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NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2008
POLITICS
Government reveals another secret Guantanamo camp
secret Guantanamo camp
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded — a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret.
For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup.
Guantanamo commanders said Camp 7 is for key alleged al-Qaida members, who must be kept apart from other prisoners to prevent them from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to interrogators. They also want the location kept secret for fear of terrorist attack.
Many operations have been classified since the detention center opened in January 2002 in the wake of Sept. 11. More than four years passed before the military released even the names of detainees held on this 45-square-mile base in southeast Cuba — and it did so only after the AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
Detainees have been held in Camp Echo and Camps 1 - 6. Journalists cleared by the military have been allowed to tour some of these lockups, where 260 men are held, but aren't allowed to speak to detainees. Some lawmakers and other VIPs have passed through, and the International Red Cross has access, but doesn't divulge details of visits with prisoners.
Camp 7, where 15 "high-value detainees" are held, is so secret that its existence was not publicly known until it was mentioned in December by attorneys for Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident who allegedly plotted to bomb gas stations in the United States. Previously, many observers believed the 15 were being held in Camps 5 or 6, which are maximum-security facilities.
"Under the gag order ... we are prohibited from saying anything more about their camp." lawyer Gitanjali Gutierrez said Tuesday. Most of the lawyers' notes and memos have been stamped "top secret" by the government.
Buzby told AP he is limiting the people who know Camp 7's location to a "very few".
"They went straight into that facility." Buzby said.
He described it as a maximum-security facility that was already built when President Bush announced in September 2006 that 14 high-value terrorism suspects had been transferred from CIA secret detention facilities to Guantanamo. An additional detainee, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, arrived last April.
Paul Rester, chief interrogator at Guantanamo, told AP he has been interviewing one of the Camp 7 detainees.
Buzby, who heads all military detention operations on Guanta-namo, said he controls Camp 7, but would not discuss whether the CIA might still be talking with the high-value detainees.
Key military commanders on the base have been told to leave Camp 7 to others.
"Not everybody, even within the Joint Task Force, has access or even knowledge of where Camp 7 is," said Army Col. Bruce Vargo. As commander of the Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo, Vargo is responsible for the other camps, but not for Camp 7.
Red Cross representatives have visited Camp 7 and all the other detention facilities at Guantanamo confirmed Geoff Loane, head of the organization's delegation in Washington. He declined to give details.
Buzby said the 15 are kept isolated in part to protect other prisoners. "Detainees have told us a lot of things about this group of people, and if there were potential for retribution, it would be a very, very dangerous situation," he said.
For his part, Vargo said he is concerned with the possibility of an al-Qaida attack on Guantanamo
"Although we are trying to be open, security is paramount," he said.
Vargo declined to discuss whether the U.S. had received information that al-Qaida might be planning such an attack. "We have intelligence reports, but I don't
want to release what we know for obvious reasons," he said.
Conservatives, environmentalists oppose bill
TOPEKA — Energy legislation already opposed by environmentalists is drawing criticism from some legislators and conservative groups because it would impose a new carbon tax on utilities failing to meet new emissions standards.
Identical bills before the House and Senate utilities committees would allow the construction of two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. But it also would set the state's first rules on carbon dioxide emissions, which many scientists link to global warming.
The CO2 standards would apply to new power plants, and utilities that failed to meet them would pay a tax of $3 on each ton of excess emissions. The legislation would make Kansas among a handful of states to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Critics, including Gov. Kathleen Sebellius, argue that the rules would be so weak that utilities would have no trouble complying without reducing emissions. They also have said companies that have had projects blocked in other states would be encouraged to build them in Kansas.
The bills were drafted by the chairmen of the two committees and their top Democrats. Both committees continued hearings Wednesday.
But some legislators, particularly conservative Republicans, don't want to impose any carbon tax. The Kansas Chamber of Commerce, the state's largest business group, has said it worries a tax would hurt the economy, and it has been joined by anti-tax groups such as Americans for Tax Reform and Americans for Prosperity.
The House committee plans to vote Friday, which would allow a debate in that chamber next week, but the Senate committee won't vote until next week so members have more time to ask questions about it, Chairman Jay Emler said.
'It's not a precedent that Kansas ought to be setting.' Alan Cobb, director of Americans for Prosperity's Kansas chapter, said Wednesday.
House committee Chairman Carl Dean Holmes objected to the description of the proposal as a carbon tax. He said it's a penalty for utilities that don't meet emissions standards.
"I figured we'd have grumbling from both sides," the Republican from Liberal said. "That's not unexpected."
Environmentalists continued their efforts Wednesday to derail the legislation. About 60 of them had a Statehouse rally to criticize the measure and call on the committees to abandon it in favor of measures they consider more friendly to the environment.
Bob Eye, a Topeka attorney who represents the Sierra Club, noted a new president takes office in January and predicted that person would embark on new policies to combat global warming by regulating CO2 emissions.
"I hear a lot of concerns, and I have a lot of concerns," said House Taxation Committee Chairman Kenny Wilk, a Lansing Republican. "As always, what are the unintended consequences?"
Americans for Tax Reform sent an e-mail to legislators this week, arguing that the carbon tax would do "irreparable harm." Even some moderate legislators worry about pushing the policy through quickly.
"Carbon taxes are going to be a part of our future, because we want to discourage the use of fossil fuels," he said after the rally.
Conservatives' problems with the legislation also go deeper than the carbon tax. Rep. Benjamin Hodge, a Republican from Overland Park, said it doesn't promote energy independence because it doesn't help expand nuclear power.
"We need to start talking about nuclear energy" he said. "We going to have to get our energy from somewhere."
Environmentalists oppose the legislation because it would permit Sunflower Electric Power Corp. to build the new coal-fired plants outside Holcomb, in Finney County. The $3.6 billion project has been blocked by Sebellius' top environmental regulator since October.
Utilities could offset their emissions — reduce them on paper by investing in certain technologies, upgrading transmission lines or taking other steps.
The new emissions standards would apply to Sunflower's project and to any new plants, no matter what fuel they used.
Critics contend that under the rules, Sunflower's new plants would be treated as if they produced zero CO2 emissions, when their projected output is 11 million tons a year.
plant's emissions, and the figure would drop 20 percent after the first year a plant has operated.
For coal-fired plants, the limit would be lower than any existing
They also have argued that the proposed tax is far too low to discourage carbon emissions, noting that emissions credits trade in Europe for as much as $30 a ton.
Hayden banned the technique in 2006 for CIA interrogations, the Pentagon has banned its employees from using it, and FBI Director Robert Mueller said his investigators do not use coercive tactics in interviewing terror suspects.
White House authorizes use of waterboarding
"There's been a lot written out there — newspaper, magazine articles, some of it misinformation," Fratto said. "And so the consensus was that on this one particular technique that these officials would have the opportunity to address them — in not just a public setting, but in a setting in front of members of Congress, and to be very clear about how those techniques were used and what the benefits were of them."
Bush personally authorized Hayden's testimony, White House deputy spokesman Tony Fratto said.
WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday defended the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, saying it is legal — not torture as critics argue — and has saved American lives.
Fratto said CIA interrogators could use waterboarding again, but would need the president's approval to do so. That approval would "depend on the circumstances," with one important factor being "belief that an attack might be imminent," Fratto said. Appropriate members of Congress would be notified in such a case, he said.
Senate Democrats demanded a criminal investigation after Hayden's revelation.
Waterboarding involves strapping a suspect down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, and is condemned by nations around the world.
President Bush could authorize waterboarding for future terrorism suspects if certain criteria are met, a spokesman said.
Tuesday, the Bush administration acknowledged publicly that the tactic was used by U.S. government questioners on three terror suspects. Testifying before Congress, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashir were waterboarded in 2002 and 2003.
Fratto said the use of water-boarding in the past was also approved by the attorney general, meaning it was legal and not torture.
"The president will listen to his advisers and make a determination," he said.
Officials fear calling waterboarding torture or illegal could expose government employees to criminal or civil charges or even international war crime charges.
"Every enhanced technique that has been used by the Central Intelligence Agency for this program was brought to the Department of Justice and they made a determination that its use under specific circumstances and with safeguards was lawful." Fratto said.
Critics say waterboarding has been outlawed under the U.N.'s Convention Against Torture, which prohibits treatment resulting in long-term physical or mental damage. They also say it should be recognized as banned under the U.S. 2006 Military Commissions Act, which prohibits treatment of terror suspects that is described as "cruel, inhuman and degrading."The act, however, does not explicitly prohibit waterboarding by name.
Human Rights Watch, which has been calling on the government to outlaw waterboarding as a form of illegal torture, called Hayden's testimony "an explicit admission of criminal activity"
Associated Press
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