Remember all of those pictures from the news agencies of Camp Xray in Guantanamo? Lots of chain link fence, and orange jump-suited guys with hoods on their heads kneeling on the ground awaiting processing? Anytime you see news about GITMO - even today - those pictures tend to accompany the story.
Would it surprise you to know that Camp Xray has been deserted since 2002? It was only open for a few months, while other facilities were being built.
Of the camps currently in use, none come close to justifying the concerns of the Gitmo’s critics, let alone Amnesty International’s feverish judgment that it is the “gulag of our time.” Visiting Camp 4, Gitmo’s medium-security compound, one can see detainees walking about freely. And though the fact that many of the detainees wear unruly, Islamic beards is slightly disconcerting, it is consistent with the military’s intention to make their detention as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.
But of course, the news reports certainly convey the sleep deprivation and inhumane isolation of the many thousands of detainees.
Toward that purpose, Camp 4 offers a number of diversions, courtesy of American taxpayers. There is an outdoor basketball court, and a 6,000-book library, from which detainees can check out everything from hobby magazines like Bird Watcher’s Digest, to commentaries on Islam, to Agatha Christie thrillers. The latter come complete with white stickers blocking the author’s photo, lest the detainees deem the grande dame of the mystery novel too much of a seductress. “By western standards it wouldn’t be very offensive, but [the detainees] would have a problem with that,” explains Julie, Gitmo’s head librarian, somewhat apologetically. Detainees can also check out DVDs–nature documentaries and international soccer matches are particularly popular–and a flat-screen television is available at the camp for viewing. And, just as American troops stationed on the base can take academic and vocational courses, Camp 4 has a special classroom where detainees can learn English, Arabic, or Pashtu.
Special care is taken to allow detainees to practice their religion, which is invariably Islam. A kit of provisions issued to Camp 4 inmates includes not only bare necessities like a toothbrush and a uniform, as well as luxuries like prescription glasses and electric razors on selected days, but also prayer beads and oils, and a Koran that guards are under no circumstances permitted to handle. It is a measure of the deference–one might even say reverence–shown to the Muslim holy book that the military doesn’t even provide a sample copy on a display table of representative items shown to journalists. “Out of respect,” explains an officer in charge of Camp 4, who declines to be identified for security reasons.
To be certain, it would be very one-sided of me to only cite this article - which is a first hand account by the way - as it relates to the medium security accommodations.
Less hospitable conditions might be expected in camps 5 and 6, Gitmo’s maximum-security complexes. To some extent, that is the case. With a narrow bed, a metal sink, and a small slit for a window, the cells in Camp 5 are no one’s idea of paradise. Within those confines, however, the detainees are granted substantial privileges. Climate controlled, the cells come equipped with a communications system that allows detainees to talk to the guards. Beneath the beds, one finds stenciled arrows pointing to Mecca, and detainees can elect their own imams, or prayer leaders–a concession that may well favor more extreme elements in the detainee population but which the military is nonetheless determined to grant.
Perhaps the most curious room at Camp 5 is furnished with a plush blue couch for the detainees. Were it not for the leg restraints at its foot, one might never guess that this is where interrogations take place. Of the steel-floored cells were detainees are alleged to be beaten for information there is not a trace of violence. Those who consider Gitmo an affront to international law might also be surprised to learn that Camp 5’s recreation yard not only has news bulletins from the Middle East but also a prominently displayed copy of the Geneva Conventions. While Gitmo is not officially governed by the treaties, the military makes every effort to make sure that detainees are treated in accordance with them. There is even a so-called “habeas room” for detainees to meet with their counsel. A gulag, plainly, this is not.
Even Camp 6, home to the most dangerous of Gitmo’s approximately 275 detainees, confounds the image of excessive confinement and ubiquitous brutality with which the naval base has come to be identified. True, the recreation facilities here are smaller and indoors, and the two-hour (minimum) exercise time less generous, but it would take a willful disregard of the evidence to see it as a U.S.-run “concentration camp.” Not the least of the reasons for that is that the military guards on duty here, as in other Gitmo camps, go out of their way to minimize the use of force. Trained to contain a mass riot, the guards actually spend most of their time trying to diffuse confrontation. “It doesn’t have to get physical,” insists Shawn Johnson, a guard at Camp 6.
Yeah - I know. I am being unfair. Because, in spite of all of this the detainees are still treated roughly and the air conditioning is set super super high to make it extremely uncomfortable for the detainees.
This is not to deny that abuse is a problem Gitmo. It’s just that most of it is done by the detainees. “The only mistreatment that goes on inside the camps is detainees on guards, and the guards absorb it without retribution,” says Army Brigadier General Greg Zanetti, Gitmo’s deputy commander. Zanetti notes that while many of the detainees have been here for five to six years, more than enough time to discover the best way to harass their captors, many of the guards are just weeks or months into their post. “For a while there, it’s an unfair match,” Zanetti says.
Underscoring the general’s point are some disturbing figures. In 2006, for instance, there were over 3,000 recorded incidents of detainee misconduct, instances which included 432 assaults with bodily fluids, 227 physical assaults, and 99 efforts “to incite a disturbance or riot.” That certainly suggests that Gitmo is a dangerous place, just not in the way its detractors imagine.
I think Jacob Laskin makes a good point when he says:
One source of conflict stems from the fact that, in contrast to journalists, lawyers for the detainees are not granted tours of Gitmo’s camps. It is not surprising, then, that the more outrageous claims about the treatment of the detainees and the conditions inside the camps more generally issue from those least familiar with them.
But then, the military is trying to respect the obligations we have with regards to how these detainees are treated. Parading them in front of the American public is in direct contravention to that.
