By Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Andy McSmith (The Independent)
Published: 09 January 2007
When the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo in January 2002 they were handcuffed, shackled and wearing hoods. The reason for these exceptional measures, explained the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, was that the prisoners were highly dangerous. "These are the sort of people who would chew through a hydraulics cable to bring a C-17 [transport plane] down," he claimed. "They are very, very dangerous people."
Five years later none of these "worst of the worst" have been brought to trial. Just 10 have been formally charged while hundreds of others have been returned to their own countries and released. Meanwhile, three have committed suicide, at least 40 others have tried to do so and there are concerns about the mental health of most of the 400 or so remaining prisoners.
"It is remarkable that Guantanamo still exists five years on," said Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of the British group Reprieve, which represents three dozen inmates. "But what is also remarkable is that Guantanamo has distracted attention from other secret prisons the US has. As of August last year we know there are 14,000 prisoners in US custody around the world."
Critics say the low point of the past five years perhaps came in June 2006 when three prisoners - Ali Abdullah Ahmed, 28, from Yemen, and Saudis Yassar Talal al-Zahrani, 21, and 30-year-old Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi - hanged themselves using torn sheets. Lawyers said they did so out of desperation but the base commander claimed it was "an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us". Controversy had previously been stirred in December 2005 when it emerged the US military was strapping prisoners into "restraint chairs" to force-feed those who had gone on hunger-strike.
General Bantz Craddock, head of the US Southern Command, defended repeatedly inserting feeding tubes into prisoners' throats and nostrils, saying: " Some of these hard-core guys were getting worse." There have been numerous reports of abuse, humiliation and torture. Prisoners have allegedly been held in stress positions, locked in solitary confinement not permitted to sleep and been smeared with fake menstrual blood.
Three Britons who were held for more than two years before being released without charge - Asef Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul - claimed they were repeatedly punched, kicked, slapped, injected with drugs, hooded, photographed naked, subjected to body searches and forced to endure sexual and religious humiliation. Mr Ahmed said he was questioned by a British interrogator while a gun was held to his head.
One of the more unusual reports was the so-called Harry Potter torture. Visiting US legislators watched through a one-way mirror as a woman interrogator sought to wear down a prisoner's resistance with a non-stop reading of the adventures of the boy wizard, which reportedly lasted for hours.
Campaigners believed they had achieved a breakthrough last June when the US Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration's use of military tribunals was unconstitutional. It also ruled that each of the prisoners had the right to have their cases heard in court.
But though Mr Bush said at the time he wished to close Guantanamo, just three months later he was successful in getting Congress to pass new legislation that circumvented the Supreme Court ruling and opened the way to proceed with the tribunals. It also backed the administration's decision to refuse prisoners the right to see the evidence used against them.
Last May the UN Committee on Torture called on the US government to close the facility immediately. The same month the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, also said the prison's continued operation was "unacceptable" . Tony Blair called it an "anomaly". But the Government refuses to help eight British residents who are still being held at the prison even though the US has sought their repatriation.
In October the High Court in London ruled that the men did not have the right to be treated in the same way as British nationals. The Foreign Office claims it has no power to intervene on behalf of foreign nationals, even if they were long-term residents of the UK.
The numbers that shame America
1825 Number of days that Guantanamo has been open
400 prisoners are currently detained at Guantanamo
20 detainees arrived on 11 January 2002, the day the detention centre opened. They were hooded and shackled
8 per cent of detainees accused of fighting for a terrorist group
300 prisoners who have been released back to their own countries since 2002
86 per cent captured by the Northern Alliance or the Pakistani authorities for US bounties
70 prisoners who President Bush's administration plans to charge in military courts
10 prisoners who have already been charged
0 number of detainees brought to trial
President Bush reacts to Supreme Court ruling that Guantanamo military tribunals are unconstitutional.
And this is the briefing the President received on his way to the conference...
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