Camp Five Echo is a once secret "disciplinary block" built as part of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1][2][3][4] The press first reported on the existence of the camp in December 2011 when attorneys for Shaker Aamer, who had been held at the camp for extended periods of time, complained that conditions there were inhumane.[5]
According to Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, the camp is used to punish captives.[1] Like Camp Platinum, Camp Strawberry Fields and Camp No, Camp Five Echo had never been mentioned when journalists and other visitors are given tours of the internment facility.[6]
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Carol Rosenberg (24 December 2011). "Secret Guantánamo cell block cost nearly $700,000". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 28 December 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
A once-secret Guantánamo cellblock now used to punish captives was built in November 2007 for $690,000 from a crude, then 5-year-old temporary prison camp design.
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"U.S. defends Gitmo's 'Five Echo' cell block". Huffington Post. 9 December 2011. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
Lawyers for detainees say the cells are too small, toilets inadequate, lights overly bright and its air foul, and they call it inhumane to keep detainees there for 22 hours per day, especially when they have not been convicted of a crime.
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"Guantanamo detainees still endure harsh prison conditions". Dawn. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
The cells are half the size of the cells in other parts of Camp Five. One has to be a contortionist to pray or use the toilet. The place was designed by fiends," he told AFP, calling it "a return to the early days of the camps, when brutality and sadism were the order of the day.
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Mark Russell (10 December 2012). "US Defends Conditions Inside Gitmo: Military releases rare photos of cell to prove conditions OK in 'Five Echo'". Newser. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
But Gitmo officials disputed those characterizations, saying the cells were, by nature, worse than regular cells, but still acceptable. "It is safe, human, and meets all the regulations," says an Army representative. Army officials said the disciplinary section of the prison, Camp Five, is currently about half-full, with about 50 prisoners, but subsection Five Echo is completely empty.
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Jennifer Rowland (14 December 2012). "The LWOT: Senate, House edit detainee provision in defense bill". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012.
U.S. military officials on December 9 released never-before-seen images of a disciplinary block at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility known as "Five Echo," in an effort to disprove allegations that detainees being held there are subjected to inhumane conditions that violate the Geneva Convention.
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Carol Rosenberg (22 December 2011). "Web Extra -- A prison camps primer". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012.
It is not shown to reporters invited to the remote Navy base for prison camps tours that boast a safe, humane and transparent approach to U.S. military detention.