"I will acknowledge that the ICRC should have been notified about this prisoner earlier," Whitman said

WASHINGTON, June 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered a secret detention of an Iraqi detainee without giving him an identification number so that he can be hided from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"The director of central intelligence (George Tenet) wanted him held without notification while the CIA worked to determine his value," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Reuters Thursday, June 17.

Whitman confirmed a report by the New York Times that Tenet - who recently resigned as CIA chief - had asked Rumsfeld to make the move last year after the "high-value" detainee, was captured.

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

"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."

The detainee was a suspected member of the Ansar al-Islam group, and was held for seven months from last November.

The report came as the United States continued to conduct a major investigation into the abuse, including sexual humiliation, of detainees by the US military in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recent reports indicated the torture was okayed by senior Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld and the top US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.

The Washington Post said Saturday, June 12, that Sanchez, gave free reign to US officers in charge of Abu Ghraib prison to adopt various torture and abuse tactics used at the US detention center in Guantanamo.

No Notification

The man has been held at Camp Cropper, a high-security facility near Baghdad Airport.

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 detainees in Iraq are treated humanely and strictly under rules of war established by the ICRC, the Times said the detainee and other so-called "ghost detainees" were hidden largely to prevent the ICRC from monitoring their treatment and conditions.

In March, Antonio Taguba, the US Army officer who investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib, criticized the practice of allowing ghost detainees as "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

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.

"Once he was placed in military custody, people lost track of him," a senior intelligence official told the New York Times.

The development came a few days after the ICRC stressed that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, along with other Iraqi prisoners, must either be released from the custody of the US occupation or charged by June 30, when the new Iraqi government takes over in accordance with international law.

The ICRC announcement followed statements by a US occupation spokesman that the military will keep between 4,000 and 5,000 Iraq prisoners in its custody after the power transfer.