US MILITARY CLOSES ONCE-SECRET GUANTANAMO PRISON UNIT, MOVES PRISONERS

Mon 05 April 2021:

US military says Guantanamo Bay prisoners held in the Camp 7 facility have been moved out of the failing secret unit, The New York Times reports.

The US Southern Command, which oversees the notorious US base in Cuba, said on Sunday that so-called high-value detainees from Camp 7, a unit that was opened in 2006, had been moved to Camp 5.

A once-secret unit within the Guantanamo Bay detention center that had fallen into disrepair has been closed and the prisoners moved to another facility on the American base in Cuba, the U.S. military said Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

According to The New York Times, 9/11 suspect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a Palestinian man known as Abu Zubaydah, who was the first prisoner to be waterboarded by the CIA after the attacks, and other former CIA prisoners have been moved out of Camp 7.

The move consolidated all of the 40 so-called war on terror detainees at Guantanamo from three to two units, according to the military.

The New York Times said the move could lead to a reduction in Guantanamo troops from the 1,500 mostly National Guard members who primarily serve nine-month tours of duty.

On February 12, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration intended to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center by the end of President Joe Biden’s term in office.

The prison for international terrorists was established at the US naval base on the shore of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after the 2001 War on Terror. The facility has long been criticized for mistreatment of prisoners and abuses, with human rights activists and international organizations calling for its closure.

In February, the United Nations said that the Biden administration’s review of the Guantanamo Bay detention center must ensure that remedies will be provided for detainees that have been tortured there.

The remaining detainees at the detention center are now elderly individuals affected by the physical and psychological torture, the UN said, adding that Washington must ensure it never repeats the same practices again and that crimes committed at the detention center do not remain unpunished.