[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.S.military decided to build a prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba: the Guantánamo BayDetention Camp.Camp X-Ray was the first facility, and the first 110 prisonersarrived there on January 11, 2002.These prisoners were held in wire cages.Later,Camp Delta was constructed, but neither camp was up to standards for prisoninmates in the United States.At their peak, the camps held 680 prisoners.The Bush administration picked Guantánamo Bay area for a specific reason.Ifthe prisoners were held on U.S.soil, then the prisoners might claim access to legal146 Guantánamo Bay Detainment Camprepresentation and American courts.Guantánamo Bay had a unique legal situationbecause the land is leased from Cuba and not technically on American soil.Because the United States has no diplomatic relationship with Cuba, the prisonerscan have no access to the Cuban legal system.The prisoners reside in legal limbowith few if any legal rights.The camp is run by the military.At the beginning, command responsibility forthe base was divided between Major General Michael Dunlavey, an army reservist,and Brigadier General Rick Baccus, of the Rhode Island National Guard.Dunlaveymaintained a hard-line attitude toward the detainees, but Baccus was more con-cerned about their possible mistreatment.They quarreled over interrogation tech-niques and other issues.This situation changed when Army Major GeneralGeoffrey Miller replaced them and assumed command at Guantánamo in Novem-ber 2003.Miller had no experience running a prison camp, and he was soon crit-icized for allowing harsh interrogation techniques.Later, Miller was transferred toIraq where he took over responsibility for military prisons there.After Camp Delta was built, the detainees lived in better but restrictive condi-tions.At Camp X-Ray, the original camp, the detainees lived behind razor wire incells open to the elements and with buckets in place of toilets.At Camp Delta thedetainees were held in trailer-like structures made from old shipping containersthat had been cut in half lengthwise with the two pieces stuck together end to end.Cells were small, six feet eight inches by eight feet, with metal beds fixed to thesteel mesh walls.Toilets were squatting-style flush on the floor, and sinks were lowto the ground so that detainees could wash their feet before Muslim prayer.Therewas no air-conditioning for the detainees, only a ventilation system that was sup-posed to be turned on at 85 degrees but rarely was.Later, a medium-security facil-ity opened up, and it gave much greater freedom and better living conditions tothe detainees.The Bush administration gave the CIA responsibility for interrogations.Because these enemy combatants had no legal standing in American courts, theywere treated as merely sources of intelligence.President Bush had determined thisstance after deciding that al-Qaeda was a national security issue, not a law enforce-ment issue.Consequently, the FBI was completely left out of the loop.But thisdid not mean that the FBI gave up.For various reasons, FBI personnel did inter-rogate the detainees on occasion.To encourage cooperation, levels of treatment for detainees are determined bythe degree of the detainee s cooperation.Level one was for cooperating prisoners,and they received special privileges.Level two included more moderately cooper-ative detainees, and they received a few privileges like a drinking cup and access tothe library.Level three was for the detainees who absolutely refused to cooperate.They were given only the basics a blanket, a prayer mat and cap, a Koran, and atoothbrush.The CIA determined that the most important al-Qaeda prisoners should not beheld at the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp.There were simply too manyAmerican officials from too many agencies trying to interrogate the prisoners.Moreover, it was too public.CIA leaders wanted a secret location where therewould be no interference in the interrogations.Several secret interrogation siteswere set up in friendly countries where the CIA could do what they wanted with-out interference.Guantánamo Bay Detainment Camp 147Soon after the prisoners had been transferred to the Guantánamo Bay Deten-tion Camp, reports began to surface about mistreatment of the detainees.A CIAanalyst visited the camp in the late spring of 2002, and he was aghast at the treat-ment of the prisoners.Because he spoke Arabic, he was able to talk to thedetainees.In his report this analyst claimed that half of the detainees did notbelong there.This report traveled around the Bush administration, but nothingwas done about it.The American public was still upset over September 11, andpublic reports about mistreatment of those held at Guantánamo Bay garnered lit-tle sympathy.The Bush administration decided in the summer of 2006 to transfer the topcaptured al-Qaeda leaders to the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp.InSeptember 2006, the transfer of these fourteen detainees was complete.Then,beginning in March 2007, court proceedings were started to determine their sta-tus.In the most important case, that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accusedmade a total confession of all his activities both in and outside al-Qaeda.Amongthese were the planning for the September 11 attacks and the execution of DanielPearl.His justification was that he was at war against the United States.Proceedings against the other detainees continued in the spring of 2007.See AlsoBush AdministrationSee DocumentsDocument #24; Document #42Suggested ReadingEdward Epstein,  Guantanamo Is a Miniature America, San Francisco Chronicle (January20, 2002), p.A6; Jonathan M.Hansen,  Making the Law in Cuba, New York Times (April20, 2004), p.A19; Seymour M [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]