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CNN Live At Daybreak

More Detainees Arrive in Cuba

Aired January 22, 2002 - 06:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More battle-scarred detainees from the war in Afghanistan arrived at the makeshift U.S. prison in Cuba yesterday. As they fly into Guantanamo Bay, criticism about their treatment and their legal status continues to mount.

Andrea Catherwood of ITV News has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA CATHERWOOD, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Camp X- ray, the number of suspected Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners has now swollen to 158, with the arrival of this C-141 military plane from Kandahar.

These pictures were taken from across the border in Cuba. At the U.S. base, we're bussed to the runway to watch the prisoners arrive, but prevented from filming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no video or camera photography allowed at the airfield.

CATHERWOOD (on camera): Can you tell us why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Security.

CATHERWOOD (voice-over): The prisoners I saw were bound, blindfolded, and masked, just like these detainees in photographs released last week by the U.S. military. But the 14 prisoners who arrived were badly injured, and carried off on stretchers.

Despite their injuries, they were taken to Camp X-ray to be photographed, fingerprinted and blood tested. We were told they had all received surgery from U.S. medics in Kandahar for gunshot and shrapnel wounds.

The U.S. Army is constructing a hospital for the prisoners. It will be ready in six days. But it's unclear what will happen to the injured until then.

Inside Camp X-ray, the prisoners, including three Britons, are unchained inside their eight-foot square caged cells. But shackled hand and foot by military guards, when they're let out to use the showers or the latrines.

I asked one of the guards if the British prisoners have spoken to her.

COURTENAY SLETTERN, U.S. MILITARY POLICE: They're not allowed to talk to us. I mean, not -- we have Australian, we have the British, we have everything. They're not allowed. I'm not here for them, I'm here for the United States.

CATHERWOOD: The armies say they don't know of any prisoner under 18, but one we saw looks extremely young. All are subjected to the searing heat of the Cuban sunshine; and, soon, as more arrive, they'll be made to share one cramped outdoor wire cage between two prisoners.

(on camera): They are being held here without any charges against them; without the status or the rights of prisoners of war. And without a time frame of how long they will remain in Guantanamo Bay or what their fate will be.

Andrea Catherwood, ITV News, Camp X-ray, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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