JURIST - Paper Chase: US to investigate alleged abuse of Australian Gitmo detainees

The Bush administration has promised the Australian government that it will investigate allegations that two Australians being held at Guantanamo Bay were abused in US custody. Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced Friday that his government was conducting its own investigation of the claims. The men, David Hicks and Mamdouhh Habib, were first captured in 2001 and have been held at Guantanamo for over two years. The Sydney Morning Herald has more. Hicks' lawyer has claimed that there is videotaped evidence of Hicks' abuse (Friday's Melbourne Age has more) and a recently-freed British former detainee at Guantanamo is quoted in Saturday's Australian as saying that he saw Habib "dazed and bleeding" from a beating by US personnel.

UPDATE: AP reports that the international Red Cross will return to Guatanamo Bay at the end of the month for inspections of the facility and inmate conditions.