Military Confirms Secret Guantanamo Jail

Segregated, Top-Secret Detention "Camp 7" Houses 15 Most Valuable Detainees

(AP)  Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al Qaeda 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 Qaeda 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 Qaeda 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 Qaeda 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."

[searingtruth]

"And so, just as Hitler and Stalin before them, Bush and his henchmen recruited brutal sociopaths to torture and murder, accounting only to their personal will. Lending them, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically, all necessary moral and legal blessing.

I have always been curious, and wondered, who the American people thought were torturing and murdering in our name."
SearingTruth


A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[feelfree1]

Good points, "SearingTruth"

###

Re: "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."

This guy sounds like an ideal Bush regime dupe. He sounds like he has the integrity of a rabid ostrich.

The fact that he is aiding in terror operations against those who are being illegally held at this facility makes him an embarrassment to our military and our country.

The fact that he is doing so for the illegitimate, criminal Regime, and is maintaining an intentional ignorance about it, makes him an embarrassment to the human race.

[searingtruth]

"...The fact that he is doing so for the illegitimate, criminal Regime, and is maintaining an intentional ignorance about it, makes him an embarrassment to the human race."
FeelFree1


Indeed fellow patriot.

Many have warned of the dangers of secret government, some for thousands of years.
ST


"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."
Luke 6:31, King James Bible

"When everything is secret, everything is legal."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[krotec54]

Who wrote this story? And why are we so worried about these terrorists?
Some of you all are so stupid.
Just let your enemy know how you run your shop and they will know how to defeat you.
The media and the two of you are an embarrassment to the human race in America.

[shanev137]

Republicans hate the Geneva Convention.

[regkearney]

Under the Bush-Cheney administration the government of the United States of America has come full circle and employed reprehensible policies that we long condemned when perpetrated by the old Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and other totalitarian states. They have not only condemned men to open-ended incarceration without benefit of trial but have also invaded the privacy of American citizens.Their names, George W. Bush and *** Cheney, will ever live in infamy alongside those of other tyrants.

[searingtruth]

"Who wrote this story? And why are we so worried about these terrorists?..."
krotec54


Ummm, what makes you believe they are terrorists?

Or have committed any crimes at all?

I mean honestly, you don''t even know their names, and they haven''t been charged with any crime.

All we know is that they are human beings who have been illegally abducted and indefinitely incarcerated in secret prisons without charge or representation where they are subject to institutionalized torture and murder.

Just like in China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, Iran, or the old Soviet Union.
ST


"We have become the enemy we fought."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[fiteit1]

Who wrote this story? And why are we so worried about these terrorists? Posted by krotec54

Answer, intelligent, competent, journalists that are doing the ugly foot work that we don''t have time for to expose a corrupt government. I know that you are someone like Army Col. Larry James who just wants to live life with their head in the sand. But true Americans want and need to know what their government is up to. I happen to have confidence in America to protect it''s self without compromising it''s morals and engaging in torture, at least I did before Bush became a dictator. As for, why should we worry about terrorists? If they really were terrorists and no doubt about their guilt, try them convict them and sentence them or let them go and do it in an open court.

[searingtruth]

Posted by fiteit1 at 04:10 AM : Feb 07, 2008
Posted by jerryomara at 04:04 AM : Feb 07, 2008


Fantastic posts, both of you. Our country is once again in debt to patriots whose service can never be justly compensated, except by the salvation of our great nation.
ST


"If only we could once again stand as a nation and unequivocally proclaim that torture and murder is wrong."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[feelfree1]

TheGateway1,

Re: "And FeelFree1, when are you going to come out with hard evidence, and proof in law, of all the crimes you CLAIM the government is guilty of. When are you going to quote title, section, and chapter of the US code that has been violated?"

At their trial, of course.

[juwboy]

Without oil, Arabs like FeelFree1 would be as insignificant as the sand fleas in their pubic hairs.

[feelfree1]

juwboy,

Re: "Without oil, Arabs like FeelFree1 would be as insignificant as the sand fleas in their pubic hairs."

Lucky for them, they have all that oil then, I guess.

[gce65]

Secret prisons within secret prisons, torture by another name...This keeps getting worse and worse. Let''s just shut the whole place down and give it back to Fidel. The whole base. It''s now synonymous with US TORTURE.

Anyway, it sounds like Israel''s super-secret Camp 1391, which I''m guessing is at about 33.34.45 North/ 35.10.50 east--they hate to get press about it. But p1ss on them.

See how long my comments stay up here.

[searingtruth]

"...Get real, people. What the fvck are we supposed to do with terrorists?..."
TheGateway1


Well, according to our Constitution we justly try anyone accused of a crime to determine if they''re guilty in the first place, and if they are found guilty we justly sentence them to a humane punishment.

If you ever get confused again, just ask any American.
ST


"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure."
Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[searingtruth]

"TheGateway1 Yes we remember the 3000 that died I lost a cousin who was a fireman and two friends. But we alsio remember the almost 4000 of our own troops that have died the many inocent Iraqi''s and the destruction of a country that had nothing to do with 9/11."
jerryomara


Fellow patriot, I am unspeakably sorry for your loss of cherished family and friends.

But I know as you do that your brave cousin and friends did not die so America could be lost.
ST


"The victims of 9/11 did not die so America could forsake its heritage and humanity."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[searingtruth]

"...Alas, I see your Thomas Jefferson, and raise you 150,000,000 Ogden Nash.

"The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so tha the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly." -- Ogden Nash, author (1902-1971)"
Nancy_Naive


Wow. Awesome.

Thank you fellow patriot.
ST


"Thank goodness our founding fathers were right. We need never fear the lack of a patriot in our stead."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[searingtruth]

"Searing Truth,

Yer pissin in the wind, pal. The whole of this nation was lost when the Ohio National Guard massacred with impunity. An evil ignorance abounds in land of the free.

Regards,"
Nancy_Naive


Nancy, I am sorry. May hope one day heal your anguish and restore your idealism, which I sense has been understandably crushed.
ST


"I understand. For I have been disappointed also. Humanity, overall, almost always disappoints me. However humans, individually, almost always fill me with hope. This has led me to the conviction that humanity is good; it is our organization and ideologies that have proven pitifully and woefully ineffective and inadequate."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[searingtruth]

"And so, just as Hitler and Stalin before them, Bush and his henchmen recruited brutal sociopaths to torture and murder, accounting only to their personal will. Lending them, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically, all necessary moral and legal blessing.

I have always been curious, and wondered, who the American people thought were torturing and murdering in our name."
SearingTruth


A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[barbaraf4]

With the passage of time, I cannot imagine what would be the value of any detainee. Certainly they would not have current intel.

My guess? Camp 7 holds the terrorists with direct ties to the Bush/Cheney administration. To expose them would verify the long-circulated rumor that 9/11 was an "inside job".

[gunownerdan]

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address to the Nation,
January 17, 1961

"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961

www.A-HUMAN-RIGHT.com

[gunownerdan]

They say only about 1 in 1,000 Americans can name the 5 rights guaranteed to all of us by the 1st Amendment.
Freedom of speech
Freedom of religion
Freedom of the press
Freedom to assemble
Freedom to petition the government
In America, 1 out of 1,000 is about 300,000 people.
These could be some of the first to be called "enemy combatants" and get shipped off to the camps.
If you ignore your rights they will go away.

[searingtruth]

"Enemy Combatant - A term fabricated by Bush and his henchmen in a failed attempt to commit crimes against humanity without consequence."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[searingtruth]

Mirror

My friends, sometimes the most difficult thing about fighting evil is realizing that it actually exists, and then unambiguously and forcefully calling it what it is.

History shows time and time again that one of evils greatest strengths is its ability to disguise itself as good, or at least a temporary necessity, until that last fatal moment when its revelation becomes clear, indisputable, and inescapable.

So today let us take a clear and unadulterated look into the mirror at ourselves.

Just six years ago we were one of the most respected and admired defenders of democracy and human rights in history. Respected not only by our friends, but even begrudgingly by most of our enemies. In fact, even the fantastic power of our military paled in comparison to the overwhelming might of our moral authority.

Today we are a nation that operates secret prisons occupied by anonymous inmates, illegally abducted and held indefinitely without charge or representation. We are guilty of torture. We are guilty of murder. We are guilty of preemptive war of conquest. We are guilty of the wholesale surveillance of our population, suppressing all hope of privacy and free dissent. And we are guilty of disgracing our nation through the abandonment of even our most basic precepts of morality.

If this is not evil, then nothing we have ever fought against is evil, and nothing we have ever fought for is good.

Excerpt from A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[fstop100]

George and *** at it again.....truth in government at it''s best.

[shoebox119]

Now that we know the existence of a Camp 7, it makes me wonder where Camp 8 is...

[hillaryin08]

"And so, just as Hitler and Stalin before them, Bush and his henchmen recruited brutal sociopaths to torture and murder, accounting only to their personal will. Lending them, wholeheartedly and enthusiastically, all necessary moral and legal blessing.

I have always been curious, and wondered, who the American people thought were torturing and murdering in our name."
SearingTruth


A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by SearingTruth at 07:10 AM : Feb 07, 2008

Only in your mind lib, only in your mind.........

You know, ther are some pretty good drugs out there. You should get some help. Pathological and Psycotropic disorders are treatable bu not curable.

[mbcsmith]

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by SearingTruth at 07:55 AM : Feb 07, 2008


What''s your solution?

[jjp735i]

Another secret prison? Wow, Bush & the Neo-Nazi party are really out doing them selves. I am sure after Bush leaves office, many more such places will come to light.

[mbcsmith]

With the passage of time, I cannot imagine what would be the value of any detainee. Certainly they would not have current intel.Posted by barbaraf4 at 07:34 AM : Feb 07, 2008

UUmmm maybe so they can''t continue to kill our innocent citizens and our soldiers.

[searingtruth]

"A whisper of horror.
That''s all we could hear."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[samrensho]

Bet the water board in this place has nails sticking up on it. The US government could make Heinrich Himmler proud.

[inventagod]

...and somewhere in our government, are those responsible for 9/11...
We should reserve camps 1 thru 6 for them.
They have lied to you.

[searingtruth]

"...What''s your solution?"
mbcsmith


It''s in A Future of the Brave.
ST


"One of the greatest tragedies of our existence is that we are a people united by so many common goals, but divided by so many uncommon beliefs.

I believe that our goals are more important. We all want to be free. We all want our children to be healthy and happy. Most all of us want peace so long as our own rights are protected.

These are the ideals that we can all strive for together. These are the threads of humanity that cannot be torn apart."
SearingTruth, A Future of the Brave


A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[searingtruth]

"I writhed in anguish for years. Always knowing pain was coming, but never knowing what I should attempt to say next, or how I should appear so that my American torturers would believe me.

The problem was that I was innocent."
SearingTruth


A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[mbcsmith]

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by SearingTruth at 09:05 AM : Feb 07, 2008

So I gather you want freedom for KSM and other terrorists.

[jersupporter]

I guess the major question now is - Did you order the Code Red?

[alexma50085]

Terrorists do horrible, unmoral actions against undeserving people, but that is not a justification for our government to hold them indefinatly without trial or to torture them. We have let our president turn us into a country that is no better than the terroist countries that attack us. How sad it feels to be part of a country that causes physical and psycological pain to its prisoners. Welcome to the new U.S.A., a place where civil liberties are distroyed and human rights are crushed.

[mbcsmith]

Posted by nokoolaid at 09:30 AM : Feb 07, 2008

LIBS just don''t get it.

[quetzal0666]

and where will Chenney SHRUB go after their
War Crimes Trials???

[searingtruth]

"... So I gather you want freedom for KSM and other terrorists."
mbcsmith


Hmmm ....

Well I just double checked and I didn''t find KSM in A Future of the Brave at all, nor did I find anything about freeing terrorists.

Although there''s a lot of awesome stuff about Americans regaining their freedom by restoring our Constitution.

Perhaps you should read it again. And if you still have questions just let me know the page and paragraph and I will be happy to explain it to you.
ST


"Republicans have given us a new ''F'' word.
Freedom."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com

[alexma50085]

With the passage of time, I cannot imagine what would be the value of any detainee. Certainly they would not have current intel.Posted by barbaraf4 at 07:34 AM : Feb 07, 2008

UUmmm maybe so they can''''t continue to kill our innocent citizens and our soldiers.
Posted by mbcsmith at 08:57 AM : Feb 07, 2008

Then why don''t we put them on trial. If they are being held, like they are, then our government should have some kind of hard evidence proving their guilt. The trial should be a slam dunk, that is unless our government is lying to us, and is just holding and torturing these people because of a whim.
The only justification to holding someone without trial, is because you can''t prove that they have commited a crime.

[mbcsmith]

The only justification to holding someone without trial, is because you can''''t prove that they have commited a crime.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by alexma50085 at 09:35 AM : Feb 07, 2008

They would have had trials a year ago if your LIB senators and congressman would have let the military conduct one.

[mbcsmith]

Posted by SearingTruth at 09:32 AM : Feb 07, 2008

Again, what is your solution. Put it in your words.

[alexma50085]

They would have had trials a year ago if your LIB senators and congressman would have let the military conduct one.
Posted by mbcsmith at 09:36 AM : Feb 07, 2008

No, they won''t have trials because Bush has taken away their right to trial. He put himself above our constitution and took away their basic freedoms.

[hungry1968]

You know, ther are some pretty good drugs out there. You should get some help. Pathological and Psycotropic disorders are treatable bu not curable.

Posted by hillaryin08 at 08:50 AM : Feb 07, 2008



Good advice, so why don''''t you take it?

Posted by leftyintexas at 09:05 AM : Feb 07, 2008



Judging by the lack of intelligence in his posts, I would say he''s on some seriously powerful drugs already. Never an intelligent response, or any useful solutions on how to solve any of our current problems - just a blind lust for Bush and a pitiful defense of ALL of Bush''s failed policies.

[mbcsmith]

No, they won''''t have trials because Bush has taken away their right to trial. He put himself above our constitution and took away their basic freedoms.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by alexma50085 at 09:41 AM : Feb 07, 2008

The president keeps trying to put them on trial and your LIB senators and congressmen want to send them to traffic court in Virginia. Think before you speak.

[hungry1968]

With the passage of time, I cannot imagine what would be the value of any detainee. Certainly they would not have current intel.Posted by barbaraf4 at 07:34 AM : Feb 07, 2008

UUmmm maybe so they can''t continue to kill our innocent citizens and our soldiers.
Posted by mbcsmith at 08:57 AM : Feb 07, 2008





Is that why they release them on a regular basis?

[mbcsmith]

Posted by nokoolaid at 09:43 AM : Feb 07, 2008

Classic Bush derangement syndrome. Let your HATRED go, you''ll feel better.

[offtheback]

At the end of the day torture garners questiomable information at best. Most people, when their weakness is found, will say or do anything to make it stop. ANYTHING. They have also been given misleading stories to convey should they find themselves in that situation. We have done it since the inception of this great nation. What makes us think we are smarter, in that respect, than anyone else? The sure sign of arrogance is to believe that you are smarter yhan your opponent, and the quickest road to defeat. Acting on this sort of misinformation is a fool''s business. SO durress is not only wrong on a moral and ethical basis, it begets only fool''s information. We are a nation run by fools. We should all hang our heads in shame.

[mbcsmith]

Is that why they release them on a regular basis?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by hungry1968 at 09:44 AM : Feb 07, 2008

They are often sent to their home countries to be tried there. Which is it LIB? Let them go or hold them, you seem confused.