Iraqis detained by the U.S. occupation forces might be sent to Guantanamo

WASHINGTON, March 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The U.S. administration mulls now shipping some detained Iraqi civilians - accused by the U.S. of belonging to paramilitary squads – to the controversial detention center at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a mass-circulation U.S. newspaper reported Sunday, March 30.

Marines patrolling Nasiriyah and other areas of heavy fighting have already detained more than 300 men in civilian clothes in an attempt to head off any future bombing operations, the Washington Post said.

"You round them up - that way they're not a threat," said a senior Marine officer.

The roundups are part of a shift to unconventional warfare by U.S. commanders in response to the hit-and-run attacks launched by Saddam's paramilitary Fedayeen and Baath Party fighters on overstretched U.S. supply lines, the Post said.

U.S. officers say they recognize that roundups of men who appear to be civilians, and who may or may not be armed, will be among the most controversial tactics they could employ, and, if applied indiscriminately, could undermine their campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people.

They argue that they have little choice on a battlefield where they say the paramilitaries have been disguising themselves as villagers, opening fire after staging fake surrenders and intimidating others into fighting for them, the daily added.

"These are bad guys and it would be insane to let them roam the battlefield," said a senior officer who did not want to be identified.

Soliciting Iraqi Defectors

Feeling helpless before the praise-worthy and stiff Iraqi resistance, the U.S. occupation forces are also trying to enlist Iraqis opposing the Iraqi regime to help root out the Iraqi fighters in the towns along the highways leading to Baghdad.

U.S. helicopters have been dropping leaflets over Nasiriyah soliciting assistance, and the top Marine commander in Iraq said today that he might eventually distribute captured weapons to Iraqi civilians to help them rise against President Saddam Hussein.

“It is incumbent upon us to eliminate the death squads keeping the people under their boot,” the daily quoted as saying Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, who leads 85,000 Marines and British ground troops.

To do that, he said, U.S. forces need good intelligence on the “enemy's” headquarters and leadership "and then we hit them . . . overtly and covertly."

Those who “violated the international covenants of war” will be declared illegal combatants and sent to Guantanamo Bay to be detained with al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan, U.S. military officers said.

Asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" whether the United States was satisfied that the seven known American POWs were being treated humanely by Iraq, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "I don't think we are yet." He said the United States is holding more than 4,000 Iraqi POWs.

The issue of prisoners detained by the U.S. has stirred controversy since the war in Afghanistan with the human rights watchdogs and organizations censuring the U.S. for the deplorable conditions suffered by the detainees in Guantanamo.

The detainees have been incarcerated for months without without trials or other legal rights.

The United States has sent 681 prisoners to Guantanamo Bay and released 21, for a current inmate count of 660, according to U.S. authorities.