Inside CAMP X-RAY

A thin screen of American soldiers stand guard over Taliban and al-Qaida fighters while vigilantly keeping out the Cubans.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, CUBA -- Under the watchful eyes of U.S. Army military police, a young man captured in the war in Afghanistan slept soundly in a hospital bed under a light blue blanket.

The two stumps left when his legs were amputated below the knee were propped up on pillows, each wrapped in gauze-like stockings. Probably in his mid-20s and suffering from poorly treated bone infections, the man had told his caretakers that his feet were amputated by doctors -- one removed by an American in Kandahar and the other by a Pakistani.

Though the man was unable to walk, his right wrist was handcuffed to the bed. Next to him, another man underwent physical therapy as he stretched an elastic tube in a curling motion with his right arm. Another talked quietly with a doctor through an interpreter. All three were shackled to their beds.

They are among 300 al-Qaida and Taliban fighters being held by the U.S. government in Cuba.

Among the many Americans guarding and administering to the needs of the enemy fighters at the remote naval station is Navy Lt. Cmdr. Mark Galland, 34, an orthopedic surgeon assigned to Fleet Hospital 20.

A Donaldsonville native who attended Tulane Medical School and was on the staff of Charity Hospital in New Orleans before entering the Navy, Galland is practicing medicine on some of the world's most infamous patients under an international spotlight.

"Basically, what we've found is these guys are cooperating with the medical staff," Galland said. "There are some cases where they've been uncooperative."

The medical facility where Galland works is a far cry from Afghanistan, where the suspected terrorists fought U.S.-led forces only months ago and, military officials said, likely would have killed the people now in charge of their medical care.

But it is an integral part of Camp X-Ray, the temporary prison compound that opened in early January at the naval station at Guantanamo Bay, the only U.S. base on communist soil. The isolated base was a staging facility and air field for Navy and Coast Guard operations in counternarcotics and migrant interdiction in the Caribbean Sea until late December, when the government announced plans to move captured al-Qaida and Taliban fighters there.

Until then, the most dangerous job American service members faced was patrolling the 17.4-mile fence that separates the base from Cuba and watching out for Cuban asylum-seekers who might brave the fenceline and minefields in search of freedom.

But all that changed in January with the arrival of the first detainees. The base is busy with military personnel, civilians and Red Cross workers tending to the terrorist suspects, while international journalists report from Camp X-Ray regularly. On Friday, a congressional delegation including U.S. Rep. David Vitter, R-Metairie, visited the area as part of a study of the military's detention needs, which he said are expected to grow as more detainees might be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

"I walked away thinking that we need to put more resources there," said Vitter, a member of the military construction subcommittee of the House Appropriation Committee.

Vitter said he wanted to see first hand the conditions under which detainees are living.

"I didn't see any evidence of mistreatment," Vitter said, "I think they're being treated very humanely."

The first 20 detainees arrived Jan. 11. On a nearby ridge, the soldiers and Marines who guard the detainees live in a tent village called "Freedom Heights."

Dressed in orange jumpsuits, the detainees are held in cells that are 8 feet by 8 feet with concrete floors. The walls are chain-link fencing, providing no privacy. The roofs are wood and corrugated tin. The ever-present Caribbean breeze helps take the edge off the 90-degree heat.

At night, when the temperature dips into the 60s, the camp is illuminated by floodlights.

Military police, mostly Army reservists and Maryland Army National Guardsmen, escort the handcuffed and shackled detainees to interrogations or to portable toilets. Outside the compound, Marines armed with automatic assault rifles and, in some cases, sniper rifles watch from sentry towers.

"We provide protection for the Army soldiers inside the camp," said Sgt. Matt Lampert, 22, a Marine sniper from Big Sky, Mont. "They are unarmed. We provide the protection for detainees from other detainees if that situation ever arises, should somebody try to assassinate another detainee. We also make sure that no one gets into the camp from the outside."

The detainees, thought to represent 32 nationalities, are aware that they are in Cuba, but many don't know where that is. Some are media-savvy. "They understand the power of the media," said Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert, commander of the task force that oversees the detention operations.

They are fed three culturally sensitive meals daily, though lately many have refused meals in what Lehnert called "rolling hunger strikes."

The protests began Feb. 27, a day after an Army guard removed a turban from the head of a detainee who said he was praying. For security reasons, turbans are not allowed; skull caps are issued for prayer.

At the peak, 194 detainees refused meals, but the number has been getting smaller. Three detainees, whom Lehnert called "hard-liners," went at least five days without eating. Eighteen were treated intravenously for dehydration, most voluntarily accepting treatment, he said.

"Some of the detainees are extremely sophisticated and have asked me if the hunger strikes were being reported by the media," Lehnert said. "Those abstaining from eating are not creating a security problem. They're simply punishing themselves. Hunger strikes in the detention facility, though certainly of interest, are not unique. Our approach is to be patient and to avoid overreaction."

Asked by their guards why they're not eating, some detainees say it's "peer pressure," said Army Lt. Col. Bill Cline, deputy commander of Camp X-Ray's security. He said he thinks the hunger strikes will eventually stop.

"They want to know what's going to happen to them," Cline said, adding that the detainees are aware that their guards do not control their fate. That decision rests with the U.S. government.

However, the lack of information on the detainees' future leaves them in a "legal limbo," as the United States has not found them to be covered under the Geneva Conventions. Their status, whether war prisoners or criminals, should be considered on a case-by-case basis by a "competent tribunal," said Alistair Hodgett, a spokesman for human rights group Amnesty International. He added that the hunger strike underscores the limbo, and he foresees that Camp X-Ray's commanders will encounter such problems with detainees in the future.

Navy Lt. Abuhena Mohammad Saiful-Islam, one of 14 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military, ministers to the detainees in the same way he would to anyone in the armed forces, he said. He offered a different view of the hunger strikes.

"I asked them to eat," said Saiful-Islam, who was born in Bangladesh. "Their religious position is to not starve themselves. We eat, as a Muslim, for the sake of God, and we fast for the sake of God. They have not indicated why they have not eaten. Probably the answer is most likely that they are not hungry."

Their emotional states range from friendly to sad, "which is very common when you're in confinement," Saiful-Islam said. "Most of them ask, ‘What's going to happen to me?' That's the everyday question. ‘How soon will things be resolved?' . . . Some of them share that they're better off" in Cuba than Afghanistan, where the winter is harsh and showers are rare.

Lehnert said he talked with most of the detainees, either directly or through interpreters. "I can only tell them in the most general terms, since details of repatriation or trials, or most importantly, the length of time that they will be here, have not been decided," he said.

They are allowed to write and receive letters from family, though mail is censored. The International Committee of the Red Cross has full access to the detainees, officials said.

In the meantime, detainees are interrogated by officials with the Defense and Justice departments. The information is passed to analysts elsewhere, said Marine Maj. Steve Cox, a spokesman for Lehnert.

"They are certainly providing information that is of value not just to the United States, but to other countries involved in the war on terrorism," Cox said.

The Defense Department and Congress earlier this month approved $16 million to build a 408-cell detention facility in an area called Radio Range, a flat, dusty clearing flanked by shrub- and cactus-covered hills overlooking the Caribbean Sea on the eastern side of the base, to replace Camp X-Ray. The new facility will be called Camp Delta. Lehnert, meanwhile, said he has submitted a proposal to build an additional 408 cells next to Camp Delta in an anticipation of more detainees from Operation Anaconda, the U.S.-led offensive in Afghanistan.

Vitter said that while no decisions have been made, "there's a strong possibility" that another 200 detainees will be put at the Radio Range site in coming weeks.

The military has plans to build a total of 2,040 cells, Lehnert said. As of Friday, 244 detainees were being held in the "Afghanistan theater of operations," a number that includes fighters captured during Operation Anaconda but does not include prisoners held in Cuba, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said.

In the new detention facility, the military will be better able to segregate the detainees, keeping them from sharing with one another what was discussed during interrogations, Cox said. "There are detainees that don't tell the truth," he said. "They don't want you to know who they are."

The military hopes construction will be complete by April 12. "The accommodations will be much nicer, if you will, than Camp X-Ray," Cox said.

Each cell will be 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet, slightly smaller than the Camp X-Ray cells. The walls will contain a fine steel mesh, allowing in the Caribbean breezes. Each cell will have running water, a standing toilet and a steel bed frame anchored to the ground with a mattress. Those features, Cox said, will ease the burden of guards who now must escort detainees to showers or toilets. The new detention site is called Camp Delta.

Security forces will move out of tents and into wooden huts near the new facility. The cost to build housing and associated facilities for military personnel is $4.6 million, Cox said.

The new facilities are within walking distance of the naval field hospital, whose 20-person capacity may be expanded to 500. It is staffed by almost 120 people and includes a pharmacy, radiology department and a laboratory.

"This is the same type of unit we would bring to the field to treat our own people," said Navy Capt. Samuel Alford, commander of Fleet Hospital 20.

Alford said 42 surgeries had been performed on detainees, including neurosurgery for a detainee's spinal ailment that manifested itself at Camp X-Ray. All surgical procedures are done with written consent of detainees, said Galland, the orthopedic surgeon.

Medical treatment ranges from psychiatric care to amputees being fitted with prosthetic limbs. The most common ailment Galland has seen has been infected bone fractures. Many arrived at Camp X-Ray with battle wounds from bullets and shrapnel, and in some cases had been treated by their comrades in the war zone, Alford said.

"They've learned that what we're doing is in their best interests," Galland said. "We're doing everything we can to make them better. They've developed a trust in our judgment."

"I asked them to eat," said Saiful-Islam .... They have not indicated why they have not eaten. Probably the answer is most likely that they are not hungry."

Do we really have such nitwits serving as military chaplains?

"Cox said. "There are detainees that don't tell the truth," he said. "They don't want you to know who they are.""

LOL.... no! say it isn't so! Homicidal maniacs who won't tell the truth? How rude of them?

"Some of them share that they're better off" in Cuba than Afghanistan, where the winter is harsh and showers are rare."

See how nice we are to our enemies? An all expenses paid vacation to a Tropical Carribbean Island. All courtesy of the US taxpayer. If they try nuking us we might just send them to Disney Land, that would fix them...hehe, just kidding.

Navy Lt. Abuhena Mohammad Saiful-Islam, one of 14 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military...

This is not something with which I am very comfortable.

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