Dramatic images from Guantánamo Bay, of shackled men said to be the world’s most dangerous prisoners, can be revealed today following unprecedented access to the controversial prison camp.
Detainees, chained to the floor in a classroom of CAMP VI
Detainees in the communal area of CAMP VI
Detainee in the communal area of CAMP VI
Cells where the prisoners used to be held
The deserted Camp X Ray
The deserted Camp X Ray
Camp X Ray. Initially used to house detainees for the first 92 days
Samples of food prepared for the detainees
The Upper Display shows samples for detainees in Camp VI and the lower level shows things for detainees at Camp V, including the orange garments
Books in the library
American military authorities allowed a reporter and photographer into the prison to see everyday life for the detainees, who are said to include bomb-makers, terrorist masterminds and individuals responsible for the deaths of US and British troops.
It is the first time a British paper has been inside the current system of prison blocks at Guantánamo, a military base which became notorious in 2002 when pictures of inmates in orange jump suits, chained to hand trolleys, were broadcast around the world.
President Barack Obama had pledged to shut it, but that promise has been dropped, and facilities which now hold 169 inmates across a cluster of “camps” have largely remained out of the public eye.
During a four-day tour in which The Sunday Telegraph interviewed staff at every level, from the commander to guards, this paper saw how:
* inmates are shackled to the floor for everyday activities including computer lessons
* guards are on constant watch against attack but work in a regime offering art classes and 24-hour access to television and gym equipment
* a camp so secret that its name and precise location on the 40 sq mile base is classified has been set up for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of September 11 and his four co-accused, who are awaiting a military trial
* some appear to have given up on radical Islam in the wake of the Arab spring and death of Osama bin Laden
* the original Camp X-Ray is being kept as a crime scene because of allegations that al- Qaeda suspects were tortured there by the US authorities.
The Sunday Telegraph spent months negotiating with the American authorities before the visit and our pictures were subject to military approval.
US military authorities are keen to show that the camp offers a liberal regime for “compliant” prisoners. It is the first time they have granted such extensive access since Mohammed was formally charged along with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Walid Bin Attash, with 2,973 counts of murdering those who died on September 11 2001.
The pictures of men shackled while sitting are certain to prove controversial but prison commanders say it is essential to stop inmates attacking guards and instructors.
This paper witnessed prisoners receiving computer lessons, mingling with each other and preparing meals. Guards say torture simply does not happen, although they refuse to discuss what happened in the past. They also refuse to discuss the camp’s future.
Guantánamo Bay had been scheduled for closure by Mr Obama when he became president. But that pledge has been dropped, although hundreds of prisoners have been returned to countries including Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US authorities say those who remain are terrorist bomb makers, planners of attacks on Western targets, and financiers of terrorist operations.
The US government justifies the camps at Guantánamo by defining the inmates as “unprivileged enemy belligerents”; their incarceration in wartime is not an act of punishment but a matter of “security and military necessity”, which Washington claims has long been recognised as legitimate in international law.
Thirty-six are awaiting trial or expected to be put on trial, in front of a military tribunal, including Mohammed. Earlier tribunals allowed some to go home to serve their sentences, and for some currently in Guantánamo the resumption of military trials could offer that way out.
Additionally, 87 have been approved for release.
But some of those sentenced earlier returned to countries which have since become less stable, including Yemen, to which repatriation now seems unlikely.
Others claim they were tortured on their return. Legal restrictions in America now make returning people to a risk of torture more difficult, limiting the likelihood of such an outcome for the 87 or any sentenced by a tribunal.
And 46 are said to be simply too dangerous ever to be freed. The president has signed into law provisions which allow them to be detained indefinitely without trial, raising the possibility that Guantánamo will only close when the last of them dies. That means there is little realistic prospect of freedom for most inmates.
The youngest is a man aged 24. He was captured in Afghanistan by US forces, aged 15, for something “really bad”, according to Brig Gen James Lettko, the deputy commander of Joint Task Force Guantánamo, who refused to elaborate. Asked whether the man could spend the rest of his life in prison, he replied: “I don’t know.”
He also spoke of the other prisoners and said: “They come from the depths of the terrorist organisation.
“We have foot soldiers that may have been young men when they were captured. You have got detainees here that have specialised higher level degrees, college degrees, some from the United States. We have a slice of the terrorist network that cuts down through the depth of it.”
The camp authorities also confirmed for the first time the existence of “camp seven”, a CIA-run facility which holds Mohammed and his co-accused in even greater security.
Controversy over Mr Obama’s abandoned pledge to shut Guantánamo has largely died away in America.
But the camp’s continued existence, and the resumption of military tribunals for which he had expressed abhorrence before he came to power, is part of an increasingly aggressive attitude in taking action against al-Qaeda, his critics say.
He has authorised many more strikes by pilotless drones than his predecessor, in a campaign which has killed terrorist suspects including al-Qaeda’s purported deputy leader Abu Yahya al-Libi, who died last week in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Mr Obama has increased such strikes despite growing unrest over them in Pakistan.
Critics say the attacks kill innocent civilians and act as a recruiting sergeant for extremist groups, while avoiding adding to the numbers in Guantánamo by effectively being a policy of “take no prisoners”.
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