Press given access to Guantanamo Bay

[JoFerret]

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1154310.htm

TONY EASTLEY: For two years David Hicks has been detained at a US naval base, tucked away on the eastern tip of Cuba. In this tiny part of America in the Caribbean, Hicks is now kept in a small cell, with no windows, prohibited from contact with other detainees.

The ABC has had access to Camp Echo at Guantanamo Bay where Mr Hicks is imprisoned, along with five other detainees all awaiting trial. The other Australian at Guantanamo, Mamdouh Habib, is also expected to be moved to the maximum security facility.

Our North America Correspondent Leigh Sales is at Guantanamo Bay and I asked her about where David Hicks is being held.

LEIGH SALES: Yes, we were taken today to Camp Echo which is where David Hicks is housed and where Mamdouh Habib will be moving shortly. We were given a tour of one of the huts there – it's not the one that David Hicks is living in obviously – but it's identical.

It's a very small brown hut. Inside, it's probably about 10 feet by 10 feet. It's divided into two – there's a metal chain wall which splits the cell. It's a very plain cell. On one side, he's got a bed, a toilet and a shower, and on the other side, just a table.

He's kept in maximum security. He's not allowed contact with any other detainees. His lawyers are allowed to see him, but the guards who see him all the time have minimal interaction with him, so he's very isolated.
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[bpilgrim]

1. eh, it's real EASY to FOOL them

whadabout the RED CROSS :shrug:

peace

[tom_paine]

2. Yeah, the Australian Press! You know how Totalitarian Tyrants

like to spruce up and pretend "when the Geneva Man comes", to phrase it as they did in the movie "Stalag 17", a film about an era when the German role was played by Germans, not us.

Now it is WE who are the torturers and tyrants, showing an empty bunk room to demonstrate how well and healthy the prisoners were.

Jesus even the NAZIS had to produce the actual prisoners.

It should be "fun" like "Stalag 17" when the Geneva Man came.

Oh, the Imperial Guards telling prisoners what will happen to them if they complain (waterboarding, perhaps, nahh, probably a nonviolent one like smearing them with shit and dirty tampons), new blankets being handed out, to be taken back later (as we are kinder and gentler than the Nazis, they may even let their prisoners keep the blankets---wow! who said we don't make progress?), and all sorts of fun Sgt. Schultz, stuff.

Hey, wouldn't it be funny if one of the barracks chief was a Sgt. Schultz?

No. None of this is funny.

[Jerseygirltoo]

3. Embed them

I'd love to see some journalists get embedded with the prisoners