When the detainees at Camp X-Ray reached maximum occupancy, i.e. 320, it was necessary to build a larger enclosed long-term detention facility. The construction of Camp Delta was started on 9 April, 2002, about 8 km (5 miles) from Camp X-Ray. When Camp X-Ray was officially closed down on 29 April, the detainees were moved to the new camp.
Although the conditions at the new camp were supposed to be superior to Camp X-Ray – with running water, flushing toilets and a bed raised off the floor – by 10 June, 2006, three Guantanamo Bay detainees had committed suicide. The military reported the men hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes. One of the men was first detained when he was a juvenile, and each had been imprisoned for the past four years but never charged with a crime.
When 24-year-old Murat Kurnaz was released from the base on 24 August, 2006, he claimed to have been exposed to water torture, sexual harassment and desecration of Islam while staying on Guantanamo.
The detainees are kept in isolation for the majority of the day, blindfolded when moved about the camp, and forbidden to talk in groups of more than three. There have been many allegations of torture, including sleep deprivation, the use of truth drugs, beatings, being locked in cold, inhumane cells and also being forced to maintain uncomfortable positions for long periods of time.
A US soldier who once worked as an interpreter at Camp Delta during the interrogation sessions, talked openly to the press about what went on inside the camp. He told of fake interrogations to try and impress visiting administration and military officials. Prisoners that had already been subjected to interrogation were placed behind one-way mirrors and asked the same questions again in front of the visitors. He also talked of interrogators resorting to sexual techniques to get what they wanted out of the prisoners. One female interrogator was supposed to have removed all her clothes and rubbed her naked body up against the prisoners. Pornographic magazines and videos were also used as rewards to confessing.
The use of Guantanamo Bay as a military prison has received much criticism from human rights organizations worldwide, who state there is strong evidence of mistreatment of prisoners. In response, the Bush administration argued that the Third Geneva Convention does not apply to possible al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters, it is only for uniformed soldiers of a recognized government. The UN and Amnesty International have called the whole situation a ‘human rights scandal’, questioning the legal status and physical condition of the detainees at Guantanamo.
Since 2002, hundreds of the detainees have been released or handed over to their national governments. Reports have been put together from the prisoners who have been released from Guatanamo, describing in detail the treatment they received while being detained. Out of the approximate 750 detainees, only 10 have ever been tried and none has ever been proven guilty. The camp still holds about 460 detainees from 40 different countries, and is said to include terrorist suspects picked up in Eastern Europe and Africa. It wasn’t until March 2006 that the US defence department actually released the names and nationalities of the people being held.
To date, the only organization that has been allowed full access to the camp is the International Red Cross. There has been constant pressure from organizations around the world to have the prison camp closed down as more and more allegations of torture come to light. One inmate, who had been on hunger strike, complained of being force-fed through nasal tubes and that he had been the constant victim of unfair interrogation techniques, including solidary confinement and exposure to extreme temperatures, noise and light. There are also reports that many of the inmates have suffered from mental breakdowns, and Amnesty International described the camp as ‘the gulag of our times’.
There have been no new inmates since September 2004, but the department of defence has fought against the closure of the camp, stating that ‘many of the detainees are still dangerous and would attack the USA if they were released’. The status of inmates is reviewed each year through a system of military administrative review boards, which recommends whether the detainee should remain in captivity or is eligible for release. Finally on 17 October, 2006, a law was passed that set the standard for the interrogation and prosecution of foreign terror suspects, but although many reports have been issued regarding the alleged mistreatment of prisoners at Guatanamo Bay no one has ever been prosecuted.
Many of the practices developed by the USA since 11 September, 2001, in relation to detainees captured in the ‘global war on terror’ appear designed to evade judicial or other scrutiny. The prime example of this is the creation of offshore prisons, the most well known of which is at Guantanamo Bay. It is thought that the US authorities deliberately chose Guantanamo as a detention centre in an attempt to put the detainees beyond the jurisdiction of the US courts and consequently courts in other parts of the world as well.
It is evident that prisoners held under the label of ‘terrorism’ need to be treated more humanely as anti-Americanism in nations all over the world has surged to an all time high. The atrocities that have occurred at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib have done more harm than good in cementing relationships between the USA and Muslim-speaking countries, or indeed in lessening the threat of attack from terrorists.
Torture, Rendition and the CIA’s Secret War
Since the terror attacks on New York on 11 September, 2001, there have been many allegations regarding the CIA’s secret detention of terror suspects. The fact that they have used European countries as regular stopping places for their transfer to other countries has become a major political issue between the USA and Europe. According to the media, US president, George W. Bush, signed a document as the result of an inquiry that gave the CIA the authority to either kill or capture any al-Qaeda members anywhere in the world. Since the signing, the Bush administration has done everything in its power to keep the CIA operations a secret, thereby avoiding any legal implications.
To avoid scrutiny, the CIA has been transferring detainees to countries in the Middle East known to practise torture as a matter of routine. Captured al-Qaeda suspects have been taken from US custody to other countries, such as Syria, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, where they were tortured or otherwise mistreated. This practice is called ‘rendition’, which, in law, literally means the ‘surrender’ or ‘handing over’ of persons or property, particularly from one jurisdiction to another. Although the practice of rendition is not new, the way the CIA are apprehending suspected terrorists but not bringing them before a court of law, is. What is disturbing about this latest ‘tool’ in the fight against terrorism is that not only have innocent citizens been detained, but many detainees have also simply ‘disappeared’ while in US custody. It is alleged that the CIA have conducted more than 1,000 secret flights over European territory since 2001, many of which were used to transfer terror suspects.