Camp Seven (also known as Camp Platinum) is the most secure camp known within the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
s, in
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
.
Its existence was kept secret for the first two years of its use. It was constructed to hold the fourteen "
high-value detainees" who had been held by the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
, and were transferred to military custody on 6 September 2006.
Details
The detainees held in this camp are placed in hoods when transferred from the camp to other locations for their military commission or other purposes.
Some of the detainees, who faced charges before the
Guantanamo military commissions, had attorneys who were initially told that they could not interview their clients. The attorneys were told it would be a breach of the camp's security for them to know the camp's location.
When attorneys 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 transported to the camp in the same windowless van as the detainees, so they did not know the camp's location.
Attorney James Connell was the first person to visit a client at the prison. He visited his client
Ammar al Baluchi at Camp 7 in August 2013.
A 2013 budget request from the United States Southern Command for new prison construction at the base was presumed by reports to be for the replacement of Camp 7, though specifics of existing facilities were not discussed.
According to an article by
Carol Rosenberg, published in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', on 17 September 2019, Camp Seven had at least two recreation yards.
At a preliminary hearing held that day prosecutors read a transcript of a conversation
Ammar al Baluchi had with another captive, conducted by yelling over the wall of his recreation yard to the nearby recreation yard of the other man. It had not been known, until the release of this transcript, that the recreation yards contained hidden listening devices.
See also
*
Camp No—an alleged secret detention and interrogation facility
References
External links
{{GuantanamoExtrajudicialDetentionCamps
Prisons in Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay detention camp