Letters

Camp X-Ray

How It's Used

“Five Pakistanis held by the American military at the Guantánamo Bay detention center in Cuba returned home on Saturday, a senior Interior Ministry official said.  ‘As a result of persistent efforts by the government of Pakistan and its parleys with the U.S. government, five more Pakistanis detained at Camp X-Ray in Cuba have returned home,’ said the official, Brig. Iqbal Cheema.”

“The first prisoners from Afghanistan touched down at Guantanamo Bay in early 2002, just months after Mr. Bush created military commissions to try suspected al-Qaeda members for war crimes. The first prisoners were housed in a facility called Camp X-Ray. The camp, a series of small connected cages, was effectively shut down after three months, but soldiers complain that photos of the camp—showing prisoners in orange jumpsuits, goggles and face mask—have become permanently associated with the detainee operation.

"Today, Camp X-Ray is overrun with weeds and wasp nests and all but abandoned, but its possible use as evidence in future court cases keeps it from being torn down. The adjacent interrogation rooms, which look like dilapidated summer-camp shacks from a bad horror movie, are falling apart. The wooden floorboards connecting the rooms creak and moan with every footstep. Most of the rooms are now empty or used for unrelated storage. A stack of chairs sits in one room. In another, there's nothing but a sign hanging on the wall, written on loose-leaf paper: 'Clean up after yourself.'”

“Ever since January 11 2002, when the first 20 prisoners were flown in from Afghanistan in orange jumpsuits and shackles, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has been a hefty burden around the Bush administration's neck.

“The defence secretary at the time, Donald Rumsfeld, picked the Cuban enclave as the 'least worst place' to hold captives accused of terrorism. But the effort to run a camp outside the reach of US or international law, so that 'enemy combatants' could be held indefinitely without charge, steadily corroded America's standing in the world. The images of the inmates languishing in small metal cages in Camp X-Ray, the rudimentary first phase of the complex, and the steady stream of reports of human rights abuses, have taken a daily toll. The camp's existence has angered and embarrassed Washington's closest allies, and become a recruitment tool for its enemies.”

“Let me first compare the now overgrown Camp X-Ray, the outdoor maze of cages that operated for only four months, with the units that house detainees today. It is eerie to wander around Camp X-Ray. Although the cages are now besieged by vines and wild flowers, with yellow butterflies flitting from plant to plant, and boa constrictors hiding in the thick, long grass, it is hard to escape an overwhelming sensation of the ghosts of the past.

“Few realise what a pivotal point Camp X-Ray is in modern US history. The story of Guantánamo Bay could have been very different. The image of an America that tortures and torments might never have taken hold, for when the first detainees arrived here in January 2002—'the worst of the worst' as Donald Rumsfeld declared—Marine Brigadier-General Michael Lehnert, the camp commander, was intent on abiding by the Geneva Conventions. To the anger of Mr Rumsfeld, in those first days Lehnert admitted officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross. With their help, his troops began to improve the grim and basic cages, which had no toilets.”

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