JAG CENTRAL

From the NY Times, Guantanamo Detention Site is Being Transformed, U.S. Says:

In a few years, Pentagon officials say, the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, will have undergone a radical transformation.

The sprawling detention site known as Camp Delta, with its watchtowers, double-wide trailers housing rows of steel cells and interrogation rooms will be mostly demolished.

Instead, a sharply reduced inmate population of those the military considers the most hard-core will inhabit two nearby hard-walled modern prisons. The newest of those, which is still under construction, is modeled on a modern county jail in Michigan and is designed to counter international criticism of Guantánamo as inhumane and, to some, a symbol of American arrogance.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.), Guantanamo Tourist (WashingtonPost.com)

From the Washington Post, Lawmaker Tours Become Part of Guantanamo Life ("As part of a major Pentagon public relations offensive, dozens of lawmakers are being flown to the maximum-security units here for VIP tours conducted by generals who portray the cells as safe and even comfortable places for suspected terrorists to spend their days. The visits, organized by the military in a bid to blunt the impact of numerous reports of inhumane treatment and exotic interrogation techniques, have become such a routine part of life at this spartan, sprawling base that signs on the open doors of two maximum-security cells say "Tour Cell.").

Categories: Guantanamo, Newspapers