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Detainees Hit Guards With Sticks in Raid, Officials Say Officials Describe Chaos at Guantánamo In Weeks That Preceded Raid on Prison
(about 7 hours later)
GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — At the start of a predawn raid here by guards on Saturday, detainees wielding broomsticks hit two guards on their helmets during a brief melee. Five detainees suffered minor injuries, including one prisoner who had two rubber pellets removed from his leg, according to senior military officials here. GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Military officials on Tuesday described prison conditions here in the weeks leading up to a raid Saturday as chaotic, with detainees breaking rules with impunity, blocking cameras and windows, shouting at guards, splashing them with urine and poking sticks at them through the fencing. They said prisoners refused to go into their cells and shut their doors for a daily two-hour lockdown, and it was deemed too dangerous for guards to enter the common area to remove a troublemaker when many prisoners were freely roaming.
In a joint briefing with reporters from four media organizations whom the military allowed at the base this week, after refusing media requests for visits for several weeks, senior prison officials provided a more detailed account of the raid. The pre-dawn raid, officials said, was an effort by guards to force prisoners living in communal housing to move to individual cells, and they said in its early stages, detainees wielding broomsticks hit two guards on their helmets during a brief melee that resulted in injuries to five detainees. But the majority of the detainees did not offer any resistance, going to their cells as instructed or lying in the common area to be handcuffed.
Rear Adm. John W. Smith Jr., the commander of the prison joint task force, said no video recordings were made of the raid, in which guards forced detainees who had been living in communal housing into individual cells, and there was no way to independently verify the account. The account of the raid was provided by senior prison officials at a briefing for reporters from four news media organizations whom the military allowed at the base this week after refusing news media requests to visit the prison for several weeks. Rear Adm. John W. Smith Jr., the commander of the prison joint task force, said he ordered the raid because guards could not see into the facility to ensure the safety of the detainees.
The action followed weeks of tensions over a growing hunger strike, during which detainees covered 147 out of 160 surveillance cameras in the cellblocks and stopped complying with a procedure in which they would shut their own cell doors for two-hour lockdowns each night, allowing guards to examine the common areas, officials said. Admiral Smith said no video was made. There was no way to independently verify the officials’ account of the raid.
Admiral Smith said he ordered the raid because guards could not see into the facility to ensure the safety of the detainees. The raid, which followed weeks of tensions over a growing hunger strike that lawyers for the detainees said was provoked by a search of Korans on Feb. 6. The military contended that the search was routine.
The raid came hours after the International Committee of the Red Cross completed a three-week visit to the prison. Admiral Smith said that departure had nothing to do with his decision to conduct a raid, and he said he waited after the detainees began to cover the cameras to give them a chance to again comply with the rules. The raid took place in Camp Six, where detainees had been housed in cellblocks with free access to one another and to recreation yards. The guards forced them into individual cells, and they are now under lockdown. On a tour of Camp Six led by the officer in charge of the facility, who gave his name as “Captain John,” prison guards could be seen sitting at metal tables in the common areas and walking the two-tiered cell blocks, peering into the closed cells. In a central control room, guards watched monitors showing several dozen detainees inside their cells. Leading up to the raid, the detainees had covered up 147 out of 160 surveillance cameras, officials said.
Col. John Bogdan, the leader of the guard force, said that guards had begun training for the raid about three weeks earlier. The raid began at 5:10 a.m., officials said, and lasted about five hours. The raid, officials said, began at 5:10 a.m. and lasted about five hours. It came just after a three-week visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Admiral Smith said its departure had nothing to do with the timing, and he said he waited after the detainees began to cover the cameras to give them a chance to again comply with the rules.
The violence between the guards and the detainees, they said, was brief. Squads of guards wearing tactical protective gear entered recreation yards adjacent to seven cellblocks at Camp 6, where detainees who were formerly compliant with the rules were allowed to live in communal housing. Col. John Bogdan, the leader of the guard force, said that guards trained for the raid for three weeks. Several squads of 12 guards wearing protective gear entered yards adjacent to the cellblocks, closing the gates to isolate smaller groups of detainees. On each squad, two guards carried shotguns with rubber crowd-control rounds; others carried riot shields.
There were 12 guards for each cellblock. Two carried shotguns that fired “less than lethal” crowd-control rounds — one that sprayed rubber pellets, and one that shot single rubber bullets — while others carried riot control shields. They instructed the prisoners to go into their cells. He said several groups of between 8 and 12 detainees came out of the cellblocks, some wielding were improvised weapons, and “advanced on the guards,” who pushed them back and fired four rounds. Prison officials displayed about two dozen metal sticks and wooden staffs taken from brooms and mops, a metal bar taken from exercise equipment, and long staffs made from crushed bottles wrapped in tape.
Groups of between 8 and 12 detainees, defying the instructions, came out of four of the cellblocks and into the yards, some wielding “improvised weapons” like handles from the brooms and mops they are allowed to have in the cellblocks, and “advanced on the guards,” who pushed them back and fired four “less than lethal rounds,” Colonel Bogdan said. The two guards who were struck were not injured, said Capt. Richard Stoltz, the commander of the prison medical group. One detainee was hit with rubber pellets in his “left flank,” and two of them were later removed from his skin. Three others had minor injuries to their forearm, chest and elbow, he said. A fifth detainee, they said, began banging his own head into the wall of his cell, and he was treated with three sutures.
“There was a direct confrontation between the guards and detainees,” he said. The military officials said two detainees recently have tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves, officials said — one on Friday night, just before the raid, and another on Saturday night. Neither lost consciousness, but one was left with “marks on his neck,” Captain Stoltz said.
Within minutes, the detainees retreated into their cellblocks, then most either went into their cells or lay down in the common area to be cuffed without further incident, he said. The detainees had offered to end the hunger strike by giving up their Korans rather than have them be searched, but the military declined the offer. After the raid, the military offered each prisoner the choice of whether or not to have a Koran in his individual cell, even though it would be searched, and about half elected to keep it, Captain John said. He said the military had rejected the earlier offer when the prisoners were still living as a group because inmates who wanted to keep their Korans might be peer-pressured into giving them up.
The two guards who were struck were not injured, said Capt. Richard Stoltz, the commander of the prison medical group. One detainee was hit with rubber pellets in his “left flank,” and two of them were later removed from his skin, but they did not penetrate deeply enough to cause significant blood loss, he said.
A second detainee had an abrasion on his forearm, and a third had one on his chest, Captain Stoltz said. A fourth had “a little swelling” on his right elbow. None of the injuries were deemed significant enough to warrant any treatment.
A fifth detainee, they said, began banging his own head into the wall of his cell, and he was treated with three sutures.
During the raid, the prison staff also swept through the now-emptied cellblocks and found some contraband electronics, like iPods.
Since the raid, two detainees have tried to commit suicide by hanging themselves, officials said. Neither lost consciousness, but one was left with “marks on his neck,” Captain Stoltz said.
Admiral Smith and Colonel Bogdan said if the detainees became compliant with the rules, they may eventually earn back the right to live in communal housing.
After the raid, prison medical staff members examined each detainee, some of whom they had not seen up close for weeks. Captain Stoltz said they found others who appeared to have been conducting a hunger strike, and they were being monitored but had not yet been designated formal hunger strikers.
“We anticipate that the numbers of hunger strikers will move up,” Captain Stoltz said.
The military said that as of Tuesday morning, 45 detainees were conducting hunger strikes, and 13 were being force-fed through a nasal tube, the same numbers as Monday. That was up from 43 before the raid. Lawyers for the detainees contend that a majority of the 150 inmates who live in Camps 5 and 6 have been participating in the hunger strike.
The lawyers say the hunger strike was set off by a search of Korans and a cellblock on Feb. 6, in which their clients contended that the Korans were mishandled. The military contends that the search was routine.