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Gitmo - Guantanamo Bay Detention Center

Two more detainees at Guantanamo attempt suicide: Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AFP) May 28, 2003

Two more detainees at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have tried to kill themselves in the past 10 days, raising to 27 the number of suicide attempts since prisoners began arriving from the war in Afghanistan, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Wednesday.

One attempt was by an inmate who had tried to kill himself at least once before, said Commander Barbara Burfeind. The other detainee had not attempted suicide before, she said.

"Both were unhurt," she said, adding that they had been examined by medical personnel.

Burfiend said the attempts occurred "in about the last 10 days" but could not be more specific about when they occurred or the circumstances.

Since the detention center opened in January 2002 to hold suspected Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners captured in Afghanistan, 18 inmates have attempted suicide a total of 27 times but none have succeeded.

"Most are predominantly attempted hangings," said Burfeind.

A detainee who tried to hang himself January 16 is still under medical care, she said.

"The good thing is he's actually talking and showing improvement," she said.

Detainees who have attempted suicide are "closely monitored" and treated at a new mental health center at the facility, she said.

"There has not been a common cause determined for suicide attempts," she said. "All of them are taken seriously."

The Guantanamo detention center holds an estimated 680 inmates.

Monday, 28-Oct-2002 2:40PM

Story from AFP / Jim Mannion

WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (AFP) - The Pentagon announced Monday the release of four prisoners from its Guantanamo Bay detention center over the weekend after concluding they posed no security threat and said more releases were planned.

But even as those four were let go, about 30 suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners were flown from Afghanistan to the US naval base in Cuba, raising the total number there to about 625, Pentagon officials said.

The new arrivals were the first since August 5, and showed that the US military continues to fill cells at its expanding detention center at Guantanamo.

The military added to the 612 cells at Camp Delta in recent days by opening 204 new cells, officials said.

The Pentagon provided little detail on the four persons released Saturday, refusing to disclose their names or nationalities or even where they were taken to be let go.

Three Afghans were turned over to local authorities at Bagram Air Base, International Committee of the Red Cross officials said. The fourth detainee was flown to Pakistan late Sunday.

"We are definitely planning to release more," Clarke said. "I couldn't tell you exactly when because there are a lot of factors that have to be considered. "

The detainees were released after investigators concluded they had little information of value either to US intelligence or to prosecutors, and that there was little risk they would take up arms again upon their release, official have said.

Two of those selected for the release were over 80 years old, defense officials have said. The inmates at Guantanamo come from about 40 countries.

"Four were released Saturday," said Lieutenant Commander Barbara Burfeind, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

"They went back to their native countries. That release has been completed, " she said.

Although the releases appeared to be a housecleaning effort rather than a change in policy, they came amid concern among friendly governments about the status their detained nationals.

Washington maintains that the detainees, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan, are "illegal combatants" who can be held indefinitely without charges.

The United States refuses to consider them prisoners of war. It has put in place plans for trials by military commissions, but so far has referred no prisoners to them.

Since the detention center opened in January, only one other prisoner has been released -- a mentally ill inmate who was returned to Afghanistan May 1.

"As we've said all along, we have no desire to hold large numbers of these people for a long period of time," Clarke said.

"If we can go through all those factors, determine someone doesn't have intel value, is not a real threat to the United States or our friends and allies, we think there will be proper handling on the other end, then we'd like to get rid of some of these people," she said.

"So we're working a lot of those issues with countries, but it takes time," she added.

March 17, 2002 Posted: 11:46 PM EST (0446 GMT)

From Alphonso Van Marsh
CNN

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (CNN) -- Four U.S. service members assigned to guard detainees from the war in Afghanistan have been transferred to new duties at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, a U.S. military spokesman said Sunday.

Two were transferred because of apparent stress and the other two were transferred because of what one military official called a "disruptive" detainee.

Two of those transferred were guards at the Fleet 20 field hospital, a series of air-conditioned tents where 27 detainees are being treated for battle wounds suffered in Afghanistan, Marine Maj. Stephen Cox said.

He said one detainee receiving treatment was "consistently disruptive" to the two guards and at one point had to be sedated. The detainee's behavior -- refusing to be shackled and yelling -- posed a security concern inside the medical facility, Cox said.

The solution was to transfer the guards away from the hospital and reassign them to "normal duties" at guard posts where the majority of detainees are being held, Cox said.

Called Camp X-Ray, the detention facility is an open-air, chain-link cell structure where U.S. forces are holding and interrogating 300 suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members.

Capt. Albert Shimkus, commanding officer of the base's naval hospital, told reporters earlier that three service members were transferred from the field hospital for "not following the rules" by interacting with detainees and that their conduct was being investigated. Cox said later that Shimkus' information was incorrect.

"The bottom line is the guards did not violate any security procedures, did not violate any detainee handling procedure," Cox said.

Cox told reporters two Army military police guards also had been transferred from their posts to new duties elsewhere on the base. They had been serving with the 600 to 700 other soldiers providing day-to-day security for the detainees.

The two, Cox said, had "expressed a general level of uncomfort working inside Camp X-Ray" and met with psychologists before the transfer. One U.S. military official said the two were carrying out "support duties," doing jobs that don't require direct contact with the detainees.

The transfer took place in January but was reported only last week.

"Not all people are built for that kind of job," explained Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert, commander of Camp X-Ray.

"Working on somebody who is an avowed enemy of the United States, who is sworn to kill U.S. citizens -- that sets up a certain psychological angst," Lehnert said. "We want to get to them before it becomes a problem."

Boredom, stress

In general, detainees' behavior has been good, but some have resisted medical treatment, thrown objects at service members and spat at guards, officials said.

"If [the detainees] had an opportunity to get at me, they'd get at me," said Lt. Col. Bill Cline, deputy commander for security forces at Camp X-Ray. "If they have the opportunity to get to my soldiers, they would."

The military provides a team of psychologists and chaplains to detainees and troops at Camp X-Ray. Boredom, religious beliefs and family issues contribute to psychological stress for service members on duty at the camp, members of the psychological team said.

Security personnel initially worked 12-hour days, six or seven days a week, but the schedule has been eased to eight-hour shifts, five days a week.

Muslim service members at Camp X-Ray may face heightened stress.

"I help [troops] try and cope with issues and their mission," said Lt. Abuhena Saiful-Islam, the Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay.

Muslim troops must ensure that the sharing of religious beliefs with detainees does not affect the way they carry out their duties, he said.

How long can Guantanamo prisoners be held?

CAMP DELTA: Construction workers build a security fence around the new, permanent detention facility for Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo. The structure is capable of housing up to 2,000 men in individual cells - potentially for the rest of their lives.
BETH A. KEISER/AP

April 09, 2002

The building of a permanent detention facility highlights an emerging US tactic: long-term holding of captives.

By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – Within the next two weeks, all 299 suspected terrorists in US custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are set to leave their makeshift cells at Camp X-Ray and move to a new detention facility on a rocky bluff overlooking the Caribbean Sea.

The view is spectacular. The ocean breeze is balmy. But that is where any similarity to a seaside vacation will end for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who find themselves behind bars at the soon-to-open Camp Delta.

The new terrorist detention facility is being built as a permanent structure, capable of housing up to 2,000 men in individual cells – potentially for the rest of their lives.

Construction of the new camp highlights an emerging tactic in the Bush team's war on terrorism: the open-ended detention of large numbers of terror suspects.

While the prospect of military tribunals has sparked extensive debate, this move toward indefinite detention has drawn relatively little attention. Yet at issue is whether President Bush can order Taliban and Al Qaeda captives detained – without formal charges, access to lawyers, or opportunity for independent judicial review – for as long as they are deemed a threat to US security.

"What the administration is trying to do is create a new legal regime," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo in a recent speech about the Bush team's approach to dealing with terrorism. Mr. Yoo is a constitutional-law adviser to Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Supporters see the move as a common-sense approach to a new kind of high-stakes warfare where a single terrorist wielding a small nuclear device could wipe out an entire city. On the other hand, some critics say the move could erode America's moral authority in the global fight for human rights.

What the Geneva accords say

Under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war are to be held for the duration of a conflict and returned home when the war is over. But administration officials say those rules are designed to apply only to warfare between armies of competing nation-states.

Yoo, for one, maintains that those rules have no application in a loosely defined war on terrorism waged against a murky network of secret operatives. "In the military system [defined by the Geneva Conventions], people are detained usually until the end of the war, and then they are released, [and] they go home," he says. "Does that make sense in this kind of a conflict, where the individuals in question who are being detained are members of terrorist organizations?"

Yoo adds, "Does it make sense to ever release them if you think they are going to continue to be dangerous even though you can't convict them of a crime?"

Indefinite detention is not a new concept. The British used it in Northern Ireland against the Irish Republican Army. And Japanese-Americans were subject to it during World War II in an episode that most Americans now deeply regret.

Indeed, one of the fundamentals of American justice is the idea that people can't be tossed into jail indefinitely just because they anger or frighten a government official. To take away a person's liberty – even temporarily – requires that an independent judge agree that the government's actions are warranted because of a probable violation of the law.

Without that independent determination, there is no check against the kind of arbitrary confinement that exemplifies the world's most brutal dictatorships, legal analysts say.

But Guantanamo is different, administration officials insist. US constitutional safeguards do not apply to foreign nationals being held at the US naval base in Cuba, they say. That's in addition to their questioning the application of international law and the Geneva Conventions to Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees.

Administration officials view the Guantanamo detention operation as a direct extension of Mr. Bush's power as commander in chief to wage war. It is not an attempt by the executive branch to usurp a judicial function.

Rather, it is a means to neutralize suspected terrorists through a process that looks like law enforcement, administration supporters say.

Critics view the administration's approach as an attempt to circumvent a well-established body of international law barring such treatment of detainees.

"What is at stake here is whether the president of the United States will be able to imprison people indefinitely simply at his own discretion without having to establish any legal basis for doing so," says William Goodman, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.

'Competing visions'

"It is obviously a challenge to reconcile these competing visions," says Eugene Fidell, a Washington lawyer and president of the National Institute for Military Justice. "Hold it up to the light one way, and it looks like a war being fought by attorneys. Look at it another way, and it looks like criminal prosecution and crime prevention being waged by soldiers."

An open-ended detention policy may work to undermine international respect for due process and fundamental fairness, says Michael Posner, executive director of the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights in New York. "You go around the world and look at the number of countries that allow long-term detention without trial," he says. "We are in effect writing new precedents that other governments are going to rely on – and that is not in the interest of global human rights."

Others say the US has a responsibility to ensure that dangerous people once captured are not allowed to engage in future terrorist attacks. "America is at war, and these individuals are the combatants in that war," says David Bossie, president of Citizens United, a conservative grass-roots advocacy group in Sterling, Va. "If they were released, they would go back to the battlefield, wherever that battlefield might be. It could be Afghanistan; or Paris, France; or New York City."

Mr. Bossie adds: "It is our responsibility to not allow that to happen once we have them in custody. Therefore, it is acceptable to hold these people for as long as necessary."

Recreation/exercise area at Camp Delta (two per detention block), detention block shown with sun shades drawn Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	The operating room at the detainee hospital, at Camp Delta Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	A JTF-GTMO librarian with book cart at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	The operating room at the detention hospital at Camp Delta. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) ( Released)
Comfort items issued to detainees in Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, include: mattress, sheet, blanket, prayer mat, 2-piece suit, flip-flop shoes, prayer cap, wash cloth and towel, and a salt packet for seasoning food. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention unit showing bed, comfort items, toilet and sink with potable water. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	Dental care is also provided at the detainee hospital at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	Detainee hospital ward, Camp Delta Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)
The operating room at the detainee hospital, at Camp Delta Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	Forty-eight person detention block, at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Stephen Lewald) (Released)	Bunks in a medium security facility await the arrival of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. (DoD photo by Chief Petty Officer John F. Williams, U.S. Navy.) (Released)	The detainee leader for a medium security facility is read the camp rules at Guantanamo Bay. (DoD photo by Chief Petty Officer John F. Williams, U.S. Navy.) (Released)
A detainee packs his personal belongings prior to being relocated to a medium security facility at Guantanamo Bay. (DoD photo by Seaman David P. Coleman, U.S. Navy.) (Released)	Two detainees are escorted to a medium security facility at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (DoD photo by Chief Petty Officer John F. Williams, U.S. Navy.) (Released)	A detainee is escorted to a medium security facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (DoD photo by Seaman David P. Coleman, U.S. Navy.) (Released)	A detainee is escorted to a medium security facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (DoD photo by Seaman David P. Coleman, U.S. Navy.) (Released)

For further information:

•	Response to Terrorism Department of State
•	Response to Terrorism Department of Justice
•	U.S.: Geneva Conventions Apply to Guantanamo
•	FindLaw Legal News: Terrorism
•	Terrorism Law and Policy Jurist