JULY 17, 2015
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, CUBA
8:00 A.M.
If he is captured, a top secret prison cell awaits Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” echoes across Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, as it does precisely this time every morning. US military personnel immediately stop what they are doing and stand at stiff attention, saluting the nearest American flag, until the anthem is complete. More than five thousand American servicemen and -women, as well as their families, call this Cuban installation home, enjoying all the luxuries of a normal naval base—commissary, McDonald’s, child development center, and even hiking at the nearby Hutia Highway trailhead. But just over the hill from the base, on a barren stretch of rocky coastline fronting dark-blue, shark-infested waters, is a stark world of cellblocks, electric fences, and high cement walls surrounded by roll after roll of razor-sharp barbed wire.
This is the notorious Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been in United States custody before, but that period of incarceration in 2004 is nothing like what awaits him in Cuba.
Now two sailors in pressed white uniforms run the Stars and Stripes up the flagpole. But they stop when the standard is only halfway up. Flying the colors at half-mast is a sign of respect and mourning. And on this summer dawn of glaring sun and balmy trade winds blowing in off the Caribbean, sailors and marines stationed here in Cuba have much to grieve. Yesterday afternoon, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an ISIS terror attack took lives on American soil. Four marines and a sailor were shot dead when an ISIS killer opened fire at a military recruiting center. The gunman, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a twenty-four-year-old American citizen of Kuwaiti birth, was then shot dead by officers from the Chattanooga Police Department.
To most Americans, the manners and behavior of terrorism perpetrators are largely unknown. But to the men and women serving a tour of duty at remote Guantánamo Bay, Islamic terrorists are not just the talk of the base but the flesh-and-blood reason Americans are posted to this far-flung location.
The purpose of Guantánamo Bay is detaining and interrogating the world’s most dangerous killers—war criminals who have sworn allegiance to men such as al-Baghdadi and bin Laden. The terrorists are treated not just as prisoners but as sources of intelligence about lethal operations.
Some methods of extracting information are simple, like sleep deprivation or standing in place for hours until the monotony becomes a degrading mental exercise. Others, such as the technique known as “waterboarding,” make a man believe he is about to die.
“Gitmo” is six thousand miles from the ISIS strongholds in Syria and Iraq and, at this time, houses forty inmates. There has been talk of shutting it down, though that is almost impossible: the men held within these walls are not welcome anywhere on earth. It is a common practice to release those detained at Guantánamo after a period of incarceration, but this is out of the question for some detainees. These hardened terrorists will never reject the global jihad. They are determined to inflict death and destruction, no matter what the cost.
Thus, the Guantánamo Bay detention center is not likely to be shut down anytime soon. United States officials consider the facility a most effective counterterrorism tool—and a place from where there can be no escape.
So it is that when the day comes that US forces capture al-Baghdadi, officials here at Guantánamo will only be too happy to make room for the ISIS butcher.*
Guantánamo Bay is the oldest overseas base in the United States Navy. First opened in 1903, the facility was leased from Cuba to serve as a coal depot. The lease was a paltry $2,000 in gold until 1974, when the rent increased to $4,085. Even after Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government in 1959, the United States continued to maintain control of the tactically important forty-five square miles on the southeastern corner of Cuba. The base was temporarily abandoned as a safety precaution during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, then immediately reoccupied once the emergency passed. For ninety-nine years, America has maintained control of Gitmo despite acrimony with Communist Cuba.
After the 9/11 terror attacks, President George W. Bush declared a global war on terrorism. US troops entered jihadi strongholds such as Afghanistan to actively take the fight to murderous groups like al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Taking prisoners was inevitable, particularly in a conflict where the enemy constantly lived and worked in the shadows. For their roles in killing Americans, these terrorists fall into a category known as “enemy combatant.” Remote Guantánamo Bay, which contained an empty facility that once housed Cuban and Haitian refugees, was the ideal location to confine these radical prisoners.
The first detainees arrived at Guantánamo Bay on January 11, 2002, just four months after the 9/11 murders. US marines led the twenty new arrivals down the steps of a military cargo plane.
Their citizenship is diverse: Afghani, Saudi Arabian, Pakistani, Algerian, Yemeni, and more. The most dangerous prisoners are known as “high-value detainees,” coveted by interrogators because of what they may know. Each “high-value” terrorist is held in solitary confinement. Some are forced to wear headphones and opaque goggles to block out the sight and sounds of other inmates. Each cell has a prayer mat with arrows pointing in the direction of Mecca, the Muslim holy city, where adherents face as they bow and worship Allah five times a day.
Upon his arrival at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will be given a “detainee assessment” to categorize his mental and physical health. This is true for all arrivals. One example reads: “Detainee attended militant training on fitness, pistols, the AK-47 assault rifle, the PK machine gun, and the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at the al-Faruq Training Camp [outside Kandahar, Afghanistan] and taught small arms training there.”
The report also notes that this individual, Mohammed Ahmad Said al-Adahi, “has a history of depression and schizoaffective personality disorder.” *
An essential aspect of each detainee assessment is a history of each prisoner’s personal life and career as a terrorist, charting the various campaigns in which they participated. A typical report is ten single-spaced pages, listing places, dates, and names. Known aliases are listed, as are accomplices and employers.
But these complex assessments, loaded with pages of specific documentation and detail, are not easily written. The tight-lipped behavior that allows a recruit to rise through the ranks to terror leadership requires a strict adherence to confidentiality. In short, these detainees are trained not to betray information.
Thus, detainee assessments can only be written with the assistance of complex interrogations.
In almost every instance this ongoing questioning is assisted by the one activity most often connected with life at Guantánamo Bay: “enhanced interrogation.”
In truth, there is a revenge factor on the part of some American interrogators. Al-Baghdadi well knows that if he is captured, the United States will spare no painful, shame-inducing technique to extract every last bit of information from the man who raped and murdered Kayla Mueller.
The treatment Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi might expect will mirror that of the most famous terrorist already in custody. High-ranking al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured on March 1, 2003, in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. He loathes America, a nation in which he once briefly lived, labeling it a “debauched and racist country.” The fifty-year-old Mohammed is not only the “principal architect” of the 9/11 attack, even appearing on Al Jazeera television to celebrate the first anniversary of the mass murder, he also famously beheaded the American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was taken hostage in the city of Karachi.*
After his arrest by the CIA and Pakistani intelligence, “KSM,” as the mastermind is known, does not go directly to Guantánamo. Instead, his interrogation begins at a clandestine “black site” in Afghanistan known as the “Salt Pit.” There, the terrorist is forced to be naked and subject to sleep deprivation, required to stand for days at a time without being allowed to doze. “Stress positions” are utilized frequently, placing the terrorist in small spaces for prolonged periods of time to induce claustrophobia and discomfort. KSM is beaten and slapped. Cold water is thrown in his face, and loud music is played to elevate his sense of disorientation. A hose is inserted into the terrorist’s anus through a technique known as “rectal rehydration” that causes him to both urinate frequently and defecate violently.
And that is just the beginning.
Eventually, KSM is flown to black sites in Jordan and Poland, where he is subjected to waterboarding exactly 183 times.* This is a technique once used by the Chinese on American prisoners of war during the Korean conflict in the 1950s. The hands and ankles are immobilized, and a towel placed over the individual’s face. The head is tilted backward. Water is then poured onto the cloth, saturating the fabric and slowly working its way into the nostrils and mouth of the captive. It becomes more and more difficult to breathe. Water soon enters the esophagus. The sensation of drowning is induced, and it is common for the interrogated individual to gag uncontrollably.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is then moved to another interrogation black site in Romania before finally arriving in Guantánamo Bay. The date is September 2006, more than three years after his capture. All the while, the terrorist resists the torture, refusing to admit his participation in 9/11 and other attacks. Eventually, after four years, KSM breaks. In March 2007, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed finally confesses to planning the 9/11 attacks, as well as several other international acts of terror.†
Now, as the world searches for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, KSM remains in Guantánamo. It is twelve years since his capture, and he admits to participating in thirty-one terror plots. Most Gitmo prisoners are incarcerated in communal cellblocks known as Camps 5 and 6. But until April 4, 2021, KSM was held apart from other prisoners in a top secret compound known as Camp 7. Journalists from around the world have visited Guantánamo but were never allowed inside this special section of the prison.*
KSM now inhabits Camp 5, which is modeled after a maximum-security state prison in Bunker Hill, Indiana. It has individual cells, showers, and large outdoor cages for recreation.
If Khalid cooperates, he might be permitted to watch Arab satellite television—albeit with his ankles shackled to the floor in front of his chair. However, if KSM refuses to cooperate, he will not be allowed these privileges. Instead, he will remain alone in his cell.
It is impossible to know how much the threat of severe reprisal is affecting the killer al-Baghdadi. What is known is that this self-proclaimed “leader” of the Muslim world is now more arrogant than ever—and a direct threat to much of the world. Al-Baghdadi believes ISIS is winning the jihad. And he sees himself as an Islamic savior.
One who is about to strike again.