U.S. military forces have transported 34 more Taleban and al-Qaida detainees to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The total number of captives there now stands at 288. The arrival of new detainees has become commonplace over the last month, but security measures remain as strict and airtight as ever.

The C-141 Air Force transport plane lands at Guantanamo on a cloudless day of broiling heat. Immediately, a security force of more than 100 Marines springs to action.

Oversized Jeep-like vehicles known as Humvees with 50-caliber machineguns on top surround the plane while a helicopter circles overhead.

The detainees, 34 in all, are hustled off the plane one-by-one, a Marine on either side. Many detainees appear wobbly on their feet after the 16-to-20 hour journey from Kandahar. Two arrived with injuries sustained in Afghanistan — one with a fractured collarbone, the other a fractured rib.

AP
Major Steve Cox

Marine Major Steve Cox says the disorientation the detainees experience upon arrival at Guantanamo is to be expected and useful for security purposes. Major Cox said, "It is reasonable to say that when the detainees arrive they are 'naturally disoriented.' And I say naturally disoriented because they wear goggles with tape over them for the entire flight. That is a security precaution that we take. They wear hearing protection, the same hearing protection that our aircrews wear, but it also prevents them from hearing conversation very well."

The plane is the tenth transport of detainees from Afghanistan in just over a month. Major Cox says the mission is repetitive, but must never become routine. He says some detainees already demonstrated their violent nature during deadly uprisings in Afghanistan, and that transporting the captives to Camp X-Ray is not without risk. "There are points in the transfer when you have detainees grouped together, in relatively small groups but grouped together, nonetheless. Whereas at Camp X-Ray, detainees are housed in individual units. So, they do not have the ability to act in groups," he said.

Monday, the Bush Administration warned of an urgent and credible security threat to the United States, urging Americans everywhere to be vigilant. Officials say the warning arose from a variety of sources, including information obtained from ongoing interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

AP
Brigadier General Michael Lehnert

The commander of detainee operations at Guantanamo, Brigadier General Michael Lehnert says it is not always easy to tell whether the captives are being truthful. "It is difficult," he said. "We get many different stories [from the detainees]. It [the information we get] is a mosaic, a puzzle. And quite often the way you determine the truth or the veracity [of what you are told] is to match it against information you already have that you know to be truthful. And then you can begin to get a picture as to whether or not the detainee is, at this time, becoming more forthcoming."

Officials at Guantanamo say they believe there is still more information to be gleaned from the detainees. And the number of captives at Guantanamo continues to grow.

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