Nothing to See: Media Access to Guantanamo Bay Tightened

Limiting access by the media to the site will make work less disturbing for the prison guards, according to the US general overseeing Gitmo.

The US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will implement new restrictions for representatives of the press who wish to visit the notorious detention facility.

Beginning immediately, there will be quarterly one-day tours aboard Pentagon flights either from Florida or the Washington area, without access to the inside of the prison or interviews with most personnel. Interview exceptions will include the prison commander, the Muslim cultural adviser and the head of medical service, Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, the commander of the military’s Southern Command, told AP on Thursday.

The general said he was frustrated with journalists asking the staff and guards about their opinions of President Obama’s policies on Gitmo. Kelly also mentioned an incident with a member of the media who was acting “very abusive,” but refused to elaborate.

Journalists have been touring the two Guantanamo detention camps since their  opening in 2002. In recent years, authorities stopped sharing certain prison statistics.

Guantanamo military prison has long been a contentious issue in the US human rights profile. Many activists have repeatedly condemned the Obama administration for keeping the “forever detention” prison open, despite pledges to close the center the president made while he was campaigning.

Earlier in December, the US government conceded that it had wrongly imprisoned a man for 13 years in the controversial facility due to a case of mistaken identity.