In a move against humanity, the United States Army may have kept up to 100 "ghost detainees" in Iraq off the books and concealed from Red Cross observers, a far higher number than previously reported, an Army general told Congress on Thursday.

Estimates were rough because the CIA has withheld documents on concealed detainees, Army generals who investigated U.S. abuses of Iraqi prisoners told lawmakers. Republican and Democratic senators blasted the CIA, and called for it to turn over the material.

At a Senate committee hearing, Gen. Paul Kern, commander of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, said he believed the number of ghost detainees held in violation of Geneva Convention protections was "in the dozens to perhaps up to 100," far surpassing the eight people identified in an Army report.

To many observers, it is very obvious the U.S. Administration preaches what it does not practice.

The Geneva Conventions require countries to disclose information on prisoners to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors their treatment

Iran takes small step to be able to defend itself from the Imperialist Coalition

Iran can launch a missile as far as 2,000 km (1,250 miles), a senior official was quoted as saying Tuesday, substantially increasing the announced range of the Islamic state's military capabilities.

Such a missile would be capable of hitting Israel or parts of southeastern Europe. Iran says its missiles are for purely defensive purposes and would be used to counter a possible Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.

"Now we have the power to launch a missile with a 2,000 km range," IRNA quoted influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying. "Iran is determined to improve its military capabilities."

Iran fiercely denies U.S. and Israeli accusations that it is building nuclear weapons.

But Iranian officials have trumpeted their ability to strike back at any aggressor many times in recent months and in August announced they had successfully tested an upgraded version of Iran's medium-range Shahab-3 missile.

Military experts say the unmodified Shahab-3 had a range of 810 miles which would allow it to strike anywhere in Israel. Shahab means meteor in Persian.

Rafsanjani was speaking at a exhibition on "Space and Stable National Security."

Iran has also recently announced plans to launch its own satellite into space next year. Military experts say a satellite launch rocket could easily be adapted for military purposes.

In a blow against justification for the Iraq war, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told a Senate committee that there was little likelihood Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The testimony by Powell at the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee must be an expression of the Bush administration's intention to close this issue.

But the contention that Iraq had WMD cannot be put behind us simply because the Saddam regime has been overthrown.

We must remember that the United States cited the UN Security Council's resolution that called for the abolition of Iraq's WMD as the justification for invasion. And it was Secretary of State Powell who, in February last year ardently warned of an imminent Iraqi threat.

The United States invaded Iraq, after all, without a Security Council resolution that explicitly approved such a move.

Countries that nonetheless supported the United States, including Japan, asked for the understanding of their peoples by contending that Iraq had WMD.

It appears, however, that Iraq did not possess such weapons.

As the United States argues, Saddam's government was a dangerous dictatorial regime.

But this war is proving too costly for the United States and the world.

Will Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi repent of what he has said and done? He consistently said WMD would be found sooner or later and that the war was justified.

The prime minister continued with such a perception of the Iraq war at the extraordinary Diet session last month. But he can no longer take such an attitude.