GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (KRT) — Bullet-riddled casualties of the war in Afghanistan, 14 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists arrived on stretchers Monday at a prison compound nearing capacity to face uncertain U.S. justice and receive top-notch Navy medical care.
Four Marines in fatigues and yellow rubber gloves carried each arrival, one by one, off a huge Air Force transport plane to raise to 158 the number of captives at Camp X-Ray, a compound of eight-by-eight foot chain-link cells. The compound had 160 cells on Monday. Thirty new cells should be ready Thursday, Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert said.
The prisoners were seen by doctors on their arrivals and three will require surgery for infection shortly, Lehnert said.
All arrived in stable condition from earlier surgery by U.S. military doctors in Kandahar, Afghanistan, to remove bullets from their arms or legs, said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Brendan McPherson.
Reporters watched the sober unloading operation from a hilltop overlooking the runway. All wore turquoise surgical masks and orange jumpsuits topped by blue denim jackets as protection against the chill during their 8,000-mile journey from South Asia to the Caribbean aboard a C-141 Starlifter from Andrews Air Force Base in Virginia.
Two were leg amputees. One was missing a left leg, below the knee.
“They were restrained in an appropriate manner, which did not aggravate their medical conditions,” said McPherson, a spokesman for the prison camp project. “A medical team was on board to provide any medical care they needed.”
Commanders here have gone out of their way to characterize the captives’ conditions here as humane but not comfortable, part of a balancing act between the Geneva Conventions and strict security measures.
Still, human rights groups have protested what they characterized as sensory deprivation and inhumane treatment the security measures, which include blinding, shackling and deafening them in transit and placing them on their knees in shackles before in-prison processing.
In Los Angeles, a federal judge agreed to hear a petition from civil rights advocates, including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, which challenge the detentions at Guantanamo.
Separately, the Netherlands demanded the United States recognize the detainees as prisoners of war with rights under the Geneva Conventions.
“In the fight against terrorism, we need to uphold our norms and values,” said Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Jozias van Aartsen. “That applies to prisoners, too.”