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Administration works on detainee strategy

By Barbara Starr and Major Garrett
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Within a week to 10 days, the Bush administration hopes to complete its strategy on how to deal with the detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to Pentagon officials.

The National Security Council was soliciting recommendations from the Justice, Defense and State departments on a range of issues regarding treatment and legal disposition of the detainees.

Senior administration officials would not commit to a date for the White House announcement on detainee policy but said it would be set forth in "one, coherent package."

VIDEO The Pentagon insists international criticism over the treatment of detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is misplaced and misinformed. CNN's Jamie McIntyre reports. (January 22) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

"What you want to do is present a framework, a coherent, intellectually consistent definition of the way the government is going to deal with these people," said one senior administration official.

"Lawyers are being asked to do what lawyers do and any guess on when they will be through is a sucker's bet," said another official.

The strategy would include the following elements, according to one official:

-- The overall criteria for how detainees will be dealt with. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said some will be sent to tribunals, some to criminal courts, and some back to their home countries. And some, he said, could be held indefinitely.

The Justice Department is now weighing in on what types of detainees, if any, it will take custody of for potential prosecution in the U.S. court system.

Much will depend on the interrogations the detainees have undergone already and coming rounds of interrogations in Cuba aimed at gleaning as much intelligence as possible from them.

U.S. officials said both military and civilian justice officials would conduct the coming interrogations at the base.

-- Whether military judicial proceedings would be referred to as commissions or tribunals; exactly how they would be organized; who would serve on them; and the criteria for detainees being sent to such proceedings.

One key concern is providing long-term personal security for those who serve at such proceedings.

-- Whether any of the detainees -- especially Afghan Taliban fighters -- could appropriately be classified as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Navy Muslim chaplain was expected to arrive at the naval base late Tuesday. He will advise U.S. military officials on Islamic issues and be available to meet with detainees if they wish, according to a Navy official.