Topic: Pentagon: No Prisoners Have AIDS At Gitmo

Miami Herald
February 1, 2008 By Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico--No Guantánamo Bay captives have AIDS or the AIDS virus, the military said Friday, denying a claim made by a detainee through his lawyer.
''No detainee has HIV or AIDS, nor have any had HIV or AIDS here at Guantánamo,'' said Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, the prison camps' spokesman.
Libyan detainee Abdul Hamid Abdul Salam al Ghizzawi said in a January letter that prison camps doctors at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba had diagnosed him with AIDS, according to attorney H. Candace Gorman.
Gorman said she had been unable to confirm her client's claim, and asked the Supreme Court to release of his medical records. The justices rejected the request on Tuesday.
The Navy commander had previously declined to comment on any individual detainee's health, citing privacy restrictions. Friday he said authorities reviewed health records and determined that no detainee has had HIV or AIDS.
Gorman did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
She said Ghizzawi, who has been held at Guantánamo without charges since June 2002, appeared seriously ill when she visited him in December.
The U.S. holds about 275 men at Guantánamo on suspicion of terrorism or links to al Qaeda or the Taliban and says it plans to prosecute about 80.
A 68-year-old Afghan detainee died from cancer at the prison Dec. 30, and four prisoners have committed suicide.