Guantanamo -- A Holding Cell In War on Terror

The Bush administration approved the plan.

On Jan. 11, 2002 -- four months to the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- a military transport plane touched down at Guantanamo, taxiing alongside a cavernous hangar resembling an old-style roller skating rink. Twenty suspected terrorists and fighters were on board that day. Over the next 10 days, five more planes would bring 140 more captives.

The men were taken to Camp X-Ray through two rows of chain-link fencing topped with razor wire. Unpainted plywood shacks on wooden stilts served as guard towers. A plywood hut doubled as a command center and a place for soldiers to escape the Caribbean sun. The captives were escorted to the cages, each 8 feet by 8 feet. Constructed on slabs of concrete and covered with sheets of metal and wood, the collection of padlocked cages looked like an oversize dog kennel.

A Navy photographer took pictures that were transmitted around the world. Louise Christian, a human rights lawyer in London, recalled seeing the images flash across her television screen.

"I was aghast," Christian said.

One picture showed the captives at Camp X-Ray, shackled and clad in orange jumpsuits, kneeling in the dirt and gravel. The military had strapped muffs over their ears, surgical masks over their mouths and goggles spray-painted black over their eyes. Authorities described the gear as necessary for security during the long plane trip from Afghanistan.

The photographs touched off international protests. A British tabloid declared on its front page: "Torture!"

An infuriated Bush administration went on the offensive. "These are the worst of a very bad lot," Vice President Cheney said.

Human rights groups pressured Britain and other countries that had citizens held at Guantanamo to take a stand. The families of men who went missing during the Afghan war began calling lawyers such as Christian. "The outrage was sparked by those original images," she said.

The differences between the old and new camps were striking.

"X-Ray was a very primitive camp. It was extremely hard on the soldiers. They were put in tents right next to it. They never had an escape from the wire. The chanting and name-calling continued into the night. They had no relief," he said. "It was also hard on the detainees. The location was further away from the shore, and the less air flow, the hotter it became."

In November 2002, VanNatta was put in charge. By then, there were more than 600 detainees from 42 countries, and Camp Delta was experiencing difficulties.