Marines eager to greet more Afghan detainees

Associated Press

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Marines equipped with machine guns, grenade launchers, pepper spray and batons rushed to greet a transport plane delivering 34 more detainees from Afghanistan on Saturday.

Gearing up for their mission, some of the young members of the Marines’ Quick Reaction Force jammed to the hit Queen song "We Will Rock You" as a ferry carried them across the bay toward the airfield at this remote U.S. Navy base.

"I enjoy getting my hands on them," said Michael Pfadenhauer, a 22-year-old from Baltimore who was among Marines on guard when the C-141 cargo plane arrived after a 25-hour flight.

"These are the actual people who are responsible for the destruction in New York and Washington. … It feels good to see them inside their little cages. They’re where they belong," he said.

The fresh arrivals came two days after Washington announced that the Geneva Convention — a group of treaties dealing with the treatment of war prisoners — would apply to detainees from the ousted Afghan Taliban regime, but not to detainees of the al-Qaida network.

Regardless of the legal distinction, Brig. Gen. Mike Lehnert, the Marine in charge of the detention mission, said both groups would be treated the same — humanely. He said they may be separated later if Congress gives approval to build a semipermanent prison.

The arrivals Saturday brought to 220 the number of prisoners being held at Camp X-Ray, a temporary prison of open-air cells with walls of chain-link fence.

On his way to meet the latest group of prisoners to arrive at the Guantanamo base during Camp X-Ray’s 35 days of operation, Pfadenhauer said Saturday he didn’t expect any major problems from the prisoners.

"They do not give us a hard time," he said. "A lot of them we bring off (the plane) are actually pretty scared. They should be."