5 Minute Guide: Guantanamo

What's happened?

Guantanamo Bay is a detention camp run by the US at a naval base in Cuba. The camp was established in January 2002 to hold terror suspects captured in the War on Terror.

There are three camps at the base: Camp Delta, Camp Iguana and the now closed Camp X-Ray. The majority of detainees are from Muslim countries, although there are some from Western states, including Britain.

Prisoners at the camp eventually go before a tribunal, staffed by US military officers.

If they are considered to be an "enemy combatant", the Bush administration says they can be held indefinitely, with no legal right to contest their incarceration.

By the end of 2006, about 775 people had been detained at Guantanamo, of which just under half had been subsequently released.

Of the 435 left, 110 have been labelled as ready for release while 250 may be held indefinitely.

The Pentagon said at the start of 2007 that, in particular 14 "high profile" terror suspects were held within the base. Some of these men are believed to have been involved in plotting the 9/11 attacks.

At the same time, a further 85 detainees have been cleared for release by the US, but remain marooned in Guantanamo because their native governments refuse to accept them back.

Why did it happen?

The Pentagon, the US defence HQ, says the detainment camp plays a key role in the War on Terror, mainly in terms of obtaining new information for its security services.

The US government has classified detainees as "enemy combatants" rather than prisoners of war, claiming the Geneva Convention (article 4) allows them to do so.

The US says such a definition, which allows indefinite incarceration, is justified because detainees do not have the status of either regular soldiers, nor that of guerrillas, and they are not part of a regular army or militia.

What happens next?

Since the camp's creation, it has faced huge criticism with numerous countries, including the UK, calling for its closure. Human rights groups claim detainees have been tortured and poorly treated.

Critics say the US has violated conventions and basic human rights in attempting to create a distinction between prisoners of war and enemy combatants, the latter being the legal justification for indefinite detention.

In 2005 Amnesty International called the camp the "gulag of our times", comparing it to the labour camps in Siberia where Joseph Stalin sent 20 million prisoners to perish.

Rows have been sparked over whether the United States should be allowed to follow through its desire to hold military rather than civilian trials for Guantanamo detainees.

The US Supreme Court originally rejected the idea but it is understood the plans are being reworked and trials could commence in the summer of 2007.

Most of the detainees are not scheduled for trial; between 2002 and 2006, only 10 detainees at the camp were actually charged with terrorist offences.

By the start of 2007, there was no prospect of the camp closing.

The key players

Harry Harris
The US Naval Academy graduate is in charge of the camp, after assuming command of Joint Task Force Guantanamo in March 2006.

His CV includes strikes on Libya and flying nearly 1,000 combat sorties over Afghanistan.

He is widely reported to have enforced a stricter regime at the camp, removing detainee privileges such as playing sport and communal meals.

Shortly after his arrival at the camp there were three suicides, and a riot. Harris described the suicides as acts "of warfare".

He says there is no such thing as a "medium security" terrorist suspect and therefore implements a "maximum security" ethos throughout the camp.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
The 43-year-old, who graduated from university in the US, is believed to be one of the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks.

Aside from the attacks on the Twin Towers, he has been indicted, since 1996, with plotting to blow up American airliners flying from south-east Asia to the United States.

The so-called head of al-Qaida military committee has also been linked to various other terrorist acts. He was picked up in 2002 in Pakistan and was originally held in a secret CIA prison before being transferred to Guantanamo.

He was born in Kuwait in either 1964 or 1965, but his family is from Baluchistan, a Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan.

He is understood to have linked up with bin Laden in the late 1980s when he moved to Peshawar.

George Bush
The US president has said he shares the desire for the detention camp to be closed, but only once trials on detainees have taken place.

He said: "We're at war with an enemy. And obviously we've got to protect ourselves. I would very much like to end Guantanamo - I would very much like to get people to a court."

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