CUBA: US soldiers at Guantanamo have admitted the treatment of detainees at Camp X-Ray is designed to disorient them.
Long isolation is not only intended to ensure the safety of US soldiers, but also, according to the soldiers, "to shock" a dangerous enemy and to make them more flexible. However, the interrogation process does not seem to be producing much information, not even the prisoners' identities, according to a BBC report.
"A large number claim to be Taliban, a smaller number we have been able to confirm as al-Qaeda, and a rather large number in the middle we have not been able to determine their status," said Marine Brig Gen Mike Lehnert.
"Many of the detainees are not forthcoming. Many have been interviewed as many as four times, each time providing a different name and different information," he added. Faced with criticism from abroad, the US military continues to repeat that their captives from the Taliban or the al-Qaeda terror network live in better conditions than in Afghanistan and are treated "humanely".
According to Maj Steve Cox, spokesman for Joint Task Force 160 which runs the detention centre, the goggles, hearing protection, surgical masks and shackles "are not meant to dehumanise". Rather, they are designed to enhance US soldiers' security and establish their authority, he said.
"Frankly we have no intention to present them with an opportunity to harm US military personnel," said Maj Cox. Another reason is to prevent the captives from gaining the ability to orient themselves. - (AFP).
There was growing evidence last night that most of the Taliban's senior leadership has spent the past three months hiding out in neighbouring Pakistan following the surrender over the weekend of Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban's former foreign minister. Officials in Kandahar said that Mullah Muttawakil had "driven" from Pakistan back into Afghanistan after striking a deal with the US military authorities. Last night he was being held in a "VIP cell" at the purpose-built detention camp at Kandahar airport.