Guantanamo has secret jail for key detainees

[unhappycamper]

Guantanamo has secret jail for key detainees
By Andrew O. Selsky - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 18:39:49 EST

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded — a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret.

For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup.

Guantanamo commanders said Camp 7 is for key alleged al-Qaida members, who must be kept apart from other prisoners to prevent them from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to interrogators. They also want the location kept secret for fear of terrorist attack.

Many operations have been classified since the detention center opened in January 2002 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. More than four years passed before the military released even the names of detainees held on this 45-square-mile base in southeast Cuba — and it did so only after the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

Detainees have been held in Camp Echo and Camps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Journalists cleared by the military have been allowed to tour some of these lockups, where 260 men are held, but aren’t allowed to speak to detainees. Some lawmakers and other VIPs have passed through, and the International Red Cross has access, on the condition that no details about its visits with detainees be made public.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_guantanamo_080206/