| In the wake of September eleventh, the U.S.-led | | | | The Marine staff, officially known as Joint Task Force |
| "War on Terror" began with nearly the entire world | | | | 160 (JTF-160), under the command of Marine |
| sympathetic to America's cause and condemning | | | | Brigadier General Michael Lehnert, sought to create a |
| al-Qaeda. It didn't take long for the Bush | | | | detention facility that would comply with the Geneva |
| administration's ham-fisted response to reverse much | | | | Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. |
| of the world's feelings in the matter. Among the | | | | Initially left on their own, Gen. Lehnert and his staff |
| most influential of the policy disasters that won the | | | | struggled to strike a balance between confinement |
| sympathies of so many for al-Qaeda was the | | | | and humane treatment of their prisoners. After the |
| detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. In The Least | | | | first few months, however, Secretary of Defense |
| Worst Place, Karen J. Greenberg, director of NYU's | | | | Donald Rumsfeld began to take a direct interest in |
| Center on Law and Security, takes a close-up look at | | | | the operations of Camp X-Ray and in its ability to |
| the first hundred days (from December 2001 thru | | | | validate his version of reality in the "War on Terror". |
| March 2002) in the life of Camp X-Ray, the initial | | | | In February, 2002, Rumsfeld created a second, |
| detention facility for prisoners from the invasion of | | | | parallel command under reservist Major General |
| Afghanistan. She examines the persons and | | | | Michael Dunlavey, that was designated JTF-170. This |
| pressures that shaped Camp X-Ray into a world-wide | | | | parallel command was apparently established as an |
| embarrassment for the U.S. | | | | alternative to trying to give the professional military |
| The U.S. has maintained a naval base (designated | | | | of JTF-160 orders to perform interrogations that |
| GTMO or "Gitmo") on Cuba's Guantanamo Bay since | | | | violated the Geneva Convention. Rather than work |
| 1903 when it was one of the "spoils of war" acquired | | | | through the unit in charge of detention, they chose |
| as a result of the Spanish-American War. Gitmo had | | | | to work around it. Eighteen months later a similar |
| previously served as a prison camp for Haitian | | | | parallel organization structure was established at the |
| refugees from the 1970's until it was declared | | | | Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where it also contributed to |
| unconstitutional in 1993. | | | | a breakdown of administration and a pattern of |
| Following the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 the | | | | human rights violations. The two commands existed |
| Defense Department again turned to Gitmo as a | | | | side by side at Gitmo until they were merged into a |
| secure site outside the continental U.S. for a prison | | | | single Joint Task Force GTMO under General |
| camp. The special attraction of Gitmo over | | | | Geoffrey Miller in November of 2002. It is perhaps |
| established facilities in the U.S. lay in a bizarre | | | | ironic that the same Gen. Miller was later sent to Abu |
| interpretation of law that held that as long as the | | | | Ghraib to unify the parallel commands there. |
| prisoners were held outside the U.S., their | | | | While Gen. Dunlavey and his JTF-170, like Gen. |
| confinement was not subject to U.S. laws. Camp | | | | Lehnert and JTF-160, nominally reported to the U.S. |
| X-Ray at Guantanamo was quickly established as a | | | | Southern Command, he also had a direct channel to |
| temporary facility until construction of the more | | | | Secretary Rumsfeld. As Greenberg points out, Gen. |
| permanent Camp Delta was completed. | | | | Dunlavey was in a position to pick and choose which |
| The Bush administration asserted -- falsely as the | | | | information to convey to each line of authority. |
| courts subsequently concluded and as a plain reading | | | | There was a continuing clash between the two units |
| of the Geneva Conventions would have shown -- | | | | and the opposed priorities of their commanders, but |
| that the detainees were "unlawful combatants" and | | | | Gen. Dunlavey held the higher rank and had greater |
| thus not covered by the Geneva Convention. Hence | | | | ties to Washington, so his priorities and policies |
| there was no standard for how they were to be | | | | prevailed. |
| treated while in detention. The marines charged with | | | | When he first arrived at Guantanamo, even before |
| guarding them at Camp X-Ray and the American | | | | the detainees were enroute, Gen. Lehnert requested |
| public were told that the detainees were "the worst | | | | the presence at Camp X-Ray of representatives |
| of the worst" -- hardened al-Qaeda and Taliban | | | | from the Red Cross. While the presence of Red |
| zealots. | | | | Cross observers at any such facility is normal military |
| When the first detainees arrived from Bagram Air | | | | practice, in this case his request was denied by the |
| Force Base in Afghanistan, they didn't live up to the | | | | Pentagon. Meanwhile, at U.S. Southern Command |
| Marine's expectations. Instead of hardened, fanatical | | | | there was widespread agreement that a Red Cross |
| fighting men, most of the detainees seemed to be | | | | presence was necessary. Finally, one of the military |
| malnourished and rather passive, with a number being | | | | lawyers at Southern Command frustrated by the |
| elderly and some others being children. Even their | | | | Pentagon's refusal to comply with international law |
| language was, in most cases, not the Arabic the | | | | called the Red Cross in Geneva and invited them to |
| guards were expecting, but Persian and Pashto, the | | | | send observers to Guantanamo. Secretary Rumsfeld |
| national languages of Afghanistan. The circumstances | | | | and the Joint Chiefs were not pleased by this action |
| of their capture were unknown to anyone, their | | | | and let the lawyer know it. While they would later |
| personal effects had been mixed together and could | | | | claim to have invited the Red Cross is, they actually |
| not be matched to their owner, and the Pentagon | | | | sought to delay or divert the Red Cross inspection |
| refused to support any measures that would pin | | | | when they were faced with its imminence. |
| down their legal status as combatants or civilians. | | | | |