U.S. officials have said stringent security is needed because many of the prisoners are dangerous and some have threatened to kill their U.S. captors. On Wednesday, one inmate bit the forearm of a military police officer who tried to subdue him.
On Sunday, armed Marines met the 34 newest prisoners and led them one-by-one from the Air Force C-141 cargo plane to a waiting school bus. The inmates' ankles were shackled and they wore orange jumpsuits, denim jackets, knit caps, turquoise surgical masks and goggles blacked out for security reasons.
Two of new arrivals were sedated during the flight because "they were yelling and thrashing about," said a spokesman, Marine Maj. Stephen Cox.
"I don't think that I would characterize that as torture, I would characterize that as an appropriate security measure," Cox said.
He said one detainee with an old battle injury to the leg was carried off the airplane. Officials say nearly a third of the detainees have battle wounds, mainly gunshots in the arm or leg.
The new arrivals were driven to the camp, where officials said they would be processed and given a basic physical exam. Then they are taken to temporary cells with chain-link fence walls on a concrete slab topped by a corrugated iron roof.
Military officials say the cells soon could hold 320 inmates, or more if they were housed two to a cell. Soldiers are awaiting permission to build a permanent facility that would hold up to 1,000 inmates.
Cox said the new arrivals did not include six Algerians transferred to U.S. military custody in Bosnia. U.S. defense officials in Afghanistan had said the six, suspected of terrorism, had been aboard the plane that left the military base at Kandahar airport for the 8,000-mile flight to Guantanamo Bay.
The men were originally arrested by Bosnian authorities on suspicion of terrorist ties, but have not been linked to al-Qaida.
There are now 232 detainees at Kandahar, down from a high of about 400.
Rumsfeld said Sunday the detainees likely would be tried by military commissions on Guantanamo. Such a move, on a base that is not on U.S. soil, would deny detainees the right of appeal in a U.S. court.
The U.S. military has not identified the detainees, but they are believed to include nationals of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Britain and Australia.
[Sorry, I couldn't get the link to work!, so I printed entire article]
Eric The(PleaseBePatient,TheTroubleIsNotWithYourSet)Hun[>]:)]