Guantanamo Commander Says Facility Will Be Needed for Foreseeable Future
WASHINGTON — The United States will need a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for as long as the country is fighting a war on terror, according to the admiral in charge of operations there.
“I think that we’ll have a detention facility and a detention mission for the foreseeable future,” says Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay. “The president has said that he would like to see Guantanamo closed when it’s no longer necessary.”
However, Harris says the facility — which marked its five-year anniversary in January — will be necessary for as long as the United States is fighting wars abroad.
“I believe that today, as long as we’re in the fight, as long as we’re in the global war on terror, and as long as we have forces engaging the enemy in Afghanistan and in Iraq, there is a need for a facility like Guantanamo,” Harris says.
About 395 detainees at the detention facility are being held in four camps on the base. They are guarded by sailors and soldiers with detention operations training targeted to the mission at Guantanamo Bay.
Harris says as the facility remains open — despite protests from U.S. residents and others — media reports are becoming more accurate.
“I believe that the media coverage is shifting to be more factual and truthful about what is happening in Guantanamo,” Harris says. “We’re seeing that as we expose Guantanamo to a broad range of media — international media as well as U.S. domestic media.”
More than 300 media representatives from more than 200 outlets around the world visited Guantanamo Bay in 2006, according to Harris. Reporters from Arab, South American, Japanese and European media agencies visited the island base.
“The reporters are professionals who come there, and they get to see all the stuff that’s happening in Guantanamo,” Harris says. “When they see it, when the light of day shines on it, it’s hard to say that the detainees are kept incommunicado in some black hole of Guantanamo.”
He says transparency has helped improve the facility’s public image.