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Coble tours site in Cuba
By JOHN WAGNER, Washington Correspondent, News & Observer

With most of the world focusing this week on conditions at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, U.S. Rep. Howard Coble led a small delegation to the site of another detainee facility: the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Greensboro Republican said he wanted to see firsthand the conditions of the approximately 600 al Qaeda and Taliban suspects still being held after their capture during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Conditions at the base have drawn international criticism, and the Defense Department has acknowledged isolated cases of abuse.

Coble said that after a daylong visit Monday, "I came away convinced that these detainees are being treated adequately."

He characterized living conditions for prisoners as "spartan but clean."

"I went down there with an open mind," Coble said, acknowledging that "anytime you visit a facility, the host is going to put the best foot forward."

Coble went as chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. He was joined by Reps. Melissa Hart, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Adam Schiff, a California Democrat.

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