqi detainees.

Rumsfeld and Marine General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there are circumstances where it would be logical for the CIA and U.S. forces operating in Iraq to want a detainee to remain unregistered for a time. It could be for security reasons, not wanting the enemy to know they have him, or it could be to keep knowledge of his capture from warning enemy forces before they could be stopped from carrying out some type of operation, the officials said.

In this instance, the detainee was identified as an Iraqi unlawful combatant, placing him outside the Geneva Conventions.

But Rumsfeld said all prisoners being held in Iraq are being treated humanely and are not being tortured, contrary to published press reports. He said the incidents at the Abu Ghraib military prison that were reported by the U.S. Army earlier this year are not consistent with U.S. policies and military regulations.

"This is a very serious business the United States is involved in," Rumsfeld said. "The president said people will be treated humanely, and that is what the orders are. That's what the requirements are."

Daniel Dell'Orto, principal deputy general counsel at the Defense Department, said the Red Cross serial number normally given to each detainee and enemy prisoner should have been registered sooner.

"In terms of access, for purposes of imperative military necessity, the Red Cross could be denied access for some period of time to deal with the sorts of things the secretary has indicated," he said. "We believe that, again, we should have registered him much sooner than we did. It didn't have to be at the very instant we brought him into our custody."

Dell'Orto said registration is an issue that will have to be examined.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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