Intellectual stimulation and Guantanamo would hardly seem to go together, but Rear Admiral Dave Thomas, who took over America's most notorious prison two months ago, wants to lighten things up.
He wants to ease the regime of solitary confinement for some of the prisoners by allowing them to meet in a communal area where they can chat and play games, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
But this is not rehabilitation. This is to encourage better behaviour among the 270 terrorism suspects out of the original 700 who were originally brought to this US territory on Cuba. "The effect I hope to achieve is to get greater compliance," Thomas told the LA Times.
He has in mind the 75 prisoners at Camp 6, who live in individual cells with steel doors. There is a common area with tables and stools for meals, games and conversation. At another camp, which has a capacity of 200, one of the empty rooms has been fitted with a flat-screen TV to show taped sports events and TV programmes. Thomas said, without any apparent irony, that one of the favourite programmes is the Discovery Channel's adventure fishing series, The Deadliest Catch.
Another barracks has been converted into a schoolroom where English lessons are offered, as are lessons in basic written Arabic and Pashto for illiterate detainees.
So one hand, there is waterboarding and other forms of torture. On the other there is fishing on TV, literacy circles and attempts at intellectual stimulation. Talk about squaring the circle.
