This text was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle on Disaster Reporting.GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — For years, ranging from the time they h
This text was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle on Disaster Reporting.
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — For years, ranging from the time they have been held and interrogated by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults, the prisoners spent their days and nights in isolation, every man locked alone in a cell, at instances engulfed in darkness and white noise.
In the course of the interval they have been held within the C.I.A.’s community of secret prisons, they’d get strong meals in the event that they happy their American captors, liquids if they didn’t and a mock medical process known as “rectal feeding” in the event that they refused their rations.
Later, as soon as they arrived at Guantánamo Bay and have been positioned within the base’s most clandestine of lockups, known as Camp 7, they have been saved in isolation many of the day. Once they have been allowed out of their cells, guards would take them in shackles and chains so brief they may solely shuffle.
Instances have modified. Now the navy permits the 14 former C.I.A. prisoners to stroll unencumbered from their cells in two separate blocks, referred to as Alpha and Bravo, to enclosed open-air, recreation pens. There, they will pray and share meals collectively, in teams of six or eight. Some prisoners on Bravo block have normal a Ping-Pong desk.
Every block has a cell that the navy has transformed right into a communal pantry with a fridge, microwave and spices for meal preparations. With permission from the jail final yr, a Marine lawyer donated a $50 leg of lamb to the prisoners, who found out find out how to roast it within the microwave.
Camp 7, which homes Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and 4 different males accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults, is by far essentially the most mysterious jail at Guantánamo. Each its location and price ticket are categorized. Legal professionals who obtained court docket orders to see the jail have been transported there in windowless vans.
A succession of commanders have sought funding from Congress to switch it, describing the construction as deteriorating and probably harmful for the guard pressure.
Previously two years, based on battle court docket testimony and folks conversant in the jail, the navy has eased the situations of confinement of Guantánamo’s high-value detainees, six of whom await death-penalty trials. It’s a quality-of-life enchancment for them that has additionally lowered the workload of the guards at a time when the navy is lowering the variety of troops assigned to detention operations at Guantánamo.
Now the troops monitor the prisoners by cameras and different surveillance throughout 20 hours a day of what the warden, Col. Steven G. Yamashita, has described as “a communal dwelling association” that’s starkly completely different than their years of isolation and indignity in C.I.A. detention.
“They’re free to maneuver about many of the day” inside the confines of their block, Colonel Yamashita testified on the battle court docket final yr. He stated he instituted the change when he took charge of the guard force in June 2018, though the choice to take action was made earlier than he took over.
Lockdown is usually restricted to 4 hours a day, usually from 2 a.m. to four a.m. and from 2 p.m. to four p.m. Throughout these intervals, the prisoners go inside their 86-square-foot cells, behind two doorways, a management room locks them in and the troopers come onto the blocks. If there’s a want, they search a cell or prisoner. In addition they examine the meals pantry, one other communal cell with prison-approved books and movies, and the open-air recreation yard.
“There’s been an actual rest of the circumstances of their confinement that has eliminated numerous the absurdly pointless restrictions for the earlier 10 years,” stated Maj. James D. Valentine, a Marine lawyer. He represents two former C.I.A. prisoners who’re held as Legislation of Struggle detainees on the maximum-security jail, which means neither man is charged with against the law on the battle court docket.
Previous commanders have described the navy’s regular transfer towards a doctrine of communal confinement at Guantánamo as a reward for following the principles that advantages each the well being and security of the guard pressure and the detainees. Steady shut contact could be harmful. Single cell confinement could be thoughts numbing.
“Isolation is just too private and useful resource intensive,” stated Stephen N. Xenakis, a psychiatrist and retired Military brigadier common who treats U.S. battle veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress dysfunction when he isn’t consulting on detainee instances at Guantánamo. “It’s much less of a burden on the workers in the event that they’re caring for one another. Your neighborhood goes to be more healthy, simpler to handle and safer.”
Commanders have stated the U.S. military provides no formal torture-survivor treatment for the boys in Camp 7, whose legal professionals say they undergo sleeplessness, mind accidents, again and joint ache and different problems they blame on their brutal interrogations whereas in C.I.A. custody.
However Dr. Xenakis stated one advantage of communal confinement is that the captives can take care of one another. He in contrast it to…