KERRY OBRIEN: The US military is launching a spirited counteroffensive against the ongoing barrage of international criticism over Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre, as debate continues to rage within Australia about the case of Australian David Hicks, one of nearly 400 detainees at Guantanamo. The Pentagon is making no apologies about why the men there are being held indefinitely. The ABC was invited to inspect the detention centre and, in particular, the high security wing where Hicks is locked up. North America correspondent Michael Rowland reports.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Guantanamo Bay in the spotlight. The glare of international attention about what goes on behind the kilometres of barbed wire has never been so intense. Nor has the justification offered by the US military.
REAR ADMIRAL HARRY HARRIS, GUANTANAMO COMMANDER: We shouldn't forget that the reason they're here in Guantanamo is because they are terrorists.
COLONEL N, DEPUTY GUARD COMMANDER: They're dangerous men and we recognise that and we always have to remember that when we're handling them.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Stung by three suicides and a mass detainee uprising last year, the US military has significantly tightened security at Guantanamo Bay. Most detainees are kept in their tiny cells and watched day and night. Nowhere has the crackdown been more severe or scrutiny more intense than in this building. The maximum security Camp 6 holds the detainees deemed to be the biggest security threats; among them, Australian David Hicks. The ABC has been taken on a tour of the compound, as the military steps up its public relations offensive.
OFFICER X, CAMP 6 GUARD: The camp is a $37 million facility. It was built in Indiana modelled off of a modern facility in Michigan. It originally was designed in the States and brought down here in sections, so we put it together like one big Lego piece.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Hicks and the 150 other detainees in Camp 6 are kept in their cells for 22 hours a day. There are no external windows and large fluorescent lights stay on 24 hours a day. This is a cell the US says is identical to the one in which Hicks is kept. It measures four metres by two metres, and is stark in every sense. The detainees eat alone, and physical contact is kept to a minimum. Guantanamo's commander claim many detainees like it that way.
HARRY HARRIS: The cell in Camp 6 is almost twice as big. They have a lot more privacy in Camp 6. They have their own toilet facilities inside there, and so on. So I believe that Camp 6 is a much more humane place for the detainees than camps 1, 2 and 3.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Can you understand why somebody like David Hicks, who has been here for more than five years and spends 22 hours of each day in his cell, can get into a state of despair fairly quickly?
HARRY HARRIS: Well, I don't believe that he's in a state of despair and I also don't believe when you say that he's in a cell by himself, the implication is he's somehow isolated or in solitude or solitary confinement or something like that. That's simply not the case.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Detainee lawyers suggest it's nothing less than solitary confinement, something they say many inmates are struggling to cope with. US military doctors say the incidence of mental illness at Guantanamo is no different than that at high security prisons in the US.
DOCTOR G, CAMP PSYCHIATRIST: Diagnoses we see are the same ones we see in the States. They range from things from an adjustment disorder to anxiety disorders to depressive disorders, psychotic disorders and personality disorders. The main or most prevalent diagnosis here are personality disorders.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: The military says 20% of the detainees held here have some type of mental disorder. Some have suicidal tendencies. For the two days we were at Guantanamo Bay, the US military aggressively argued its case. But we saw only what the commanders wanted us to see, and could talk only to the guards served up to us, like Louis, who's been at the camp for six months.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Do you see any signs of desperation by some detainees?
LOUIS, GUANTANAMO GUARD: Ah... not really. Well... a few of them have, maybe, well, maybe a few of them. I don't know really any specific details, though, where they have done anything out of desperation. But I mean, you can see some of them have wanted to go.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: The officers and guards insist it's not just the detainees who are suffering.
COLONEL N: We've had numerous attempts and we have daily attempts on the lives of the guards, both serious attempts as well as harassment, throwing cocktails of faeces, urine, vomit, food, whatever the case may be, in the mouths and faces of the guards.
CAPTAIN GARY HABEN, REVIEW BOARD CHIEF: This is the boardroom, where each detainee gets an administrative review board annually. He is allowed to appear before the board, which is three neutral military officers.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: This is the closest many detainees ever get to a courtroom. Each year the military panel considers the evidence against a detainee and decides whether or not to release him. But human rights groups say many detainees are simply refusing to turn up for their hearing, believing the process to be rigged.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Can they see the evidence against them?
GARY HABEN: They can see all the unclassified evidence. Part of their case is classified, and they do not see that.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Do they have the right to have a lawyer?
GARY HABEN: They do not have a right to have a lawyer because this is an administrative process, this is not a legal proceeding.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Given all of that, how can you describe this as a fair process for detainees? What's the justification?
GARY HABEN: The fairness is, it's very unusual during a conflict to release enemy combatants back out into the battlefield.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: The US points out nearly 400 of the 800 detainees who have been through Guantanamo over the last five years have been released, but it's taking no chances with those still here in this tropical twilight zone. The US sees all the remaining detainees, including David Hicks, as dangerous terrorists, who could remain behind the heavily guarded wire for some time yet.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: How do you feel history will judge Guantanamo Bay?
HARRY HARRIS: I don't know, it's too early to tell, you know. I believe that we are doing an important mission for our nation's fight in the global war on terror. And if we continue to be transparent in how we do our mission and if we continue to be legal and ethical in the way we detain enemies of our nation, then I'll believe that we are doing our job and I'll leave it to the historians to figure out and to judge.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Guantanamo Bay in the spotlight. The glare of international attention about what goes on behind the kilometres of barbed wire has never been so intense. Nor has the justification offered by the US military.
REAR ADMIRAL HARRY HARRIS, GUANTANAMO COMMANDER: We shouldn't forget that the reason they're here in Guantanamo is because they are terrorists.
COLONEL N, DEPUTY GUARD COMMANDER: They're dangerous men and we recognise that and we always have to remember that when we're handling them.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Stung by three suicides and a mass detainee uprising last year, the US military has significantly tightened security at Guantanamo Bay. Most detainees are kept in their tiny cells and watched day and night. Nowhere has the crackdown been more severe or scrutiny more intense than in this building. The maximum security Camp 6 holds the detainees deemed to be the biggest security threats; among them, Australian David Hicks. The ABC has been taken on a tour of the compound, as the military steps up its public relations offensive.
OFFICER X, CAMP 6 GUARD: The camp is a $37 million facility. It was built in Indiana modelled off of a modern facility in Michigan. It originally was designed in the States and brought down here in sections, so we put it together like one big Lego piece.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Hicks and the 150 other detainees in Camp 6 are kept in their cells for 22 hours a day. There are no external windows and large fluorescent lights stay on 24 hours a day. This is a cell the US says is identical to the one in which Hicks is kept. It measures four metres by two metres, and is stark in every sense. The detainees eat alone, and physical contact is kept to a minimum. Guantanamo's commander claim many detainees like it that way.
HARRY HARRIS: The cell in Camp 6 is almost twice as big. They have a lot more privacy in Camp 6. They have their own toilet facilities inside there, and so on. So I believe that Camp 6 is a much more humane place for the detainees than camps 1, 2 and 3.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Can you understand why somebody like David Hicks, who has been here for more than five years and spends 22 hours of each day in his cell, can get into a state of despair fairly quickly?
HARRY HARRIS: Well, I don't believe that he's in a state of despair and I also don't believe when you say that he's in a cell by himself, the implication is he's somehow isolated or in solitude or solitary confinement or something like that. That's simply not the case.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Detainee lawyers suggest it's nothing less than solitary confinement, something they say many inmates are struggling to cope with. US military doctors say the incidence of mental illness at Guantanamo is no different than that at high security prisons in the US.
DOCTOR G, CAMP PSYCHIATRIST: Diagnoses we see are the same ones we see in the States. They range from things from an adjustment disorder to anxiety disorders to depressive disorders, psychotic disorders and personality disorders. The main or most prevalent diagnosis here are personality disorders.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: The military says 20% of the detainees held here have some type of mental disorder. Some have suicidal tendencies. For the two days we were at Guantanamo Bay, the US military aggressively argued its case. But we saw only what the commanders wanted us to see, and could talk only to the guards served up to us, like Louis, who's been at the camp for six months.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Do you see any signs of desperation by some detainees?
LOUIS, GUANTANAMO GUARD: Ah... not really. Well... a few of them have, maybe, well, maybe a few of them. I don't know really any specific details, though, where they have done anything out of desperation. But I mean, you can see some of them have wanted to go.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: The officers and guards insist it's not just the detainees who are suffering.
COLONEL N: We've had numerous attempts and we have daily attempts on the lives of the guards, both serious attempts as well as harassment, throwing cocktails of faeces, urine, vomit, food, whatever the case may be, in the mouths and faces of the guards.
CAPTAIN GARY HABEN, REVIEW BOARD CHIEF: This is the boardroom, where each detainee gets an administrative review board annually. He is allowed to appear before the board, which is three neutral military officers.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: This is the closest many detainees ever get to a courtroom. Each year the military panel considers the evidence against a detainee and decides whether or not to release him. But human rights groups say many detainees are simply refusing to turn up for their hearing, believing the process to be rigged.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Can they see the evidence against them?
GARY HABEN: They can see all the unclassified evidence. Part of their case is classified, and they do not see that.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Do they have the right to have a lawyer?
GARY HABEN: They do not have a right to have a lawyer because this is an administrative process, this is not a legal proceeding.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: Given all of that, how can you describe this as a fair process for detainees? What's the justification?
GARY HABEN: The fairness is, it's very unusual during a conflict to release enemy combatants back out into the battlefield.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: The US points out nearly 400 of the 800 detainees who have been through Guantanamo over the last five years have been released, but it's taking no chances with those still here in this tropical twilight zone. The US sees all the remaining detainees, including David Hicks, as dangerous terrorists, who could remain behind the heavily guarded wire for some time yet.
MICHAEL ROWLAND: How do you feel history will judge Guantanamo Bay?
HARRY HARRIS: I don't know, it's too early to tell, you know. I believe that we are doing an important mission for our nation's fight in the global war on terror. And if we continue to be transparent in how we do our mission and if we continue to be legal and ethical in the way we detain enemies of our nation, then I'll believe that we are doing our job and I'll leave it to the historians to figure out and to judge.