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Pauline Jelinek. Associated Press Writer. Posted On Thu,
Jul. 25, 2002 in The Miami
Herald.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush istration is preparing to expand the
high-security prison in Cuba where it is holding and interrogating hundreds of
suspects from the war on terrorism, officials said Thursday.
The Pentagon has accepted bids and expects to award a contract in the next
several days for construction of some 200 more cells at the facility it calls
Camp Delta, two officials said on condition of anonymity.
The permanent jail at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station is nearly filled, with
564 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners from the campaign in Afghanistan
and elsewhere.
The facility - as well as istration justification for holding prisoners
without charges nor access to lawyers - has drawn criticism from human and civil
rights groups. The government declines to categorize them as prisoners of war
with attending rights, saying they're legitimate combatants as defined under
international treaty.
Camp Delta has space for a little over 600, so the new construction would
mean a capacity of over 800. Officials said previously that they could
eventually expand the prison to hold 2,000.
But there also was some hope the United States might not have to take
long-term responsibility for large numbers of prisoners. Officials have said
some might be sent home for prosecution by their own governments, others put
before U.S. military tribunals also newly set up or the counter-terror war, and
some held indefinitely.
There's been no word on planned prosecutions, and interrogations have gone
more slowly than hoped for. Officials have said Americans want to continue to
hold and question the detainees for information that would help prevent further
attacks by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida or help find them and other
terrorists.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld talked about the quandary at a late
June Pentagon press conference, where he was asked whether the United States
might release detainees who've been determined to have little intelligence
value.
On one hand, Guantanamo prison was nearing capacity, he said, and he was "not
enamored of the idea of taking the taxpayer's money and building a lot more jail
cells."
On the other hand, prisoners who don't seem of value now could turn out to
be later, he said, adding many have lied and changed their stories repeatedly
but may decide to cooperate after time.
Though they are believed to come from some three dozen nations, prisoner
stonewalling and deception has left interrogators uncertain of the true
identities and nationalities of dozens, officials say.
The money spent on Detentions in Cuba through April 20 included $19 million
for operations and $34 million for construction, said Pentagon spokeswoman Susan
Hansen.
The cost of the additional cells couldn't be learned Thursday.
When U.S. forces began transferring prisoners to Cuba from Afghanistan in
January they were held in Camp X-Ray, a makeshift jail of open-air cells that
human rights groups derided as "cages."
Since April, the prisoners have been housed in Camp Delta, the permanent
facility built later of concrete cells.
At least a dozen governments say they'd like to prosecute their citizens.
Several say they're unsure how that would be done because Americans haven't
shared information about possible charges or evidence. Some say they're happy to
let the United States keep the men because they're unsure if they have national
laws under which to successfully try the suspects.
Foreign delegations have visited Guantanamo to identify their citizens, help
interrogate them and check their welfare.
U.S. forces also hold several dozen prisoners in Afghanistan. And there are
high-level al-Qaida figures held in undisclosed locations, including operations
chief Abu Zubaydah, captured in Pakistan in March, and operational planner Abu
Zubair al-Haili, arrested in Morocco in June.
Among lawsuits on the U.S. detentions is one for 11 Kuwaiti prisoners and
another in which a coalition of clergy, lawyers and professors wants the
government to allow the prisoners lawyers, bring them before a U.S. court,
acknowledge their identity and define the charges against them. | 
