Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba — Four members of the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived Thursday to meet with U.S. officials and interview dozens of al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners being held at this remote U.S. military outpost.
The visit was the first by independent experts at Camp X-ray, which human rights advocates say provides substandard conditions for the prisoners. U.S. officials say the tight security is necessary and that the prisoners' rights are not being violated.
The Red Cross team of four, including a doctor, arrived Thursday on a small plane from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Urs Boegli, head of the team, said findings of the prisoners' conditions would be shared with authorities but said he wasn't sure whether the findings would be made public.
During the day Thursday, guards used basic commands in Arabic for some of the prisoners while a forklift groaned, hoisting materials to expand the temporary detention facility.
Behind three fences and coils of razor wire, prisoners with shaved heads and orange jumpsuits sat in open-air cells of chain-link fence. Occasionally, Army guards led a prisoner out of a cell, taking him for a walk in the heavily fortified yard.
"For the most part, they do what they're told," said Sgt. Lisa Juve, an Army guard who spoke to journalists who were allowed to see the detention camp, but only from about 150 yards away.
Military officials say the camp will soon be able to hold 320 inmates, or more if they are doubled up two to a cell. Workers also are building a permanent prison to hold up to 2,000.
The United States is holding more than 300 prisoners at the Marine base at Kandahar airport, in Afghanistan, and a few others elsewhere.
Thirty more prisoners arrived in Guantanamo from Kandahar on Thursday, bringing the inmate population here to 110. They were brought to the base on a small plane from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
When they arrive, prisoners are given a half sheet of paper to write to family members or friends of their indefinite detention in Cuba.
Five interpreters using Arabic and other languages help the guards communicate with prisoners, officials said. U.S. officials could not immediately say how many languages were being used.
The unarmed guards carry booklets with the pronunciation of some basic terms in Arabic, such as "Walk!", "No!" and "Use the latrine?"
A Marine security guard, Cpl. Joe Lupo, said he was struck by the prisoners' size. "They're pretty small guys," he said, describing some of them as appearing to be in their teens.
Military officials say most are in their 20s and 30s, though they are not revealing identities or nationalities.
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