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CNN Live Sunday

Rumsfeld Visits Camp X-Ray

Aired January 27, 2002 - 18:01   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And now for a closer look at our top story, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is headed back to the U.S. now after getting a firsthand look at Camp X-ray and giving it a good report. Rumsfeld and a team of senators visited the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to inspect the camp and the Afghan prisoners and CNN's John Zarrella has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wasted no time. On the ferry ride across Guantanamo Bay, the secretary staked out his position on the detainees. They are not, in his thinking, POWs.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It might be unambiguously our unlawful combatants. Al Qaeda is not an army. The Taliban was working intimately with al Qaeda. These are unlawful combatants and as a result, they are detainees, not prisoners of war.

ZARRELLA: Rumsfeld accompanied by the chairman of the joint chiefs and four members of Congress spent about an hour touring Camp X-ray. They did not talk with detainees but Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein vigorously defended their treatment.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I just want to ask our friends who are so ready to be critical to take another look because I'll be very candid with you, I would much rather be here in an eight by eight with a breeze than locked down in Fulsome prison in California.

ZARRELLA: Republican Senator Ted Stevens, a World War II veteran, took issue with comments made by British parliamentarians who criticized the detainees' living conditions.

SEN. TED STEVENS (R), ALASKA: I do believe that the British parliamentarians have done us a great disservice and a great disservice to these young men and women here who are trying to take care of these people, who after all, as I said, are killers. And they're not - they're not war fighters of a foreign nation. They didn't wear a uniform. They don't have patches on.

ZARRELLA: At one point, Rumsfeld was asked about the eight by eight foot cages housing the detainees. He shot back. RUMSFELD: Why do you use the word "cage"? Do you like inflammatory words? Do you think it's good to do that, stir up people and make people think they're animals. I think it's improper to use that word.

ZARRELLA: Rumsfeld said the main reason for his visit was to thank U.S. troops for their work here. He even took time to pose for pictures with them.

(on-camera): All the members of the traveling group said the conditions at Camp X-ray are just fine. The question they could not answer is - just how long, weeks, months, years, the detainees might be here.

John Zarrella, CNN, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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