Camp Platinum
Camp Seven (also known as Camp Platinum) is the most secure camp within the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1][2] Its existence was kept secret for the first two years of its use. It was opened to hold the fourteen "high-value detainees" who had been held by the CIA, and were transferred to military custody on September 6, 2006.
The detainees held in this camp are forced to don hoods when they are transferred from the camp to their military commission or other purposes.[3][4] Lawyers for some of the other detainees, who faced charges before the Guantanamo military commissions were initially told that they could not interview the detainees held in camp seven, because that would be a breach of the camp's security, as that would allow them to know the camp's location.[5] When Suzanne Lachelier and Richard Federico offered to wear the same hoods the detainees wore, to visit the camp, they were eventually allowed to visit the camp, without wearing blindfolds. They were however transported in the same windowless van as the detainees, so they did not know the camp's location.
On February 4, 2009, Chief Military Defense Counsel Peter Masciola wrote:
For years camp authorities said the Camp Seven facility needed to be rebuilt. Estimates of the costs to do so ranged as high as $75 million. But on April 5, 2021, they announced that the facility had been closed, and the captives transferred to the vacant Camp 5.[7] Camp 5 had been built to a US Bureau of Prison design, to house hundreds of captives. Unlike Camp 6, also built to Bureau of Prison design, where the rest of the captives were held, Camp 5 was not built for captives to have a communal area where they could mix and interact, during the day, being confined to their cells, only at night. Accounts of Camp 7 strongly implied each captive was provided with their own permanent outside compound.
References
- ↑ Patrick M. Walsh (2009-02-23). "DoD News Briefing With Adm. Walsh From The Pentagon". Department of Defense. Archived from the original on 2009-05-11. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.defenselink.mil%2Ftranscripts%2Ftranscript.aspx%3Ftranscriptid%3D4359&date=2009-05-11.
- ↑ "'Platinum' captives held at off-limits Gitmo camp". Miami Herald. 2008-02-07. Archived from the original on 2009-05-22. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.miamiherald.com%2F1377%2Fv-fullstory%2Fstory%2F930542.html&date=2009-05-22.
- ↑ Andrea J. Prasow (2008-04-23). "U.S. v. Hamdan - Special Request for Relief - Supplement". Office of Military Commissions. http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Hamdan%20AE%27s%20166-175.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-25. mirror
- ↑ Carol Rosenberg (2009-05-13). "Guantanamo judge who defied Obama issues new ruling". The State. Archived from the original on 2009-05-18. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestate.com%2F166%2Fstory%2F785383.html&date=2009-05-18.
- ↑ "Lawyers See Secret Section of Gitmo". The Ledger. 2008-11-17. p. A14. Archived from the original on 2009-07-28. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theledger.com%2Farticle%2F20081119%2FNEWS%2F811190346&date=2009-07-28. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
- ↑ Peter Masciola (2009-02-04). "Bullets in furtherance of meeting of 4 February 2009". Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/App11.pdf.
- ↑ "US shuts once-secret Guantanamo prison unit, moves prisoners". New Zealand Stuff. 2021-04-05. Archived from the original on 2021-04-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20210405045406/https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300269324/us-shuts-oncesecret-guantanamo-prison-unit-moves-prisoners. "A once-secret unit within the Guantanamo Bay detention centre that had fallen into disrepair has been closed and the prisoners moved to another facility on the American base in Cuba, the US military said."
