At his press conference on Tuesday, President Bush dismissed as "absurd" an Amnesty International report on U.S. human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay. Bush used the term four times, saying:

I'm aware of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that is -- promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way. It's just an absurd allegation.

In terms of the detainees, we've had thousands of people detained. We've investigated every single complaint against the detainees. It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of --and the allegations -- by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble -- that means not tell the truth. And so it was an absurd report. It just is.

Last week Amnesty International issued their annual report on human rights, referring to the U.S. prison at Guantamano as "the gulag of our times". Meanwhile the mainstream press is reporting that many Guantanamo detainees may be at the prison as the result of being sold to the U.S. for a bounty. During military tribunals held at the prison, detainees testified that they were essentially sold to the U.S. who were paying thousands of dollars in cash for suspects. According to Gary Schroen, a former CIA intelligence officer who helped lead the search for Osama bin Laden:

"It wouldn't surprise me if we paid rewards." "It may be that we were giving rewards to people like (Afghan warlord General) Dostum because his guys were capturing a lot of Taliban and al-Qaida."

On Wednesday Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the attack on human rights group Amnesty International, calling the group's criticism of the Guantanamo prison "reprehensible." Rumsfeld said:

"Most would define a gulag as where the Soviet Union kept millions in forced labor concentration camps, or I suppose some might say where Saddam Hussein mutilated and murdered untold numbers because they held views unacceptable to his regime. To compare the United States and Guantanamo Bay to such atrocities cannot be excused."

In response to the accusations form Bush and Rumsfeld, Amnesty International issued a rebuttal in which they point out that the Bush administration has selectively used Amnesty International's reports when it suited their needs. According to a statement released by Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA:

"Twenty years ago, Amnesty International was criticizing Saddam Hussein's human rights abuses at the same time Donald Rumsfeld was courting him. In 2003 Rumsfeld apparently trusted our credibility on violations by Iraq, but now that we are criticizing the United States he has lost his faith again."