The Pentagon will immediately begin its planned annual reviews for 600 foreign terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to determine whether some should be released, a senior official said last night.
US Navy Secretary Gordon England, who will make final decisions in each case, said the Defense Department will contact other governments next week to get information on their citizens to three-member US military boards.
"I would hope that in a matter of weeks we will actually have the boards meeting and making determinations - that is recommendations to me," Mr England said of the hearings, which will be closed to the public and reporters.
The reviews will come amid widespread criticism of US abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Human rights groups have protested the lengthy detention of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and held, some for years, at Guantanamo without a hearing. A report this week in the New York Timessaid US officials have repeatedly exaggerated the intelligence value of Guantanamo detainees, as well as the danger they pose.
Mr England said detainees, who will have a right to testify at the secret hearings, would be released unless they were determined to be a threat to the United States or its allies, or were still of some intelligence value to Washington.
"It's not guilt or innocence. It's what is the situation today and going forward in terms of a threat to America," he said.