Guantanamo Bay - Camp Delta

Guantanamo Bay - Camp Delta
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/guantanamo-bay_delta.htm
Detention facilities at Camp X-Ray were temporary. As a result of this, of the single occupancy capacity at Camp X-Ray being limited to 320, and with Guantanamo Bay preparing to receive up to 2,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees, the need arose for the construction of larger enclosed long-term detention facilities at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

As of April 9, 2002, construction of Camp Delta had already been approved and funded with construction having already begun at Radio Range, approximately five miles from Camp X-Ray. Construction of the new detention facility officially began on February 27, 2002. The first 408 new detention units were completed by the middle of April, and done by Brown & Root Services, as well as Navy SeaBees and Marine engineers.

Camp Delta was initially a 612-unit detention facility. It is built on the site of a former facility made up of cinder-block buildings used years before during a Haitian refugee operation. Each detention units is 8 feet long, 6 feet 8 inches wide and 8 feet tall and constructed with metal mesh material on a solid steel frame. Approximately 24 units make up a detention block. The facility has indoor plumbing with each unit having its own floor style flush toilet, metal bed-frame raised off the floor, and a sink with running water; none of which was available at Camp X-Ray where portable toilets were used instead. Areas at Camp Delta are also better controlled than Camp X-Ray and detainees are out of the sun more. There are also two recreation/exercise areas per detention block at Camp Delta. The maximum security portion of camp Delta is made up of three detention blocks.

U.S. Army Military Police make up the security force inside the camp.

The Detention Hospital is a 20 bed facility located inside Camp Delta and is dedicated to providing expert medical care to the detainees. The Detention hospital is comparable to a full-service, medical facility with state-of-the-art equipment and professional medical staff.

Detainees receive three culturally appropriate meals a day, one of which is an MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat). To guard against detainees fashioning "make-shift" weapons, special procedures have been put in place. Special arrangements were made with the MRE manufacturer to ensure that these MRE's would have neither cardboard packaging, heating units, accessory pack, nor candy. In addition, Military Police personnel are tasked with sanitizing each MRE, and removing toilet paper, the plastic wrapper off the spoon, a bag of spiced cider, and any additional material deemed to pose a potential threat. This includes salt, with each detainee allowed only one salt. Material given to each detainee for meals in his cell is accounted for once the meal is finished.

Clean laundry bundles provided to each detainee is made up of one sheet, two towels, one washcloth, one orange bottom (pants), one orange bottom (shorts), and one orange bottom top (shirt). They are also provided a prayer cap, flip-flop shoes, a foam sleeping mattress, a blanket, a 1/2 inch thick prayer mat, and soap. Detainees are also given a copy of the Koran. According to an account published by the Mirror in September 2002, detainees are allowed two 15-minute showers a week, at which time, they receive a new orange suit. According to a June 13, 2004, story by the Washington Post, detainees were initially concerned by the color of the suits, as they believed the color to be reserved for condemned men, and therefore believed they would be executed. Their concerns were reportedly addressed and they were told that the jumpsuit color was not tantamount to a death sentence.

Camp Delta was first occupied on April 28, 2002, when 300 detainees previously held at Camp X-Ray were transferred to Camp Delta. The rest of the detainees were moved on April 29. Camp X-Ray closed down on that same day.

Guantanamo is central to the Bush Administration's strategy to prevent judicial review of the legal status of prisoners. Located on Cuban territory, it is the "legal equivalent of outer space," according to one US government official, unlike military bases on US territories. These other locations were ruled out as prison sites because they fall under the jurisdiction of the often-liberal Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to one report, to qualify for transfer and detention at Camp Delta, Guantanamo, prisonners taken in Afghanistan must meet any one of the following criteria:

* Be a foreign national;
* Have received training from Al-Qaeda; or
* Be in command of 300 or more personnel.

As of June 26, 2002, the total number of detainees at Camp Delta was standing at 536.

On August 5, 2002, 34 suspected terrorists arrived at Guantanamo Bay, by an Air Force C-17 military aircraft, thus bringing to 598 the total number of detainees being housed at Camp Delta.

With military officials running out of detention space, construction work began on August 8, on a new wing for the Camp Delta prison camp. An additional 204 cells are to be added to facility with the work to be finished by October 1, 2002, thus bringing the number of cells in the compound to a total of 816.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller assumed command of detainee operations at Guantanamo Bay in November 2002, replacing Brigadier-General Rick Baccus.

A delegation from the ICRC visited Guantanamo Bay in October 2003, where it conducted more than 500 interviews.

According to a May 2, 2004 report in the Washington Post ("Guantanamo -- A Holding Cell In War On Terror" by Scott Higham, Joe Stephens and Margot Williams), about $118 million was being spent per year to run the prison facilities and other related operations. Additionnally contracts worth $110 million and $14.5 million had respectively been awarded to KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. and Dick Corp.; the latter for the construction of a criminal investigation task force headquarters facility.

According to a June 10, 2004 story in the Washington Post ("Detainees' Medical Files Shared" by Peter Slevin and Joe Stephens), military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had been given access to detainees' private medical records, though how such information was used remained unclear. According to the article, a visting Red Cross medical team's complaints that the sharing of such medical information was a breach of patient confidentiality and a grave problem was recorded in a US Department of Defense memo from October 9, 2003.

A dining facility, the Seaside Galley, is available for JTF personnel working inside Camp Delta. Established in 2002, it consists of a large, air-conditioned tent, with two hand-washing stations located just outside of the tent. A more permanent dining facility is scheduled to be built in September 2003 at the same location, and is known as the Delta Galley. As of mid-August 2003, it was expected to be comleted in late October. Other improvements made to Camp Delta include the installation of rubber mats on the floors for guards walking up and down the detention blocks, as well as the setting up of air-conditioned offices at the extremities of each block; with each one to be later equipped with a computer and connected to a LAN.

Camp Delta boasts the only traffic light on the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba , facility, and the second traffic light in Guantanamo Bay history. The light is mounted on the guard shack located at Camp Delta's traffic check point.

Camp Delta is comprised of at least six detention camps. These are Camps 1, 2, 3, 4, Echo and Iguana. Three of these (Camps 3, 2, 1) are maximum-security camps that can house about 800 detainees who live in solitary confinement. Camp 5, a more permanent concrete and steel structure, is designed to hold 100 detainees and open in early May 2004.
Camp 3

Camp 3 is the highest level maximum-security facility at Camp Delta. When an enemy combatant first arrives, he is held at Camp 3.
Camp 2

Detainees that cooperate with JTF GTMO staff and help to develop intelligence are moved from Camp 3 to Camp 2.

Camp 2 and 3 approzimately hold a combined 340 individuals.
Camp 1

Further additional cooperation by detainees allow them to be transferred to Camp 1 where the detainee receives additional privileges. About 150 detainees are held there.
Camp 4

In early December 2002, reports began surfacing of the construction at Camp Delta of a new, dormitory style, medium-security, detention facility. Construction of the facility was scheduled to be completed in January. With dormitories able to hold up to 20 detainees in each unit, the facility is aimed at enabling a limited number of captives the opportunity to interact with one another. There, detainees arebe able to eat, sleep and pray together. Admission to the facility will reportedly be conditional on each detainee's good behavior and cooperation with the interrogation process. This facility is known as Camp 4.

Detainees held at Camp 4 are allowed to live there as a result of having demonstrated that they are no longer security risks and are cooperating with the intelligence-gathering effort. Detainees held at Camp 4 wear white colored uniforms rather than the orange-colored ones, in addition to a locker for personal storage and access to writing material. Aproximately 160 detainees are held there.

Camp 4 is a medium security facility built inside the limits of Camp Delta. Camp 4 opened and received its first detainees on Feb. 28, 2003. Twenty detainees were transferred on that date. According to DoD, Camp 4 is used for detaining enemy combatants that are considered less of a security risk than others and who have been cooperative in the interrogation process. Though the total capacity of this camp was originally reported to be approximately 200, subsequent information released by DoD reports the total capacity of Camp 4 to be approximately 160. Within Camp 4, detainees are housed in building complexes where each complex consists of communal living rooms, each with a private toilet and sink, as well as a larger shower and toilet room that serve the entire complex. There are four communal living rooms that can house up to 10 detainees each (though it was initially reported each could house up to 12 detainnees). Each detainee has a bed with a mattress, locker for storing personal comfort items and other items like writing material and books. Camp 4 also has small, common recreational areas for playing board games and team sports.

The Camp's inner tower is known as Liberty Tower.
Camp 5

Camp 5 differs from other camps at Camp Delta in that it is a multi-winged complex made of concrete and steel. It cost $31 million to build, is designed to hold 100 detainees and was opened in May 2004.
Camp 6

An October 4, 2004, Legal Times articles mentioned that plans were underway to construct a new permanent facility dubbed "Camp 6" at Camp Delta. The new facility would reportedly hold 200 detainees and would cost $24 million to build. It, along with Camp 5, would be the only permanent detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. According to the report, construction on the new facility was believed unlikely to begin before the end of 2004. Camp 6 was expected to comply with American Corrections Association standards regarding the prison's daily operations and to be used for long-term incarcerations and rehabilitations.
Camp Echo

Camp Echo is located just outside the main facility. It is the detention facility where pre-commissions detaineed are held. Detainees whom the President of the United States has selected for the Military Commissions are separated from the general population and moved there. The location allows access by detainees to their lawyers and to hold private conversations with them.

camp Echo is composed of individual on-storey buildings sub-divided into two rooms. This allows detainees to meet with their lawyer in an area of their own cell, but also to be guarded by MPs 24 hours a day.
Camp Iguana

Camp Iguana is a lower-security detention facility dedicated to juvenile detainees aged between 13 to 15 years and brought to Guantanamo Bay. Detainees 16 years and older are housed with the other detainees in Camp Delta.

According to media reports, the facility consists of at least one-story blockhouse, surrounded by a a patch of grass and a high green-mesh fence. Detainees there are able to overlook the sea through a 30 by 7 feet gap that is protected by chicken wire. According to an article in the London Sunday Times on June 26, 2003, the living quarters are air-conditioned and consist of "a bedroom with twin beds, a small living room with two armchairs, sofa and television, and a bathroom and kitchenette", with an oven present for aesthetic reasons, and a reffrigerator whose fruit and desserts contents are reportedly handed as part of a reward system. A line of black tape on the floor separates the living room and kitchen areas while privacy in the bathroom is handled by a blue curtain.
Camp America / Camp Bulkeley

A camp, called Camp America, was constructed to house Joint Task Force 160 personnel. As of mid-April 2002, Camp America had been opened to soldiers though it was then still in the process of being finished.

Camp America is located halfway between Windmill and Kittery beaches and consists of 15' by 32' plywood shelters, called seahuts, each of which is equipped with air conditioning and state-of-the-art insulation. The seahuts replace the GP Medium tents the soldiers had previously been living in at Freedom Heights. A total of 105 seahuts were built over the span of three months by Navy seabees with each building housing up to 10 people.

Unlie Freedom Heights, both Camp America and Camp Bulkeley (another camp in which other troops assigned to Camp Delta also reside), the facilities feature hot showers, laundry, and workout facilities.

Each weather-resistant seahut is equipped with two doors at either end and allows for amenities not available at Freedom Heights, such as a fully operating, local area networked communications seahut with phones and fast Internet access available 24 hours a day. The camp also possesses a basketball court, a library, and a hut offering a big-screen television, movies with seating for 20. Each morale welfare and recreation seahut is grouped with two other MWR seahuts with a common porch around them. There are three groups of three MWR seahuts throughout the camp including a chaplain's area and a medical aid station to treat residents.

In addition to the seahuts, there are three tension frame systems (TFSs) at Camp America, supporting a gym complete with free weights, Nautilus-type machines and rubber-matted floors for exercise. The second TFS is the Seaside Galley; an air-conditioned mess hall capable of feeding a battalion-sized element, and which provides 4,000 hot meals a day. The last TSF is a general assembly area. The camp also supports command post operations by centralizing platoon headquarter seahuts among the living seahuts the same way Freedom Heights was set up at Camp X-Ray.

Both camps also feature MWR SEAhuts where troops have access to the internet and are able to relax during off-duty periods. Additionally, troops have also access to more phone lines and are allowed to make three 15-minute morale calls each week.

As of mid-April 2002, construction operations for camp America were in phase two, extending it about another quarter mile down the beach. Preliminary estimations suggested that the project would take longer than planned however.

On June 24, 2002, a new Joint First Aid Station was opened at Camp America. The clinic is equipped with air conditioning, telephones and computers linked directly to the Navy Hospital and serves both Camp America and Camp Buckeley.

Family housing facilities of Tierra Kay at Guantanamo Bay have also been refurbished, allowing many troops to move into those living quarters, and thus freeing up some of the SEAhuts at Camp America and Bulkeley for storage and office space.

As of mid-2003, two unused SEAhuts, previously used as temporary housing, were be