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Dr. Jai Maharaj
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U.S. military confirms existence of secret Guantanamo 'Camp 7'
AP confirms secret camp inside Gitmo
By Andrew O. Selsky, Associated Press Writer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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, but doesn't divulge
details of visits with prisoners.
Camp 7, where 15 "high-value detainees" are held, is so
secret that its very existence was not publicly known until
it was mentioned in December by attorneys for Majid Khan, a
former Baltimore resident who allegedly plotted to bomb gas
stations in the United States. Previously, many observers
believed the 15 were being held in Camps 5 or 6, which are
maximum-security facilities.
"Under the gag order ... we are prohibited from saying
anything more about their camp," lawyer Gitanjali
Gutierrez, who met with Khan in October, said Tuesday. Most
of the lawyers' notes and memos have been stamped "top
secret" by the government.
Buzby told the AP he is sharply limiting to a "very few"
the number of people who know Camp 7's whereabouts.
He described it as a maximum security facility that was
already built when President Bush announced in September
2006 that 14 high-value terrorism suspects had been
transferred from CIA secret detention facilities to
Guantanamo. An additional detainee, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi,
arrived last April.
"They went straight into that facility," Buzby said.
Buzby, who heads all military detention operations on
Guantanamo, said he controls Camp 7, but would not discuss
whether the CIA might still be talking with the high-value
detainees.
Paul Rester, the military's chief interrogator at
Guantanamo, told AP he has been interviewing one of the
Camp 7 detainees and that others may be interrogated,
depending on intelligence needs.
But other key military commanders on the base have been
told to leave Camp 7 to others.
"Not everybody, even within the Joint Task Force, has
access or even knowledge of where Camp 7 is," said Army
Col. Bruce Vargo. As commander of the military's Joint
Detention Group at Guantanamo, Vargo is responsible for the
camps holding 260 detainees. But not for Camp 7.
Red Cross representatives have visited Camp 7 and all the
other detention facilities at Guantanamo, confirmed Geoff
Loane, head of the humanitarian organization's delegation
in Washington. He declined to give details.
Buzby said the 15 are kept isolated in part to protect
other prisoners. "Detainees have told us a lot of things
about this group of people, and if there were potential for
retribution it would be a very, very dangerous situation,"
he said.
For his part, Vargo said he is preoccupied by the
possibility of an al-Qaida attack on Guantanamo.
"Although we are trying to be open, security is paramount,"
he said. "I mean, if you can fly a plane into the towers,
you can attack Guantanamo if that's what you choose to do.
It's something I think about on a day-to-day basis."
Vargo declined to discuss whether the U.S. has received
information that al-Qaida may be planning such an attack.
"We have intelligence reports, but I don't want to release
what we know for obvious reasons," he said.
While some military personnel have reportedly grumbled
about being kept out of the loop, others don't mind.
Army Col. Larry James, whose team of psychologists assists
interrogators, said he does not want to know where Camp 7
is.
"I learned a long, long time ago, if I'm going to be
successful in the intel community, I'm meticulously -- in a
very, very dedicated way -- going to stay in my lane," he
said. "So if I don't have a specific need to know about
something, I don't want to know about it. I don't ask about
it."
More at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_secret_camp
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
DISCLAIMER AND CONDITIONS
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
AP confirms secret camp inside Gitmo
By Andrew O. Selsky, Associated Press Writer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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, but doesn't divulge
details of visits with prisoners.
Camp 7, where 15 "high-value detainees" are held, is so
secret that its very existence was not publicly known until
it was mentioned in December by attorneys for Majid Khan, a
former Baltimore resident who allegedly plotted to bomb gas
stations in the United States. Previously, many observers
believed the 15 were being held in Camps 5 or 6, which are
maximum-security facilities.
"Under the gag order ... we are prohibited from saying
anything more about their camp," lawyer Gitanjali
Gutierrez, who met with Khan in October, said Tuesday. Most
of the lawyers' notes and memos have been stamped "top
secret" by the government.
Buzby told the AP he is sharply limiting to a "very few"
the number of people who know Camp 7's whereabouts.
He described it as a maximum security facility that was
already built when President Bush announced in September
2006 that 14 high-value terrorism suspects had been
transferred from CIA secret detention facilities to
Guantanamo. An additional detainee, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi,
arrived last April.
"They went straight into that facility," Buzby said.
Buzby, who heads all military detention operations on
Guantanamo, said he controls Camp 7, but would not discuss
whether the CIA might still be talking with the high-value
detainees.
Paul Rester, the military's chief interrogator at
Guantanamo, told AP he has been interviewing one of the
Camp 7 detainees and that others may be interrogated,
depending on intelligence needs.
But other key military commanders on the base have been
told to leave Camp 7 to others.
"Not everybody, even within the Joint Task Force, has
access or even knowledge of where Camp 7 is," said Army
Col. Bruce Vargo. As commander of the military's Joint
Detention Group at Guantanamo, Vargo is responsible for the
camps holding 260 detainees. But not for Camp 7.
Red Cross representatives have visited Camp 7 and all the
other detention facilities at Guantanamo, confirmed Geoff
Loane, head of the humanitarian organization's delegation
in Washington. He declined to give details.
Buzby said the 15 are kept isolated in part to protect
other prisoners. "Detainees have told us a lot of things
about this group of people, and if there were potential for
retribution it would be a very, very dangerous situation,"
he said.
For his part, Vargo said he is preoccupied by the
possibility of an al-Qaida attack on Guantanamo.
"Although we are trying to be open, security is paramount,"
he said. "I mean, if you can fly a plane into the towers,
you can attack Guantanamo if that's what you choose to do.
It's something I think about on a day-to-day basis."
Vargo declined to discuss whether the U.S. has received
information that al-Qaida may be planning such an attack.
"We have intelligence reports, but I don't want to release
what we know for obvious reasons," he said.
While some military personnel have reportedly grumbled
about being kept out of the loop, others don't mind.
Army Col. Larry James, whose team of psychologists assists
interrogators, said he does not want to know where Camp 7
is.
"I learned a long, long time ago, if I'm going to be
successful in the intel community, I'm meticulously -- in a
very, very dedicated way -- going to stay in my lane," he
said. "So if I don't have a specific need to know about
something, I don't want to know about it. I don't ask about
it."
More at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_secret_camp
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
DISCLAIMER AND CONDITIONS
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
