US NAVAL BASE, Guantanamo Bay, 16 September 2003 — Military officials at the US Naval Base in Cuba have introduced a reward program that lets Afghanistan war prisoners earn perks and more comfortable quarters by dishing out intelligence and following camp rules.
Behave and they get checkerboards, decks of cards or the right to choose a book from a carefully screened library cart. Throw water on a guard or ignore orders to leave the exercise yard on schedule and prisoners forfeit a game or book.
Establish a consistent record of good behavior and a select few prisoners - up to 40 - can move from the isolation of the single-celled maximum-security units into medium-security units where they live, read and pray in groups.
“What this has done is dramatically increase our cooperation,” said Brig. Gen. Jim Payne, deputy commander for the prison operation.
During a recent visit to the base, military officials led reporters on a limited tour inside Camp Delta, where the 660 suspected Al-Qaeda and Taleban prisoners are held. Reporters were not allowed to speak to prisoners, seen only in shadow through small screened windows, but toured empty cellblocks.
Prisoners in the maximum-security blocks live alone in small metal-mesh cells with shelf-style beds, floor toilets and low basins for washing.
They get the basic package of “comfort items” - a thin mattress, blanket, sheet, gray foam prayer mat, towel, washcloth, prayer cap, prayer beads, toiletries, orange uniforms, rubber flip-flop shoes and a copy of the Holy Qu’ran.
Meals are delivered in foam containers by guards wearing rubber gloves. Prisoners are shackled at the hands and legs when they are taken two at a time to the showers or to the exercise yard for 30-minute recreation periods twice a week.
Every 30 days, camp officials review detailed computerized records on each prisoner and decide who has earned a spot in the medium-security blocks completed in March. Detainees there live in four dormitory-style rooms with 10 beds.
They get white uniforms, thicker mattresses and dine together at an outdoor picnic table under a concrete shade. Exercise increases to an hour a day, in groups big enough for team sports like soccer and volleyball.
They get red Oriental rugs for prayer mats, an extra pair of canvas shoes, and more puzzles, books and games.
“We never take away the Qu’ran. We never take away anything that would be a health item -— blankets or food,” Payne said.
The reward system also recognizes cooperation during interrogations. Camp officials won’t discuss specifics.
But they said that although some prisoners have been at Guantanamo for 20 months and have no current information about pending attacks, they provide information about terrorist organizations, financing and recruiting.
“Tactical intelligence decays very rapidly but operational and strategic intelligence is viable, valid and enormously useful,” Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who commands the prisoner operation, told Reuters. “We knit together golden threads as we come to be able to understand what terrorism is all about.”
The ultimate reward is release from Guantanamo and 68 prisoners have been returned to their home countries since the prison operation began in January 2002.
To earn that, prisoners must convince military officials that they have no more useful information to give and that they are not a threat to the United States.
Miller recommends which prisoners should be released, recognizing those who “understand the consequences of their actions, this unspeakable action that they have taken.”
“Many of them were duped into terrorism or sometimes kidnapped into being, supporting terrorism. So when taken out of these despicable people then they are cooperative.”
