Yahoo! News
December 28, 2001.
Afghan prisoners to be held in Cuba
By Matt Kelley, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 28 (AP) - Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners will be held at the
U.S. naval base in Cuba as the Pentagon considers whether to use military
tribunals to try terrorist suspects, U.S. officials say.
The Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the "least worst'' place to
hold some of the prisoners after they are removed from Afghanistan (news - web
sites), Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday.
Although President Bush has authorized military tribunals to try terrorist
suspects from other countries, Rumsfeld said the military has made no plans to
hold such tribunals at Guantanamo. Defense officials said Thursday that Rumsfeld
has not decided how, where or even if those tribunals would take place.
But officials already were considering how such tribunals would be
conducted. A draft of proposed Bush administration rules for the tribunals
states that a unanimous vote of a tribunal's military officers would be required
to impose a death sentence on a foreign terror suspect, The Washington Post and
The New York Times reported in Friday's editions.
The draft rules also would allow conviction by a two-thirds vote of the
panel, the newspapers said.
In addition, the draft regulations stipulate that a defendant is presumed
innocent and that the panel may find guilt only after presentation of proof
beyond reasonable doubt. That is the same test applied in U.S. civilian courts.
The newspapers said the proposed rules also would allow some type of appeals
process, an apparent concession to concerns voiced by civil rights groups and
some members of Congress about the fairness and openness of the tribunal
process.
Asked about the newspaper reports, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke
called any draft irrelevant without Rumsfeld's approval, which she said no
current draft has.
The Guantanamo base, which the United States has held since 1903, is near
the U.S. mainland and highly secure. The Cuban military prohibits access to
areas around the base, and the U.S. military patrols its side from behind tall
fences topped with razor wire.
Guantanamo Bay has drawbacks, too, including its location, surrounded on
three sides by an island governed by Fidel Castro (news - web sites), an
anti-American communist who has criticized the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan. But
"we don't anticipate any trouble with Mr. Castro in that regard,'' Rumsfeld
told a Pentagon news conference.
Rumsfeld said it will take weeks to get the Guantanamo Bay base ready to
house the detainees. Although the base has been used in the past to hold Cuban
and Haitian refugees, its main purpose in recent years has been to refuel and
maintain Navy vessels in the Caribbean.
Chief Petty Officer Richard Evans, a base spokesman, said it now has space
for about 100 prisoners.
Rumsfeld said, "I would characterize Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the least
worst place we could have selected.''
The United States is holding 45 prisoners in and near Afghanistan,
interrogating them about terrorist leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s
whereabouts and trying to determine which ones should be brought to trial.
Twenty suspected al-Qaida fighters were transferred Thursday to a U.S.
Marine detention center in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They were apprehended in
Pakistan after fleeing the area of eastern Afghanistan where bin Laden was
believed to have been hiding this month.
The Marines were already holding 17 prisoners at Kandahar and another eight,
including American John Walker Lindh, were being held on the amphibious assault
ship USS Peleliu in the Arabian Sea.
U.S. warplanes hit a suspected Taliban leadership compound early Thursday
morning, defense officials said. The compound was near Ghazni, on the main road
between the capital, Kabul, and the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
The U.S. military still has no proof of whether bin Laden is alive or dead,
in Afghanistan or elsewhere, Rumsfeld said. He said the Pentagon could not
confirm a claim by Afghanistan's defense ministry that bin Laden was alive in
neighboring Pakistan, being sheltered by Muslim radicals.
Rumsfeld said he had not seen a videotape of bin Laden aired Thursday. But
he said he hoped people watching the video would not believe what bin Laden
says.
"Here's a man who has killed thousands of innocent people, so using him
as the oracle of all truth clearly would be a mistake,'' Rumsfeld said. "He
has lied repeatedly over and over again. He has hijacked a religion. He has
hidden and cowered in caves and tunnels while sending people off to die.''
Rumsfeld said he was worried that rising tensions between Pakistan and India
could hamper the U.S. effort against al-Qaida. India has accused Pakistan of
supporting terrorists who attacked India's parliament earlier this month, and
the nuclear-armed countries traded tit-for-tat economic sanctions Thursday.
Rumsfeld said he was encouraged that Pakistan had not pulled troops away
from its border with Afghanistan. He said other possible problems for the United
States would be if Pakistan stopped allowing American warplanes to fly over the
country on their way to targets in Afghanistan or if U.S. soldiers at Pakistani
bases would require more security.
U.S. Navy base in Cuba has tradition
By Ron Kampeas, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Guantanamo Bay has a decades-old tradition of welcoming
refugees from neighborhood revolutions. Now it will jail accused terrorists from
far, far away.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday that the U.S. Navy base
in Cuba would be used to hold Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. U.S. forces now
hold 45 prisoners in the Afghan fighting, in Afghanistan and on a ship off the
coast of Pakistan.
Base spokesman Chief Petty Officer Richard Evans noted that Guantanamo has
detention facilities for about 100 people, dating from the mid-1990s, when it
housed thousands of Cuban and Haitian refugees.
The flood of refugees created new military terminology, "migrant surge
ops,'' one of Guantanamo's four declared missions today. The others are to
refuel and repair patrol boats; maintain the port and airfield; and support
anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.
The oldest U.S. overseas outpost has repelled enemies and welcomed refugees
since 1898, when U.S. Marines fighting the Spanish-American War set up camp at
the natural harbor on Cuba's southeast coast.
It was the base for several U.S. interventions during Cuba's turbulent
history, and was a refuge for Cubans fleeing revolution in 1917 and 1933.
Besides its impressive security, the base would offer advantages should it
ever host the type of military tribunal President Bush authorized on Nov. 13,
although Rumsfeld says there are no plans for it to do so at the moment.
The base is close enough to the United States - two-hour flights depart
regularly from Jacksonville, Fla. - to quickly ferry in and out legal teams, and
yet its offshore status makes any verdict virtually appeal free. A landmark 1950
Supreme Court decision established, in unusually direct language, that
nonresident enemy aliens have "no access to our courts in wartime.''
Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have said they prefer military
tribunals because they better protect U.S. secrets, and because they believe
enemy aliens are not entitled to constitutional guarantees.
"The Bush administration appears to intentionally be following a
pattern of making sure there is no judicial review,'' said Scott Silliman, a
former Air Force lawyer and Duke University law professor who recently expressed
his concerns about the tribunals in testimony to the Senate.
Most of the time, life for the 2,700 people on the 45-square-mile base is
bucolic. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, a senior Naval officer described
the base in a memo as "a community with overtones of suburbia.''
Not much has changed: Three quarters of the residents are civilians - family
to the sailors and Marines posted there, and maintenance staff from Jamaica and
the Philippines.
This Christmas, residents - whose affectionate term for the base is "Gitmo''
- organized a boat parade and tour of some of the homes on base. They enjoy a
view from John Paul Jones Hill that takes in the bay and the surrounding
mountains.
Kids attend the airy W.T. Sampson school, run recycling drives and take tae
kwan do. There are yoga and fishing expeditions for the adults.
The latest issue of the Guantanamo Bay Gazette frets about a couple of "invasions''
of the decidedly unarmed kind: "Weight Control During the Holidays'' is one
headline; "Screwworm: a Threat to You and your Pets'' is another.
Such determination to create a home away from the American hearth masks the
fortress that would keep the detainees secure.
The base does not have any entrances from the main island, frustrating any
attacks or attempts to help prisoners escape - and hampering protesters and
journalists.
It is secure, in part, because of obstacles Cuban leader Fidel Castro
ordered placed to stop his people from seeking refuge there - among them a ring
of cactus plants. The Cuban military controls an area of about 20 miles on the
Cuban side around the base and prohibits all access.
U.S. forces stand ready to assume high alert, and have done so during the
island's various revolutions, as well as during the missile crisis in 1962 and
after Castro's order to cut off the base's water in 1964.
The "water crisis'' led to the building of a desalination plant and now
the base is fully self-sufficient. Recently declassified Pentagon documents
suggest that the base has stored nuclear weapons - probably submarine-seeking
depth charges - since the 1962 crisis.
President Theodore Roosevelt leased the land from Cuba in 1903, and his
nephew Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the base expanded in 1939. FDR
anticipated the need for submarine patrols should the United States enter World
War II, which it did two years later.
History of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
By The Associated Press,
Some dates in the history of Guantanamo Bay, where the United States
maintains a Naval Station, the oldest U.S. overseas military post.
-April 30, 1494: Christopher Columbus stays overnight in Guantanamo Bay
during his second voyage to the Americas. He calls the natural harbor "Puerto
Grande.''
-1741: British troops occupy Guantanamo Bay for four months during their war
against Spanish trade interests in the colonies.
-June 10, 1898: A battalion of Marines camps at Guantanamo Bay, the first
U.S. troops to land in Cuba in the Spanish-American war. Spanish guerrillas -
signaling to each other with dove-like coos - close in on the outpost a day
later and kill two marines, the first U.S. casualties in the war.
-Feb. 23, 1903: President Theodore Roosevelt signs an agreement with Cuba,
leasing Guantanamo Bay for 2,000 gold coins a year, now valued at $4,085.
Washington continues to pay the lease every year, but Castro's government
refuses to cash the checks.
-1906: Opposition forces stage a revolution in Cuba; U.S. steps in and
declares a provisional government, the first of several such interventions.
Troops in Guantanamo patrol U.S.-owned plantations to protect them from
insurgents.
-1916-1917: Disputed elections launch another civil war in Cuba. Cuban
government gunboats seek refuge in Guantanamo Bay after revolutionaries take
nearby Santiago. U.S. authorities once again intervene and restore order.
-1933: U.S. forces based in Guantanamo protect U.S. interests during another
period of turmoil and revolution.
-1934: Under a renegotiated lease, the United States and Cuba agree that the
land would revert to Cuban control only if abandoned or by mutual consent.
-1939: Anticipating U.S. participation in World War II, President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt visits Guantanamo Bay and orders major expansions that will
allow it to operate as a port for air and sea patrols.
-June 27, 1958: Rebel forces led by Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s
brother, Raul, kidnap 29 sailors and Marines returning from leave inside Cuba.
They are released on July 18.
-Jan. 1, 1959: With revolutionary forces led by Fidel Castro making
advances, U.S. bans its servicemen from entering Cuban territory.
-Jan. 4, 1961: The formal break between the United States and Cuba takes
effect. President Eisenhower declares that this "has no effect on the
status of our Naval Station at Guantanamo.''
-April 17, 1961: Abortive U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion ends in a fiasco
for anti-Castro forces. Guantanamo is on high alert, although far from the
action.
-Fall 1961: Castro plants a "cactus curtain'' around the U.S. base to
frustrate attempts by Cubans to seek refuge there.
-Oct. 21-22, 1962: Dependents and other civilians are evacuated during Cuban
Missile Crisis, when the Kennedy administration blockaded Cuba to force the
withdrawal of Soviet nuclear missiles. Reinforcements arrive to man the base's
front lines. Civilians return on Dec. 7.
-Feb. 6, 1964: Castro cuts water to the base in retaliation for fines
imposed on Cuban fisherman fishing in Florida waters. In response, the United
States severs the pipes to the base, imports water, orders rationing, and builds
a desalination plant.
-October 1979: Carter administration stages major Marine reinforcement
exercise at Guantanamo, a show of force to counter the recently established
presence of a Soviet brigade in Cuba.
-November 1991: Pentagon starts building housing for flood of refugees
arriving in Guantanamo from Haiti. Hundreds are refused onward passage to the
United States because they are HIV (news - web sites)-infected. Bleak conditions
in Guantanamo inspire several uprisings through the 1990s.
-August 1994: Riots in Havana prompt Castro to declare that he will not
block attempts by Cubans to leave by sea, and thousands of Cuban refugees join
the Haitians already living in Guantanamo. The United States evacuates civilians
on the base to make room for the refugees.
-January 1996: The United States closes the tent cities, resettling most of
the Cubans on U.S. soil.
-April 1999: The Clinton administration considers, then abandons, plans to
house thousands of Kosovo refugees in Guantanamo.
Source: Official U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay history.
On the Net: U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay:
http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil
http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil/History/HISIDX.HTM
Cuban agent given life sentence
By Catherine Wilson, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) - A Cuban spy was sentenced to life in prison for trying to
infiltrate U.S. military bases and exile groups in south Florida.
Antonio Guerrero was one of 14 secret agents allegedly assigned by Havana to
warn the communist island about signs of a U.S. invasion of Cuba.
Although none of the agents got any U.S. secrets, U.S. District Judge Joan
Lenard said Guerrero's "illegal activities were for the sole purpose of
obtaining national security information.''
Guerrero, 43, dug ditches and fixed vents for six years while counting
planes at Key West Naval Air Navy base in the Florida Keys. He also reported on
military flights, aircraft and changes of command at the Navy base.
In a 15-minute speech before sentencing Thursday, Guerrero, a U.S. citizen
who was born in Miami, rejected the verdict as "sacrilege'' from "a
jury incapable of handing down justice.''
Guerrero is the last of five agents to be sentenced following a six-month
trial. The others received prison terms ranging from 10 years to life for
espionage conspiracy and lesser counts. The remaining accused spies have entered
pleas or are believed to have fled to Cuba.
In speeches at their sentencing hearings, the other agents have defended
their espionage as a fight against terrorist attacks they claim have been
committed by Miami exiles in Havana.
Guerrero "is a patriot, a patriot for a country that we don't agree
with,'' said his attorney, Jack Blumenfeld. "He served his people.''
But prosecutor Caroline Miller said the case "is not about people
having the right to love Cuba.''
"He is firmly committed to the interests of a foreign nation, no matter
what it takes, no matter what laws of the United States he breaks,'' she said.
In Cuba, the government has organized marches in the agents' honor.
President Fidel Castro called the agents "heroes'' this month and denied
that they threatened U.S. security. | 
