THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GITMO STRIKE: Detainees Are Treated Surprisingly Well
REUTERS/Bob StrongHere's what Guantanamo detainees could be eating.
Editor's note: Please do not take this article to be an endorsement of indefinite detention. It is an assertion, however, that despite common assumptions, Guantanamo Bay detention center is a surprisingly nice facility where compliant detainees are treated well.
The latest Guantanamo Bay hunger strike is working as planned.
With 31 of 166 detainees acknowledged as hunger strikers, international media reports are hailing this as a desperate protest by mistreated men.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviewed public defender Carlos Warner, who claims that his clients face "dire" conditions ever since a new commander took over Guantanamo and the White House abandoned plans to close the detention center.
Military spokesman Navy Capt. Robert Durand tells a different story, however, maintaining that the strike is an “orchestrated event intended to garner media attention,” according to the New York Times.
So which is the real story? When we visited Guantanamo earlier this month, it was hard not to see things from the military's point of view.
Zak says he doubts there was any breach of protocol — something the military officially denies as well.
It's also hard to believe that guards, who already gripe about the difficulty of their assignment, would do anything that would make their lives tougher.
Zak demonstrated why Koran inspections are important, taking a hardcover Koran, flipping it upside down, and showing the wide opening under the spine.
Last time they stopped Koran searches, he explains, several detainees stashed medication in these tunnels of paper and then took the medication all at once in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Suicide is another effective way of getting media attention, and there remains a rumor among detainees that three simultaneous suicides would force the Pentagon to close Guantanamo — despite three suicides already happening in 2006.
In short, it's not at all clear that the Koran incident even happened, and the strikers' demand that Koran searches be stopped is impossible.
As for the claim that detainees are mistreated, that also does not jibe with what we saw in Guantanamo.
Robert Johnson/Business InsiderDetainees have access to video games too, as well as popular movies and magazines.Without getting into the moral concerns over indefinite detainment without trial, we observed that detainees are treated well at the base.
Compliant detainees enjoy a selection of six balanced meals, 25 cable TV channels, classes, and an array of electronic gadgetry and entertainment, Nintendo DS consoles and Playstation 3 access with a library full of games.
Conditions at Guantanamo are so good for the simple reason of getting the media to leave them alone. This is the White House's best option for making the controversy go away, since closing the detention center has proven impossible. It's not a perfect option, seeing that Guantanamo is insanely expensive compared to every prison in the world, but that's where we are.
Resort treatment brings its own means of control for guards, who can threaten to take away handheld game consoles and other privileges from non-compliant detainees.
There's also controversy over how many people are participating in the hunger strike.
Lawyers for the detainees say there are more participants than the 31 the government has acknowledged. Personnel on base, however, suggest that there could be even fewer.
Some detainees, we were told, decline meals at the cafeteria so that they count among the strikers, and then walk over to medical and ask for a can of Ensure liquid meal to drink. There is also a lot of food that comes into group cells and gets distributed without oversight, enabling a "striker" to eat.
Military personnel we spoke to see the strike as a reaction to fading media attention about Guantanamo.
Robert Johnson/Business InsiderA delivery of Ensure liquid meal - the other food option.Detainees read the news, talk to family at home, and have cable, they see what everyone else does. When they saw Obama failed to mention the camp in his inaugural address, they noticed. The last bit of hope maintained by many began to fade. They needed control and attention to get back in the news.
"They use our religion as a shield and a weapon," Zak says.
Hunger strikes have been effective in the past, notably a much larger strike in 2005 that led to significant improvements in detainee treatment.
While the current strike is getting media attention, however, it's not clear what it can achieve.
Conditions for most detainees are good, as noted by us, Reuters's Bob Strong, and anyone else who has actually visited Guantanamo recently. Koran inspections aren't going anywhere. As for the closure of the detention center, well, we'll believe it when we see it.