British man among al-Qaida prisoners
A British man is among those being held prisoner by the US at Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, the British Foreign Office has confirmed.
He is one of 20 al-Qaida prisoners transferred from Afghanistan to the remote Caribbean facility and is currently being held in maximum security outdoor cages.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that the US authorities have informed us that one UK national has been transferred to Guantanamo. At present we are trying to ascertain his identity."
A number of Britons were believed to have been fighting on behalf of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The US insists the International Red Cross will be allowed to examine the treatment of the prisoners after concerns were raised about their human rights.
The men are the first of an expected 2,000 to be transported to the top security naval base, which is surrounded by shark-infested waters, two electrified razor wire fences and a minefield.
The prisoners are being held in make-shift buildings made up of chain link fences and canvas roofs, in razor-wire pens. Each of the compounds is being lit 24 hours a day so guards can constantly monitor their activities, and the prisoners are dressed in orange jump suits will have access only to a mattress on a concrete floor.
Human rights groups voiced concern that the prisoners were being kept in the poor conditions, while senior Labour MP Donald Anderson warned the US and the rest of the international coalition not to "descend to their level".
But a spokesman for the US military said the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent would have access to the prisoners "to verify to the world that they are being treated as humanely as possible under the circumstances". The circumstances, the spokesman said, were that they had shown their ability to inflict harm and murder people.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the men were not prisoners of war but "unlawful combatants" and therefore had no rights under the Geneva Convention.
