Terror Detainees Quiet as Guards Reflect

If the nearly 600 prisoners knew what day it was, they didn’t let on.

But Assistant Fire Chief Steve Waltermon and his crew of 100 Jamaicans, who have not seen a real fire here in three years, were well aware of the date. They paused Wednesday to stand at attention and ring the firehouse bells in memory of the New York firefighters who died at the World Trade Center a year ago.

Indeed, across this base, the United States’ oldest overseas and the only one in a communist country, sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines took note of the anniversary and pledged anew to continue their task guarding prisoners from the war on terrorism.

Though security was stepped up Wednesday at U.S. military installations worldwide, all was quiet at Camp Delta, a high-security compound that houses 598 prisoners from 43 countries.

“I walked the camp this afternoon, and it was very, very quiet,” said Army Col. John Perrone, of Rochester, N.Y. “It was a normal day. There were no issues whatsoever.... If they do speak about it, it’s in Arabic and I don’t know what they’re saying.”

Said Army Sgt. Blake Winner, a guard from Cleveland: “They do keep track of the days. If you ask them, they can tell you how long they’ve been here. But we don’t tell them anything. I don’t give them the time of day.”

At an emotional ceremony at Camp America, a complex of wooden structures that is home to the 1,600 guards watching the mostly Afghan prisoners, Army National Guard Capt. Sandra Orlandella read a poem eulogizing her comrades.

Back home, she served as a New York City police officer, and she still mourns the loss of colleagues she tried to help at ground zero on Sept. 11. On Wednesday, she was so overcome with emotion she struggled to keep going.

Behind her in a Quonset hut, a projector displayed images of the jets exploding into the towers, of the Pentagon afire, of a hole in a field in Pennsylvania.

The video ended with a firefighter passing the American flag to a soldier, who said, “I’ll take it from here.”

“For those of us serving here in Guantanamo Bay,” Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus told the 200 gathered in the hut, “our war is about proving to the world that this country does abide by law in the treatment of detainees.... Other countries have tortured our servicemen and women. But we as soldiers will preserve our American ideals.”

Flags were lowered to half-staff around the base, including along the base’s 17-mile fence that separates “Gitmo” from Fidel Castro’s regime.

The prisoners might not know the date, but they must realize there is no exit.

On one side of the camp, which once housed detainees from the Cuban boatlifts, is the Caribbean Sea. On the other are scrub grass and mountains guarded by machine gun nests.

Since January, when the first flight of detainees arrived from Afghanistan, four have attempted suicide and 30 have been considered possible suicide risks, Army officials said. And 80 are in solitary confinement because of problems while in custody.

But it was the Sept. 11 victims whom the Americans here preferred to talk about on Wednesday.

Assistant Fire Chief Waltermon and his crew, who staff the four fire stations on the base, lined up in front of their trucks as the bells tolled and then observed a moment of silence.

“We talk about it a lot,” firefighter Noel King said. “Even prior to this day we would talk about 9/11, and we will talk about it a lot tonight.”