Like the adult prisoners in the camp, the youths are being held indefinitely. They would not be granted access to lawyers, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, and would remain behind bars "until we ensure that they’re no longer a threat to the United States, that there’s no pending law enforcement against them, [and] that they’re no longer of intelligence value."

One youth is Canadian, reported the Toronto Globe and Mail. Wounded and captured during a firefight in Afghanistan, he is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. Canadian authorities have been refused access to the youth. U.S. officials claim that the boy’s father is a "senior financial leader" of Al Qaeda, the London Guardian reported.

Most of the 660 inmates at Guantánamo were brought to the prison in the months immediately following the U.S. war on Afghanistan. Many were shackled and blindfolded for the 24-hour flight from Afghanistan and originally held in outdoor wire-fence cages.

The U.S government has since built the more permanent Camp Delta facility. Each cell has a through-the-floor toilet, a sink, and a metal bed. Denial of exercise time and reading material is used as a "disciplinary tool," said Cmd. Sgt. Maj. John Vannatta, the superintendent of the prison, who in civilian life is a superintendent of an Indiana state penitentiary.

There have been 25 suicide attempts by 17 individuals since the prison opened. More than 5 percent of those detained are being treated with antidepressants. Authorities at the prison have denied that there is any relationship between the attempted suicides and the indefinite nature of the detentions.

The father of Halima Ghezali, a Swedish citizen being held at the prison, told the New York Times that Swedish intelligence officials who had visited his son informed him that U.S. authorities believed he had no connection to any "illegal" group. "So why is he there so long?" asked Ghezali.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that the prisoners are "being held not necessarily for what they had done but for what they might do," commented the Times.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the imprisonment of juveniles. "The detention of children under these circumstances is particularly repugnant and flouts basic principles for the protection of human rights under international law," said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International in the United States April 23.

U.S. officials say that about 150 prisoners are from Saudi Arabia, and that there are also 83 Yemenis and 52 Pakistanis. Inmates come from 42 countries.

Washington has maintained a naval base at Guantánamo, the site of the prison, in spite of repeated protests by the Cuban government over the past four decades.  
 
 
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