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CNN Live At Daybreak

What Do Afghan Detainees in Cuba Face?

Aired February 12, 2002 - 05:05   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: The U.S. has arrested four Cubans who got onto the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Officials won't say how the Cubans could have gotten through all that tight security for the Afghan war detainees.

Speaking of those detainees, CNN's Bob Franken takes a look at the latest batch of arrivals and what they face.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Five months after the September 11 attacks, one month after the first deliveries began, this was the night. 34 more detainees, bringing the number now at Camp X-Ray up to 254. With 320 cells, that means there are 66 remaining vacant. They expect that they will be filled in short order.

They've been processed into their new home away from home, Camp X-ray. We've witnessed this before. The new detainees have been photographed, questioned, taken to a shower where the orange jumpsuits from the cold plane ride around the world have been replaced with the orange jumpsuits they'll wear in the heat of their outdoor cells, cages to the critics.

By all accounts, the new arrivals were disoriented, to say the least.

MAJ. STEVE COX, SECURITY FORCE SPOKESMAN: They see the chain link fences, the two high chain link fences. They see the razor wire. They see guard towers. They see the guard dogs. They see guards inside the camp. They see the armed guards outside the camp. They see their other, they see the other detainees in their individual units and it certainly presents a striking image which is distinctly different from anything they've seen to this point.

FRANKEN: For the detainees, a strange, sometimes numbing routine. First thing in the morning those who want to are taken from their cells for an exercise period, taken to a space that can best be described as a run where, as you can see, they can run for a few minutes, heavily guarded, of course. That's exercise period.

There's also often question period, real mental exercise for detainees who are often fencing with interrogators. Shadowy teams of interrogators operate day and night -- FBI agents, intelligence operatives trying to avoid publicity, trying even harder to get information out of these very committed enemies. As the commanding general made clear this weekend, it is slow going.

BRIG. GENERAL MICHAEL LEHNERT, SECURITY FORCE COMMANDER: Many of the detainees are not forthcoming. Many have been interviewed as many as four times, each providing, each time providing a different name and different information.

FRANKEN (on camera): The interrogators say they tell the detainee they have time, lots of time, a whole lifetime, as far as the prisoners know. But the other edge of this sword is the urgent need to get information in time to thwart another terrorist attack.

Bob Franken, CNN, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It's the question of the day, isn't it?

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