Inside Gitmo
Chapter 3: In the Beginning: Camp X-Ray
Content Summary
- The uprising at Qala-i-Jangi prison in Afghanistan alerted authorities to the vulnerability and difficulty of confining and interrogating enemy combatants in near-battlefield conditions.
- An urgent Pentagon staffing action - with input from all concerned agencies,particularly Department of Justice - led to ultimate selection of the base at Guantanamo, Cuba for selected, high-value detainees.
- Camp X-Ray, the first, short-lived facility for detainees. Quick construction, medical and interrogations facilities available, and a tent camp adjacent for US
soldiers.
- Details on the highly controversial interrogation process for Mohammed al Qahtani, ISN # 063, the self-confessed (though later he recanted) 20th Hijacker. What processes were approved, why Qahtani was considered so valuable, and how things went awry.
- FBI involvement in the Qahtani interrogations, and the voluminous report that detailed actual abuse to Qahtani in fall 2002.
- How US agencies were ill-prepared to deal with detainees whose linguistic background includes 17 different languages and multiple countries of origin. There was no "pool" of qualified interrogators available due to budget cutbacks.
- Why the pressure to produce "actionable intelligence" was so great. Official and public concern with when and how the next attack on America was coming.
- Actions that led to intense command oversight being adopted as firm policy at Guantanamo.
Reprinted end notes from chapter three of the book, with links to source
documents
and other supporting materials
1. Author interview, December 2005.
2. Author interview at the Pentagon with General Vincent Brooks, December
2005.
3. “Detainees treated humanely, officials say,” CNN, January 21, 2002;
“Gitmo’s ‘gourmet fare,’ ” Washington Times, June 29, 2005; Petty Officer 3rd Class John R. Guardino, “Rumsfeld Discusses Guantánamo Bay
Detainee Issues,” USN American Forces Press Service, June 26, 2005.
4. Hearing of the House Armed Services Committee; Subject: detainee operations
at Guantánamo Bay, June 29, 2005. [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: the transcript of this hearing is available through the Federal News Service website at http://www.fnsg.com/transcripta.htm?id=20050629t5221&query=GUANTANAMO yet unfortunately it is necessary to either subscribe to their service or pay $29.95 to access it. "Copyright 2005 The Federal News Service, Inc." appears at the top of the transcript and therefore it cannot be reprinted through this website.]
5. The Wire, Joint Task Force Guantánamo newsletter, January 10, 2003.
6. AR-15-6 Report FBI Allegations of Abuse (Schmidt-Furlow Report), June
9, 2005, p. 4.
7. The Manchester Manual, discovered in a counterterrorist police raid in
Manchester, England, revealed specific instructions for captured operatives
to make extravagant claims of torture. In the chapter entitled “Prisons
and Detention Centers,” the al Qaeda “brothers” are instructed to
“prove that torture was inflicted on them” and to “complain of mistreatment
while in prison.” Al Qaeda operatives are told to memorize the
names of guards and to “mention those names to the judge.” If brought
to a trial, the terrorists need to make certain to “notify [the court] of any
mistreatment.” While in confinement they are encouraged to establish
clandestine communications links with each other and to “master the art
of hiding messages.” Most important, the Manual stresses, is for the jihadists
to “create an Islamic program for themselves inside the prison,” and
to “shout Islamic slogans out loud” if exposed to the public. These enemy
combatants were thoroughly prepared to resist interrogation, defy convention,
upset the court pro cesses, and play to the interests of anti-
American, pro- Islamic organizations to sow dissension and further their
cause. The full text of the Manual can be found in translation at
http://
www.usdoj .gov/ag/manual . [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: the updated URL is http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/manualpart1_1.pdf. A searchable HTML version of the manual is also available at http://www.disastercenter.com/terror/ ]
8. Andrew Buncombein, “Washington condemns first suicides by Guantánamo inmates as ‘a PR exercise,’ ” The [London] Independent, June 12,
2006.
9. A Review of the FBI’s Involvement in and Observations of Detainee Interrogations
in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq, U.S. Department of
Justice Office of the Inspector General, May 2008, p. 78. Note that al
Qaeda has a history of operating falcon camps; for more information, see
pages 137– 39 of the 9/11 Commission report and the Save the Falcons
website located on the Internet at http://savethefalcons.org [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: the FBI report referenced above a 438 page PDF file and therefore may take a minute or two to download.]
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 80.
12. Ibid., p. 82.
13. Author interview with Paul Rester, June 2006.
14. A Review of the FBI’s Involvement, p. 83.
15. Ibid., p. 84.
16. “Gitmo Called Death Camp,” Washington Times, June 16, 2005.
17. A Review of the FBI’s Involvement, p. 84.
18. AR- 15- 6 Report: FBI Allegations of Abuse (Schmidt-Furlow Report), June
9, 2005.
19. A Review of the FBI’s Involvement, p. 85.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid., p. 86.
22. Ibid., p. 87.
23. Ibid., pp. 87– 88.
24. Ibid., p. 89.
25. Ibid., p. 58.
26. Ibid., p. 102.
27. Ibid., p. 83.
28. The U.S. Army Southern Command ordered an investigation into allegations
about military interrogations and FBI concerns regarding possible
detainee abuse. Lieutenant General Randall M. Schmidt and
Brigadier General John T. Furlow were appointed as the chief investigators
and published the AR- 15- 6 Report FBI Allegations of Abuse on June 9,
2005. The report found that three violations had occurred out of 24,000
interrogations conducted at Guantánamo Bay. It also concluded that one
detainee had been the subject of degrading and abusive treatment that
nonetheless did not rise to the level of inhumane treatment.
29. In May 2004, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld directed the naval inspector
general to conduct a detailed review of DOD interrogation operations in
military zones worldwide. The resulting 373- page report, referred to as
“The Church Report,” was published on March 7, 2005. A scanned copy
of the partially redacted unclassifi ed version is available through the
ACLU website at http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/legaldocuments/julydocs/(L)%20Church%20Report .pdf . [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: this file is now located at http://www.aclu.org/images/torture/asset_upload_file625_26068.pdf ]
30. Ibid., pp. 102– 103.
31. Adam Zagorin and Michael Duffy, “Inside the Interrogation of Detainee
063,” Time, June 12, 2005. A copy of the log is available through the
Time website at http://www.time.com/time/2006/log/log.pdf. [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: on December 19, 2008 the Firefox internet browser found the Time copy of the log to be "damaged." However, a functioning copy is still available on the internet at http://ccrjustice.org/files/Al%20Qahtani%20Interrogation%20Log.pdf .]
32. Author interview with interrogator at Guantánamo Bay, June 2006.
33. A Review of the FBI’s Involvement in and Observations of Detainee Interrogations
in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq, U.S. Department of
Justice Office of the Inspector General, May 2008, p. 101.
34. Department of Defense press release, “Guantánamo Provides Valuable
Intelligence Information,” June 12, 2005.
35. Ibid.
36. Center for Constitutional Rights webpage entitled al Qahtani v. Bush, al
Qahtani v. Gates, located at
http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/al-qahtani-v .-bush,-al-qahtani-v.-gates. [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: this webpage is now located at http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/al-qahtani-v.-bush%2C-al-qahtani-v.-gates]
37. Author interview with Paul Butler, December 2005. As a federal prosecutor,
Butler handled the case against al Qaeda for the African Embassy
bombings. His cousin was a New York City firefighter captain who died
on September 11 at the World Trade Center.
38. Author interview with Paul Rester, January 2006.
39. Numerous author interviews with JIG director Paul Rester, 2005– 2006.
40. FM 34– 52. Headquarters Department of the Army, Washington, DC, May 8, 1987, “Field Manual for Intelligence Interrogation.”
41. Author interview with Paul Rester, January 2006.
42. Comments by Senator Richard Durbin, D-IL, Congressional Record.
43. Bill Dedman, Battle over Tactics Raged at Gitmo, MSNBC, January 2,
2007. [Inside Gitmo website administrative note: this article was first published by MSNBC on Oct 23, 2006.]
44. Author interview with Paul Rester.
45. Dedman, Battle over Tactics.
46. Ibid.
47. Author interview with Admiral Harry Harris, December 2006.
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