Nevertheless -- and despite relentless allegations to the contrary -- the evidence indicates they are treated humanely, even leniently. "Not a single case of torture or inhumane treatment has ever been substantiated,” Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., the commander at Guantánamo, told me and other visiting journalists recently. “We are the most transparent detention facility in the world."
Representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross visit detainees freely and regularly, as do attorneys – more than 900 of them. Thousands of letters are sent and received. This is what Amnesty defines as being “wrapped in secrecy”?
Detainees can refuse interrogation. Those willing to answer questions sit in easy chairs, drink tea and may watch television during the sessions. Not only is torture prohibited: At Guantánamo there can be no coercion of any kind and there is no solitary confinement.
Every detainee’s case is reviewed and those deemed unlikely to return to combat operations are released. To date, 315 of 770 detainees have been sent on their way. Several dozen are known to have returned to the fight against Americans in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Included in those ranks is a detainee who had been provided with an artificial leg and extensive physical therapy to help him use it.
Detainees get three square meals a day -- religiously appropriate food blessed by an imam. They receive the same medical and dental care as American military officers.
Admiral Harris said his mission is to provide “safe and humane care and custody” to the detainees. He is under no illusion about the detainees’ mission: They have organized themselves into a “fully tricked-out” al-Qaeda cell. Threats against Guantánamo guards are frequent. So are attacks with human waste and weapons made from such objects as plumbing fixtures and the blades of fans.
No one likes Guantánamo -- not those who run the facility and certainly not the American taxpayers who shell out millions of dollars a year to keep it functioning. But among the most recent arrivals are top al-Qaeda operatives Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh.
Such mass murderers should not be let loose on the world – not even in response to Amnesty International’s windsurfer flotillas, video contests and “Make Some Noise goodie bags.”