Group says U.S. should investigate allegations military torture

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- A human rights group demanded that Washington investigate reports the United States tortured prisoners at secret detention facilities overseas, including one in Afghanistan, allegations that the U.S. military denied Saturday.

"U.S. officials who take part in torture, authorize it, or even close their eyes to it, can be prosecuted by courts anywhere in the world," the Human Rights Watch said in a statement Friday.

At Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where some of the abuse allegedly occurred, a U.S. military spokesman denied the allegations. He said prisoners held at a detention facility off-limits to the press are allowed to meet with representatives of the international Red Cross every week.

"The accusation of inhumane treatment is something that I can clearly refute. The things that they talked about, the inhumane conditions ... are things that do not go on here," Maj. Steve Clutter said Saturday, referring to a Washington Post article published earlier in the week.

The Post article quoted anonymous intelligence officials as saying suspected al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners had been subjected to so-called "stress and duress" techniques such as forcing inmates to stand for hours in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, holding them in "awkward, painful positions," and depriving them of medical care or sleep with a "24-hour bombardment of lights."

Human Rights Watch said President Bush's administration "must promptly investigate and address allegations of torture of suspected al-Qaida detainees or risk criminal prosecution."

The Washington Post said U.S. military police or U.S. Special Forces troops have beaten captured suspects and said "alleged terrorists are commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep."

Clutter said delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross visited the 60 or so prisoners at Bagram every week. He said prisoners had full access to medical care, were fed hot meals three times a day, and were given heat during the winter.

The Post article described its anonymous sources as "several former intelligence officials and 10 current U.S. national security officials -- including several people who witnessed the handling of prisoners." It said national security officials interviewed "defended the use of violence against captives as just and necessary."

U.S. Army investigators are looking into the deaths of two Afghan prisoners who died in U.S. custody at Bagram earlier this month. Initial autopsies performed by coalition medical teams found that one inmate died of a pulmonary embolism and the second died of a heart attack, the U.S. military has said.