A US general denied today that prisoners had been tortured while he was in charge of the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
Brigadier-General Rick Baccus was responding to claims by British detainees that they were beaten and humiliated at the camp, where more than 600 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are held without charge or access to lawyers.
"Things such as stress positions or any other kind of manipulation were not done, while I was there at least, at Guantanamo," he told BBC radio.
US interrogation techniques have come under fire amid revelations of abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib jail outside Baghdad, in which prisoners were kept naked, piled in pyramids, and forced to engage in sex acts.
Australian prisoners David Hicks and Egyptian-born Mamdouh Habib, who have been held at Guantanamo for more than two years, said last month they had been beaten and tortured. Australian officials who visited Cuba said the claims were unfounded.
British detainees Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal said last month they had been "short-shackled" - forced to squat with their hands chained between their legs and fastened to the floor for hours while they were questioned.
Other interrogation techniques included the use of dogs to frighten prisoners, sexual humiliation, strobe lights, loud music and freezing air to add to their discomfort, they said.
A third British detainee, Tarek Dergoul, said he had been pepper-sprayed and forcibly shaved.
"There was no forced shaving whatsoever," said Brig Baccus, who came under pressure for being too soft on the detainees and left the post in October 2002."I'm sure that situations maybe in their minds have been considered harsh or inhumane treatment. Certainly while I was there, and having witnessed the British detainees and moved them around, they were treated in a humane manner at all times."
Many of those held at Guantanamo were captured in Afghanistan after the United States toppled the Taliban regime. US policy is that the Geneva Convention establishing the rights of prisoners of war does not apply to the detainees.