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Terror Suspect Photos Spark Pentagon Probe
Saturday, November 9, 2002
(0:36 GMT)
The BBC

Officials do not know who took the photographs.
Image Credit: l'Agence France-Presse.

"There is no indication that the treatment of the prisoners is not in accord with official procedures. It is the taking and distributing of the pictures that is a concern."

The Pentagon is investigating how unauthorised photographs apparently showing terror suspects in transit on an American military aircraft have appeared on the internet.

A series of four pictures showing detainees blindfolded and restrained while being guarded by US military personnel were sent to news organisations and were published on the website of a US radio host.

The photographs are the first of their kind showing the security measures used in transporting prisoners captured in Afghanistan to have reached the public domain.

The pictures appeared on a website.
Image Credit: l'Agence France-Presse.

America's treatment of detainees has been a source of controversy, with civil liberties groups accusing the US of violating the suspects' rights under international law.

The United States has said it does not recognise the suspects as prisoners-of-war (PoW), but as illegal combatants for whom the Geneva Convention on the treatment of PoWs does not apply.

* Human rights
(More: BBC Online News Source)
2002 © The British Broadcasting Corporation.

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Dan