July 5, 2004
NOT ENOUGH LIKE ABU GHRAIB?:
AP Observes Guantanamo Detention Center (AP, 7/05/04)
A two-day tour of Guantanamo Bay afforded The Associated Press the most extensive access ever allowed independent journalists, giving them views of some 50 detainees, including some in a new maximum-security prison. One detainee said he, too, was a reporter.Posted by Orrin Judd at July 5, 2004 5:50 PMWatching through mirrored glass, and with the sound turned off, the AP also witnessed three interrogations, including one in the part of the camp reserved for problem detainees and prisoners believed to hold information important to the fight against international terrorist groups.
No armed guards were present at the interrogations, and officers said armed guards were never used during these sessions. They said each detainee is generally questioned twice a week, with sessions usually lasting two to four hours, with a maximum of 15 hours a day.
The scenes shown to an AP writer and photographer were a far cry from those at Abu Ghraib, the U.S.-run prison in Iraq where some troops are accused of abusing detainees. But interrogation techniques used here were recommended for Abu Ghraib by the Guantanamo center's former commander, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, and critics have questioned whether that is an indication abuses happened here, too.
Miller and other officials have denied that any Guantanamo detainee has been mistreated.
"This is a wholly different environment,'' said Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, who succeeded Miller. ``We are not being shot at every day.''
"One detainee said he, too, was a reporter."
Only one? There are whole news departments that belong there.
"We are not being shot at every day."
How quaint that he thinks that makes any difference.