A Firsthand Report from Guantanamo Bay

This is a partial transcript of "Special Report With Brit Hume," June 27, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELLEN TAUSCHER (D), CALIFORNIA: The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo that we heard about, even a few years ago. This is a facility that, I believe, is on par.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: What we’ve seen here is evidence that we have made progress. And that’s an important statement to be made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIT HUME, HOST: Those two Democrats, part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that went to have a look at Guantanamo Bay detention camp over the weekend. FOX News correspondent Molly Henneberg went with them and joins me now to tell us what she heard and saw and they heard and saw.

So Molly, first of all, what about the delegation? Who was on it? What was that all about?

MOLLY HENNEBERG, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We went down for one day, on Saturday. It was 16 House members, mainly members of the House Armed Services Committee, nine Republicans, seven Democrats.

HUME: And you were there, what...

HENNEBERG: Just for a day, about seven-and-a-half hours.

HUME: So tell me about what the facilities where these prisoners stay are like.

HENNEBERG: In some ways, it depends how compliant they are, how well they follow the rules, they follow what the guards say. For those who are the most compliant...

(CROSSTALK)

HUME: I assume, also, providing information, as well?

HENNEBERG: And providing intelligence, right. For those who are the most compliant, more helpful, they are put in what’s called Camp Four. It’s a more communal living setting. And maybe not what you expect when you think of Gitmo.

They live in a dorm-type room. They are able to eat together. They are able to spend some time outside, as you see here on TV. They get about nine hours outside.

When we were there, we even saw them playing some soccer. And I saw a ping-pong table when I was there. And you notice they’re wearing the tan outfits, the tan clothing, gray clothing. That’s also sort of a privilege, as they consider it down in Gitmo, instead of the orange jumpsuits, who are for the less compliant detainees. These people in Camp Four get to wear their tan-colored ones.

HUME: And what about, the rooms or the cells that they’re in? What do they — how would you characterize them? What do they — this looks like...

HENNEBERG: This is a soccer game. This is where they’re playing soccer, as our tour was kind of going by.

HUME: And this, I take it — and that’s a soccer game. And this is what — is one of the good cells or the bad cells?

HENNEBERG: This is for less-compliant detainees. Now, still, even you’re a less compliant detainee, you’re seeing here there still are creature comforts that you can earn. You can still earn a tan outfit. There are board games.

But even in these cells that are contained, all four walls, you have your private toilet, I guess, and a sink. And this is — I think this is Camp Five that you’re looking at right now, which is for high-value intelligence targets.

HUME: And those people are not able to — they look they’re surrounded by walls.

HENNEBERG: Enclosed.

HUME: And the other ones, are they open, open on the sides?

HENNEBERG: There are. There are some that are open sides where you can talk to your neighbors on either side. What you just saw in Camp Five, you’re in an enclosed room.

So there’s not — it’s not a social. They don’t want — those are for high-value intelligence targets or detainees. They don’t want them talking to other detainees, maybe exchanging information or getting information.

HUME: Now, a lot of the controversy has been about interrogation and interrogation techniques. Did you and members of this congressional delegation get a sense of that?

HENNEBERG: We did. We saw a number of interrogations. One of the interrogations was with a detainee who knew nine of the 9/11 hijackers. And we saw an interrogation there that — it was a female interrogator.

And the analyst who was outside watching it with us said that detainee was getting along with her and actually providing information, even now, about a low-level Al Qaeda member who has risen up the ranks and wasn’t on the Pentagon’s screen two or three years ago but now is. And they are getting some information from this detainee, now, with this female.

HUME: What did the interrogation facility look like? What it was like?

HENNEBERG: It was a room with a chair. You’re seeing it right here. There’s one chair where the detainee sits. That’s on the far side. And there are a couple chairs, too, there where maybe the interrogator and the interpreter would sit.

HUME: Now, they can be seen from?

HENNEBERG: There are rooms with one-way mirrors.

HUME: So they sit there, they’re chained to the floor.

HENNEBERG: Right.

HUME: What’s that thing?

HENNEBERG: That’s a camera, so that people in the rooms can see them. That is a distress button. If the interrogators feel like something’s getting out of hand, they can push that button and help will arrive with the detainees.

HUME: So how did this interrogation that you got to see — at least one of them that you got to see, how did it go?

HENNEBERG: Well, that was particularly helpful. The detainee in that case, the one who knew nine of the 9/11 hijackers, was smiling. He was conversing.

We couldn’t hear what they were saying, because it could have been classified information, but he was participating. But I did see another interrogation where there was a less...

HUME: Same type of room?

HENNEBERG: Same type of room. A less-compliant detainee in an orange jumpsuit who had his back turned to the female interrogator and had his hands over his ears. And she was reading a "Harry Potter" (search)" book to him just to try and wear him down. And that was one interrogation.

HUME: A "Harry Potter" book?

HENNEBERG: Reading a "Harry Potter" book for about an hour.

HUME: In English?

HENNEBERG: In English. He could understand English.

HUME: He could?

HENNEBERG: Yes.

HUME: And presumably this is not — presumably not a Harry Potter fan.

HENNEBERG: But I was asking one of the guards about that. Why something like a "Harry Potter" book? And he said it’s about building relationships. You read this book, and maybe you see the detainee laugh, maybe you see him crook an ear and try and hear part of the story, and maybe you have an in to try and say, "Oh, did you like that part? Do you like these kinds of stories?" Building a relationship.

HUME: What about — we hear a lot about food down in Guantanamo. What did you find? Did you get to eat any of it?

HENNEBERG: I did. I ate a detainee meal. Here you see them being passed out in those Styrofoam cartons. There you see Representative Sheila Jackson Lee about to eat a meal, as well. Chicken and orange sauce, rice and okra, and bread, this is exactly what the detainees were getting that day. There you see the chairmen of the House Armed Services.

HUME: And how it was?

HENNEBERG: I thought it was good. I mean, it was good. It was delicious. I ate my whole meal. Well, not all the rice, because there was a lot of rice, but...

HUME: Gotcha, Molly. Thanks for coming. Appreciated having you. Good luck.

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