Also, detainees at X-Ray now can send, receive personal mail
By Carol Rosenberg. crosenberg@herald.com.
The Miami Herald.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - They have included two Bay of Pigs
veterans collecting material for a Little Havana radio program and a
London-based investigator for a controversial Al Jazeera television program.
So far, 195 journalists and crews have visited this remote Navy base since
Jan. 9, when Miami's Southern Command started sending reporters and
photographers to cover this emerging U.S. offshore center for suspected
terrorists.
Media have come from 16 countries and virtually every South Florida news
organization. Among the most recent were Humberto Cortina and Luis Orlando Rodrígues,
wearing credentials of WQBA, 1140, the mostly news talk-show radio station of
Hispanic Broadcasting Corp.
They met dignitaries and took tours in search of material for Cortina's
afternoon program, which sometimes analyzes military situations. Both are Bay of
Pigs veterans, and Rodríguez retired from the U.S. Army as a colonel
after assignments that included commanding U.S. advisors in El Salvador. They
declared conditions decidedly better than their detainment on the Isle of Pines
after the botched mission to topple Fidel Castro.
Al Jazeera dispatched London-based correspondent Yosri Fouda and a cameraman
from London -- not to generate reports but to gather documentary footage for his
monthly program, whose Arabic name means ''Top Secret.'' The program examines
conspiracy theories that twist through the Middle East.
Fouda got the full treatment as part of a routine reporting delegation --
two stops at Camp X-Ray, an inspection of prisoners being treated at the tented
M*A*S*H-style hospital, lunch at McDonalds and a ride-along with a Coast Guard
port security unit.
His impression? ''I hope that in the end, some sort of evidence will be
provided to the Arab world and the Muslim world that these are the men,'' he
said. ``There's always the natural tendency toward conspiracy theories -- and
this gets magnified and amplified when there is a lack of confirmation.''
• • •
Camp X-Ray prisoners now have a mail call, of sorts.
Officers say that for about two weeks they have allowed detainees to both
send and receive letters and postcards, in compliance with the Geneva
Conventions. Since then, the U.S. military has mailed 217 letters and postcards
from the prisoners, after inspecting them and affixing 80-cent U.S. stamps at
Department of Defense expense.
In some instances, U.S. army translators and guards have taken dictation
from the captives because some are illiterate. Each letter is censored for
operation-sensitive details by the U.S. military, says spokesman Marine Maj.
Steve Cox, in keeping with the rules of the Geneva Convention.
• • •
As part of the effort to be sensitive to Islamic sensibilities, Camp X-Ray
commanders adjusted the inmates' meal schedule Thursday so they could partake in
a dawn-to-dusk fast in honor of the annual Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the
Sacrifice holiday.
Guards handed out lunch before dawn rather than the normal hot oatmeal
breakfast, says Army Col. Terry Carrico, the chief military police officer.
After dark they distributed a hot rice meal.
The feast coincides with the annual hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, a trip
Muslims are obliged to make at least once in their lives.
The Navy's Muslim cleric posted at the camp, Lt. Abuhena Saiful-Islam,
reported that ``everyone who is Muslim fasted, including myself.''
In keeping with a policy that will not spell out how many in the camp are
Muslim and how many are Christian, officers declined to say how many midday
meals were served.
• • •
Now that Camp X-Ray is full and, for the moment, no longer front-page news,
there has been a noticeable decline in public visits from Washington.
That doesn't mean that there aren't regular, quiet arrivals from the
nation's capitol as policymakers and planners continue to tour Camp X-Ray and
the nearby Joint Interrogation Facility of six windowless, wooden buildings.
One such visitor arrived from the CIA on Thursday: Air Force Lt. Gen. John
Campbell, assistant director of central intelligence for military support, whose
three-star flag hung prominently from a flag pole while his aircraft was on the
base. | 
