Gitmo Comes Under Fire

By Adam Zagorin

The first sign of trouble last week at the U.S. Navy's detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, came when guards found a prisoner unconscious in his cell. Then a second prisoner was discovered frothing at the mouth. Both had swallowed large amounts of an antianxiety drug. Not long after, 10 guards were lured into a medium-security bunkhouse where a detainee was apparently getting ready to hang himself with a bedsheet. In the ensuing melee, prisoners wielded broken fan blades, light fixtures and pieces of metal against riot police, who fired pepper spray and rubber pellets, leaving several lightly injured on both sides. It was the most serious incident since terrorist suspects were first taken to Gitmo after 9/11.

The mini-riot erupted just as a United Nations panel monitoring compliance with the U.S.-ratified "Convention Against Torture" called on Washington to close Gitmo. The panel also urged the U.S. to ban interrogation techniques that critics have described as torture and to stop the secret transfer of prisoners to other countries.

The White House response came swiftly. Spokesman Tony Snow insisted that all prisoners in U.S. custody are treated "fully within the boundaries of American law." The State Department, which had prepared a 184-page defense of U.S. detention practices in advance of the panel's ruling, denied abuse at Gitmo or elsewhere and argued that the U.N. had overstepped its mandate by calling for the camp's closure.

Yet there are signs that the White House may be having second thoughts. A Supreme Court ruling expected next month could give Gitmo's 460 prisoners full public hearings in U.S. courts. President Bush, who has labeled Gitmo home to "the world's most dangerous terrorists," earlier this month acknowledged international criticism, saying, "Obviously, the ... issue is a sensitive issue for people. I very much would like to end Guantanamo."

With reporting by Mike Allen, SALLY B. DONNELLY, Elaine Shannon