The US military finished construction of a temporary prison camp on the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last night, and can now more than double its population of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners, camp officials said.
The camp's population has stood at 158 since January 21, when the last of six groups of prisoners were flown from Afghanistan to the chain-link prison known as "Camp X-Ray." The United States suspended prisoner flights after that, in part because the camp was at capacity and military officials did not want to put more than one prisoner in each cell, for security reasons.
Marines, independent contractors and Seabees, as the US Navy construction battalions are called, have expanded the camp to 320 cells, divided into six cellblocks with four showers and five or six portable toilets each.
"I'm ready to receive" more prisoners, US Army Col. Terry Carrico, the camp warden, told reporters.
Camp officials said they did not know when more prisoners would arrive from Afghanistan, where they were captured in the US-led war to oust the al-Qaeda network blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States and the Taliban government that sheltered them.