Americans are also a strange creature. Guantanamo Bay detainees were notorious for their inhumane treatment of detainees, but here they were more concerned about the extinct race of Aguana.
"What happened, why did we stop?" I asked the driver. "Look ahead," he said, pointing forward.
On closer inspection, a large lizard-like creature was slowly crossing the road. "It's called Aguana, which we have to take care of here," the soldier said.
This dark green aguana will be about fifteen, sixteen centimeters long. He used to cross the road with the pleasure of his surroundings and we sat in the car and watched him.
When I looked around, the place was beautiful and airy. Shrubs and cactus plants appeared on the hills, clear beaches ahead of them and then the blue sea on all sides. It dawned on me that this US naval base on the southern corner of Cuba could have been a great place to visit if it weren't for the infamous prison.
But Americans are also a strange creature. Guantanamo Bay was notorious for its inhumane treatment of detainees, but here it was more concerned about the endangered race of Aguana.
It doesn't matter if the detainees become mentally ill or lose their lives as a result of new methods of torture in the detention center. But if a driver accidentally fell under a military vehicle, the driver would be fined ہزار 10,000.
During this "guided tour" of Guantanamo Bay with US troops, we repeatedly saw signboards that read: "It is illegal to harm, kill or eat Aguana here."
But what about the law at Guantanamo Bay? Here, according to the United States itself, no law of the world applies, nor does the Geneva Convention on the Prisoners of War, nor its own laws on the requirements of justice. But there was no compromise on Aguana's safety.
That was in early 2007 when I was working for the BBC's Washington bureau. The US war on terror was over five years old. The Bush administration has been under constant criticism over the CIA's torture cells at Bagram prison and other allied countries. The scandal of sexual abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had also come to light and stories of atrocities against detainees at Guantanamo Bay had severely damaged America's reputation.
If a driver accidentally falls under a military vehicle, the driver is fined 10,000.
Imran Khan had also contributed to the global protests against Guantanamo Bay. He held a provocative press conference at Guantanamo Bay in May 2005 on a Newsweek report on the alleged desecration of the Koran, after which 17 people were killed and many injured in violent protests in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Were done
In response to the growing global notoriety at Guantanamo Bay, the Bush administration has come up with a solution to take journalists to Guantanamo Bay for some "positive reporting."
When I had the opportunity to visit Guantanamo Bay on such a trip, I first wondered if I should go. As a journalist, I do not support such visits under restrictions. But given the importance of Guantanamo Bay, the ongoing international condemnation of it and Pakistan's controversial role in it, I persuaded myself to go there.
I was told that no Pakistani journalist had gone there till then. It came as a surprise to me that a large number of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay were captured by Pakistani intelligence officials and security forces and handed over to the Americans, who took dollars in return. A prime example of this is Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the last Taliban ambassador to Pakistan at the moment, who was detained by Pakistani authorities in Islamabad and handed over to US authorities.
However, permission for my visit was granted by the US Department of Defense. We first arrived in the state of Florida from Washington DC, from where we were flown over the sea in a small US military ship to Guantanamo Bay.
The American military stayed with us like a shadow on this four-day trip. We were shown the different wards of the detention center, the kitchens, the library and other facilities for the inmates. However, we were not allowed to talk to or take pictures of the prisoners there and we could see them from afar.
There was only a window to peek inside the iron doors of the very strict ward, from behind which the eyes of the prisoners were seen following us. We couldn't see them properly, but they were watching the visitors from outside.
It was reported that obedient and relatively well-to-do prisoners are allowed to exercise, walk and play sports. We saw basketball and baseball courts there. Such prisoners are also allowed to meet and talk to each other.
And who doesn't 'cooperate'? He was reportedly kept in solitary confinement. There are no windows in their rooms, no light from outside
Nothing visible. They thirst for sunlight. The bright lights in their wards are on all the time. They do not realize that it is day or night outside. CCTV cameras are watching them all the time. They are sleeping, eating or sitting on an open commode in the ground next to the bed.
While walking in such a ward, which is considered to be very dangerous, when you look inside from outside, you can see the prisoners inside the small room walking around and talking to themselves loudly. The few suspects he saw all had long beards.
I wanted to know from the Americans how these prisoners spend their time here. He said that they offer prayers and then the Qur'an. Then he would offer prayers and then the Qur'an. But here they have no choice but to worship. We provide Tasbeeh, place of prayer and Qur'an to those who cooperate. Those who behave rudely and fight with the guards are subjected to harsh treatment and these facilities are withdrawn.
According to the Americans, all of these suspects were the most dangerous terrorists in the world, including the alleged masterminds of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin Al-Shaba, Ammar al-Balushi, Mustafa al-Houthawi and Wahid bin Atash.
But a study of the U.S. military tribunal's records at Guantanamo Bay revealed that many of them were not remotely involved in terrorism and were targeted by the authorities for misinformation, local animosity or the lure of money. handed over. Countless innocent people have been held at Guantanamo Bay for many years without trial or defense.
Fed up with loneliness and mental torture at Guantanamo Bay, many detainees went on hunger strike for weeks and even attempted suicide.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly criticized, but Guantanamo Bay has been seen as indispensable in the Bush administration's "war on terror."
President Barack Obama later announced that the prison would be closed and that prisoners would be transferred to US prisons to be tried there, but he failed to do so due to strong opposition from Congress. Later, when President Donald Trump came to power, he once again announced that Guantanamo Bay would be maintained indefinitely.
A total of 780 people were held in the prison after the 9/11 attacks, who were gradually returned to their home countries after many years of imprisonment, but 20 years later there are still 39 inmates and the current US President Joe Biden says he wants the notorious US detention center to be closed forever before the end of his term.
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