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First Hearings to be Held at Guantanamo Bay

The US Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba has been the focus of the world?s attention since the United States started incarcerating terrorist suspects there. Over 700 inmates from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries are held in Guantanamo Bay without access to lawyers or human rights groups. Recently, activity on the base ? including freshly painted signs demarcating the courtroom, for example ? points to the fact that the first hearings are to start taking place. Earmarked for the first hearings are six inmates from Camp Delta, two of whom are British.

Interrogation seems to be the name of the game at Guantanamo. Some people have been released from the prison after intensive interrogation showed that they were innocent. Interrogators apparently use ingenious methods of getting information from the suspects, including initiatives and food. Well-behaved inmates, who readily talk, get to move to a lower security camp and earn extra perks. Interrogators also regularly use McDonald?s Happy Meals to get hungry prisoners to confess.

Many are wondering just how long it will take to try all of the 700 prisoners at Guantanamo. Analysts consider most of the inmates low-security threats, without much information to offer to the interrogators. Some prisoners ? such as the three children been held on the base ? are likely to be sent back to their homelands. Others will just have to wait years until the US government decides on their fate.