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CNN Sunday Morning

Rumsfeld to Tour Detainee Camp

Aired January 27, 2002 - 08:01   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head to Cuba, where Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is set to get a tour of the Afghan war detainees camp. Our John Zarrella joining us on the phone from Guantanamo Bay. Good morning, John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Well, when the defense secretary gets here today, he's going to arrive under some above normal, sweltering high temperatures here. In the upper 80s yesterday, probably upper 80s close to 90 again today. Warm, brisk winds blowing, and those are the conditions that the detainees are, of course, living in, in the eight by eight chain link cells or cages which are, of course, open and lights on all the time at night.

What he will see when he gets here is ongoing construction of a new section of similar cells, as well as ongoing construction almost completed of three buildings, where interrogations will be constructed -- will be conducted. He will also see areas where they have medical facilities that are just now coming on line. Just now finished a 20- bed M.A.S.H. hospital -- a field hospital -- that has also just been put on line that can be expanded to handle up to 500.

So he will see continued upgrades. But what we expect he will probably hear from the commanders here is the need for a more permanent facility. And that would be modular housing of some sort that is what they're talking about in the short term. It could be constructed in about 55 days, but they need some congressional authority to do that, and that has not come. We're pretty sure that's what the commanders here will press for.

Ultimately, they'd like brick and mortar. As you know, Miles, this is hurricane country down here, and modular housing won't hold up in those conditions if they should occur. But that's what we expect the secretary to see in his visit here. He should arrive sometime late this morning and probably spend two and a half, three hours on the ground -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: John, implicit in that statement about bringing in modular housing or brick and mortar is the theory that these detainees -- whatever they may ultimately be called -- will be there for quite some time. Is anybody giving you any sort of timetable or sense of how long this will last? ZARRELLA: No, that's exactly it. There doesn't appear to be any timetable. It's sort of an indefinite open-ended at this point. You know, there's talk here and there that, well, maybe some of them at some point might end up being sent back to their own countries. But in the interim, for as long as that may be, they have to be housed in conditions that ultimately are better than these chain link eight by eight cells. And that's why this modular housing would be the next step.

And then if it really turns out that Guantanamo Bay becomes a new Alcatraz, so to speak, then brick and mortar might be necessary. But it certainly has turned Guantanamo Bay into -- we were talking this morning here -- a high profile facility, the center of the world's attention. Unlike it has been in probably many, many years -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, John, you've been there every time Guantanamo comes in the news, it seems. What's your sense of the conditions, just gut reaction to it? Are these detainees being treated as we would hope the United States would treat detainees?

ZARRELLA: It's interesting, Miles, yesterday, throughout our entire day with the military touring -- as close as we could get, which was, of course, a couple of hundred yards away -- they expressed and really were on the offensive in trying to press the point that these detainees are being treated as well as they can be. They're -- we were told about the fact that they're being given pita bread now with their meals, so that it's something more traditional. They're going to be allowed to grow facial hair again and their beards. That was, of course -- that was shaved off when they made the trip over here.

They're given a comfort pack -- is what it's called -- with all kinds of little supplies from flip-flops to blankets. So those were the kinds -- and even at the hospital, we were told that the conditions at this new M.A.S.H. hospital where they'll be treated are the same kind of conditions, the same kind of care that U.S. servicemen would get. So they kept hammering home the point at every opportunity yesterday that these people are getting excellent care. But the bottom line is, they're still living in eight by eight chain link cells -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Yes. John, let me ask you one more question here if I could. You've gotten some pictures sort of on the periphery. They let you see the -- the M.A.S.H. unit, but primarily you're shooting from outside of the fences, and I assume there's some security issues here. But given the fact that there were some images which were initially released, which the Pentagon has been explaining ever since, have you had much luck convincing the military to give you a little more unfettered access to where these detainees are actually being held?

ZARRELLA: Oh, absolutely not. You're on an overlook point, again, as you pointed out. And you're a considerable distance away from them. And a lot of that has to do with -- at least what the military says -- is with the protocols of the Geneva Convention, which did not allow the photographing if they don't want to be photographed, certainly, up close of -- if you want to call them prisoners or detainees. So, no, I mean, the limits are the limits and the rules are strict and fast. And there has been no budging, either in my time here or in the time that Bob Franken has been here before me. The military is not moving on those issues at all -- allowing any closer access to the detainees -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's John Zarrella in Guantanamo Bay. He is one of the three people that will be joining us a little bit later to take your e-mail questions as well as your phone calls. Question, opinions, complaints, whatever you have on your mind, regarding the detainee issue at Guantanamo Bay.

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