Bob Franken: Red Cross meets with detainees

Franken

(CNN) -- Red Cross officials have been interviewing Afghan war detainees and inspecting their living conditions at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

CNN Correspondent Bob Franken, reporting from Guantanamo, talked with CNN's Daryn Kagan about this latest development.

FRANKEN: The chief Washington representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross spoke for a few minutes at the airport just as he was leaving to go back to Washington.

Here are the highlights of the conversation. He would not share any of the confidential impressions that came along. But he said, "We have privacy. We have total access with the detainees." They were able to give them cigarettes.

CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

He strongly suggested that when the conversations are going on, these detainees are not shackled, that they shake hands. They have seen only seen 30 of the detainees and the reason for that, he said, is because of the complete access. So they can see them as long as they want. The average conversation, he said, has gone from 45 minutes to an hour.

He said that the Red Cross has made recommendations to the officials here at Camp X-Ray, some of which have already been followed. He would not be more specific. He said that this is going to be an ongoing process. Two of the four members of the [Red Cross] delegation are going to stay while others go back and formulate some of their impressions and their suggestions and report them to the United States.

He would not characterize at all the conversations except to say that the U.S. officials were very open with them and were willing to hear those suggestions. It's the first word from the Red Cross officials since they began their inspections last week.

One thing that was quite interesting is he said that the impressions from outside groups often times are not the same ones that you will have from people who have actually seen the conditions. You cannot really draw too much from what he said. The suggestion, however, is that there were some distortions out there in what he termed a vibrant debate.

KAGAN: This head of the Red Cross didn't want to be more specific right now, but any indication that this report or some kind of report will be made public?

FRANKEN: To the contrary, actually. He said that one of their tools of the trade is confidentiality, that all of this is really handled in a specific way, in a confidential way, and then of course if the Red Cross feels that abuses are really significant, it can use the power of its reputation to -- in a general way, at least -- bring pressure on the countries that are involved. But at the moment, he said, he's getting the cooperation that he needs.