Psyche, Science, and Society

Talking to the commander of Guantanamo

May 21st, 2008

This morning I was on the Defense Department’s Bloggers’ Roundtable on the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo with Admiral Busby, the GTMO commander. It turns out that this discussion was recorded and is available on the web.

I asked about the prevalence of isolation at GTMO and was told that 75% of detainees were in Camps 5 & 6 with their own cells, but that there was no isolation at GTMO. As the camps were based on prisons in Indiana and Michigan, they were as good as domestic prisoners. “To say that our conditions are especially arduous… is twisting the truth quite a bit.” When I pointed out that these prisons were Supermaxs, for prisoners who had done things like attempted murder while imprisoned, a tiny minority, and that this hardly seemed a fair comparison, I got nowhere.

According to the Admiral it is not “isolation” because they are allowed out of their 8′X12′ cells for two hours daily for exercise with others.

The other 25% are in Camp 4, with communal living.

It was made clear that detainees were moved from Camp 4 to the Supermax Camps 5 & 6 for relatively minor infractions. Also, there is group pressure on those in Camp 4 to behave so that other residents don’t loose privileges. “The self-police themselves very well.”

Another topic I raised was the Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs). I asked if they were still there and what they do.

“I have a three-person BSCT…. They actually are very important for me maintaining visibility for force protection reasons on what’s going on in the Camps They provide an important bit of advice and observation to my detention people, the people maintaining the actual physical custody of the detainees to understand why detainees are doing certain things or why they are behaving in a certain way. the BSCT folks are great folks for walking around and observing detainee behavior so we can craft an appropriate response. So they are a critical part of our operation…. There still re interrogations going on and they [BSCTs] do not participate in interrogations.” They have not participated in interrogations since at least the Admirals year there.

You can listen to the whole discussion for yourself. I’m te one asking about isolation, BSCTs, etc:

Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, Interrogation, Psychology