GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, 26 June 2005 — American lawmakers yesterday toured the Guantanamo prison for the first time since recent harsh condemnation of detainees’ treatment and renewed demands that the camp close.
“Guantanamo has become a lightening rod,” said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.
She was one of 16 House members, led by members of the House Armed Services Committee, who were on a one-day fact-finding trip.
Lawmakers from both parties fear that the prison at the US Navy base has become an image problem because of claims that US interrogators abuse and torture inmates.
The chairman of the House committee, Rep. Duncan Hunter, said such criticism amounted to “wild accusations.” Hunter, R-Calif., blamed “propagandists” for spreading “rumor and innuendo” to hurt the US. He said the congressional visit was meant to show “the facts” about operations at the prison.
A few reporters and photographers accompanied the lawmakers. Military escorts controlled what the journalists could see and hear.
At a briefing for reporters, commanders stressed the “safe and humane custody and control of detainees” and pointed out he differences between their facility and Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
Col. John Hadjis, chief of staff for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said US troops at Guantanamo were “honorable people doing an honorable mission in an honorable way.”
On a tour of one camp occupied by detainees considered “high value” for providing intelligence, journalists did not see any prisoners and watched as troops passed meals through small cells on one block.
The sound of visitors clearly upset the detainees. They shouted non-English words and pounding on closed doors while journalists entered an interrogation room. It was empty except for a set of handcuffs, a folding chair, a small table and two padded office chairs.
Under mounting criticism about the prison, the White House and Pentagon have defended almost daily the conditions and treatment of detainees.
At a recent news conference, President Bush went so far as to invite journalists to see the prison and see that the allegations were false. Since the prison opened, the Pentagon says about 400 news organizations have toured it. It usually takes a few months to get in because of short staffing and many requests.
Human rights investigators for the United Nations urged the US last week to allow them inside to inspect the facility. They cited “persistent and credible” reports of “serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees” as well as arbitrary detentions and violations of rights.
In response, Vice President Dick Cheney told CNN that the detainees are well treated, well fed and “living in the tropics.”
The prison opened in January 2002 to house foreigners believed to be linked to the ousted Taliban in Afghanistan or Al-Qaeda.
Bush declared the detainees “enemy combatants,” affording them fewer rights than prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. Some detainees have been held for three years without being charged with any crimes even though the US Supreme Court ruled they have some rights.
