Guantanamo Detainees Moved Amid Structural Problems at Showcase Prison

A communal space for detainees at the Camp 6 detention center at Guantanamo Bay in 2019.(Doug Mills/The New York Times)
A communal space for detainees at the Camp 6 detention center at Guantanamo Bay in 2019.(Doug Mills/The New York Times)
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Guantanamo Detainees Moved Amid Structural Problems at Showcase Prison

A communal space for detainees at the Camp 6 detention center at Guantanamo Bay in 2019.(Doug Mills/The New York Times)
A communal space for detainees at the Camp 6 detention center at Guantanamo Bay in 2019.(Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Washington: Carol Rosenberg

Undisclosed infrastructure problems forced the military to evacuate the prison housing the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and other detainees from the war against terrorism, according to Defense Department employees.

The military had no comment on the sudden closure over the weekend of its former showcase prison.

But by Tuesday, all 30 detainees at Guantanamo Bay were believed to be confined to a medium-security prison building, called Camp 6, the Defense Department employees said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details of the security operation.

Camp 6 was built in 2006 for $39 million to house up to 200 detainees, and until this week held 16 general population prisoners in communal-style detention.

All 16 have been approved for transfer to the custody of other countries, including 11 Yemeni men whose transfer to Oman is on hold.

Camp 6 is designed with separate cellblocks, each containing about two dozen cells, a large common room and an adjacent outdoor area monitored by banks of cameras.

When it is operated as a medium-security facility, guards remotely open all the cell doors for much of the day, permitting the prisoners to eat, pray, watch TV and engage in other communal activities until they are ordered back to their cells.

As the detainee population has shrunk, fewer men were held in each cellblock, depending on their disciplinary status. Individual cells were replaced with a pantry, a library and other rooms that could be inspected by guards during hours of lockdown.

Officials at the Pentagon had earlier reached a deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two alleged accomplices, reportedly involving a guilty plea in exchange for avoiding a death penalty trial.

But Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin revoked the plea agreement, reviving the possibility that they could someday face a death penalty trial. Defense lawyers are now challenging Austin’s rescindment as unlawful, or simply too late.

Along with Mohammed, Walid bin Attash is accused of training two of the hijackers, researching flights and timetables and testing the ability of a passenger to hide a razor knife on flights. Mustafa al-Hawsawi is accused of helping some of the hijackers with finances and travel arrangements.

The New York Times



ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
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ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders over Persecution of Women, Girls

A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP
A poster of Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is seen along a road in Kabul on August 14, 2023. © Wakil Kohsar, AFP

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for the Taliban’s supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on charges of persecuting women and girls since seizing power nearly four years ago.

The warrants also accuse the leaders of persecuting “other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women.’”

The warrants were issued against Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and the head of the Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, The AP news reported.

The court said in a statement that the Taliban have “severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion. In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”

The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, sought the warrants in January.

Global advocacy group Human Rights Watch welcomed the decision.

“Senior Taliban leaders are now wanted men for their alleged persecution of women, girls, and gender non-conforming people. The international community should fully back the ICC in its critical work in Afghanistan and globally, including through concerted efforts to enforce the court’s warrants," Liz Evenson, the group's international justice director, said in a statement.