Many Al Qaeda and Taliban captives imprisoned at the U.S. naval base here are locked in a war of wills with their American captors, resisting as their interrogators devise ways to get them talking, U.S. government officials said.
At the same time, U.S. questioners have begun to make progress in unearthing intelligence information from some of the alleged terrorist prisoners, especially a few of the younger ones, sources said. Officials said the strategy is to make the detainees feel comfortable with their treatment, while applying subtle psychological pressure.
Detainees under watch
Informed government officials said that U.S. personnel are carefully observing the behavior of the 158 prisoners, down to how much food they eat and how long they pace in their cells.
“There are some very hardened, trained individuals who are watching us and biding their time,” one official said. “Others are just resisting.”
Both the prisoners and the U.S. guards were extremely tense in the first weeks after the first prisoners arrived Jan. 11, but the atmosphere soon eased once U.S. officials allowed the detainees to start talking, U.S. personnel said.
Officials said they are wary that some of the most talkative and seemingly cooperative detainees are angling to lull the Americans into slipping up somehow. Officials think that while detainees may harbor fantasies of escape, the real goal of some is to kill or maim a guard.
“Many have received training and are observing activities such as security procedures,” said Army Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert, who runs the prison here. “Many appeared disciplined and very patient.”
Some prisoners have defecated in their jumpsuits in what U.S. military personnel have concluded were efforts to infuriate their captors and establish their independence, sources said.
Australian acts erratically
U.S. officials keep a close eye on an Australian captive named David Hicks, 26, who was arrested with Al Qaeda forces late last year. A troublemaker in school, he dropped out at 14 and was rejected by the Australian military as semiliterate.
At some point he converted to Islam. Hicks fought with radical Muslim movements around the world before moving to Afghanistan to train with Osama bin Laden’s followers.
U.S. officials think that despite his erratic behavior since his arrest, Hicks is acting calculatedly to find a security gap, possibly drawing on his training by British mercenaries.
After his capture in Afghanistan, he gave some information about Al Qaeda to Australian interrogators. On the flight to Cuba, he somehow slipped his wrists through his handcuffs, and military police officers had to bind his hands to his seat with duct tape.
When he first arrived at the prison, nicknamed Camp X-Ray, Hicks screamed at guards that he wanted to kill them. But U.S. officials suspect that he was testing his captors’ responses and that the calm he presents now is strategic as well. They note that he pays attention to the timing and procedures used in the guards’ rotation, informed sources said.
Psychological pressure
U.S. officials refuse to disclose details about their interrogation of the detainees. But they privately acknowledge U.S. interrogators are likely to use every psychological gambit legally available to get the prisoners talking to their CIA, FBI and military questioners.
Psychological factors were apparently one reason for a recent change in the procedure for transporting prisoners to the interrogation center a few hundred yards away. In the early days, the prisoners were walked over. Then officials said most should be carried over on stretchers, claiming their leg shackles made the walks too time-consuming. Another reason appears to be that being carried everywhere instills the sense of submission found in an invalid or a child, government sources said.
“The idea is to slowly remove all the vestiges of [a detainee’s] sense of power, so they can no longer believe they’re bulletproof, and in this case they’re no longer mujahedeen warriors,” one experienced U.S. government interrogator said, describing interrogations generally.
The goal is to get the prisoner comfortable enough to start talking about any subject, he said. Far from torturing the prisoners, as some human-rights groups have feared would happen, some of the U.S. personnel are stroking them emotionally. Others show a harsher face–the “good cop, bad cop routine,” the source said.
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Wesam Kamhia, a Syrian-born Arabic translator for the detainees, thinks–but isn’t sure–he can distinguish the hardened terrorists from the hapless hangers-on. The latter call him “brother” and beg approval to organize prison sports teams. “One asked, `Can I just run?'”
“But some look at me as a traitor, since I speak the language and have this uniform on,” Kamhia told Voice of America in an interview in English and Arabic. “You can see they’re staring you down. You can see the hatred in their eyes.”
When the subject of the September attacks arises, “they pretend like they never heard of it,” Kamhia said. “I can’t tell if they’re lying or not.”
“Some said they like it here,” he said. “They thank the doctors [who treat them] all the time. One said he’s now in the U.S., `land of liberty, land of freedom.'”
Kamhia wondered whether the prisoner was just trying to please his captors. “I don’t know what he meant by that,” he said.
In any case, he said, they express few complaints about their living conditions.
“They’re used to the heat,” he said. “They do like the food. Some said they’ve never been fed like that.”
