by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The Rotary Club of Jacksonville got a firsthand account Monday of some of what goes on behind the walls and fences at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba. Now in private practice, clinical psychologist Justin A’rienzo, Ph.D. shared some of his experiences and insights gained from his tour of duty there with the U.S. Navy from 2005-06.
He began with a short history lesson and told the club that Guantanamo Bay was leased to the United States shortly after the Spanish-American War in 1903. For the first 33 years, the annual lease payment was $2,000 and the base was used primarily as a fuel depot. Since 1936, the lease payment has been $4,000 per year but since 1903, only one of the lease checks has ever been cashed.
“When (Cuban President) Fidel Castro found it,” said A’rienzo.
Guantanamo Bay has become famous in recent years as the site where persons believed to be terrorists have been detained as part of the Global War on Terror. A’rienzo said one of the most common misconceptions about the facility is the size of the population.
“When it opened there were 720 people detained there,” he said. “There are currently only about 200. The mission has always been to keep the ones we need to keep and release the rest.”
A’rienzo pointed out that many of the detainees who are released, as many as 10 percent, return to terrorist activities when they return home and some are murdered as soon as they set foot in their home countries.
Another misconception is that there is a high rate of mental illness among the detainees. A’rienzo treated his detainee patients for depression and panic attacks, but said, “Actually, only six or seven percent of the detainees suffered from mental illness. It’s very similar to any other prison population.”
The majority of the detainees in Guantanamo are what A’rienzo described as “fervently religious,” and he added, “The ones that weren’t when they got there are now. Many people find religion in a prison setting. They become radicalized while they are incarcerated and it’s hard to send them back home.”
A’rienzo said he never witnessed any form of torture while he was at the detention center.
“Nobody was waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay, at least while I was there,” he added. “We got information (from detainees) by exchanging favors. We might help their family or give them cigarettes and magazines or allow them to go outside and play soccer.”
Those being held received a high level of medical care including being treated at U.S. Naval Hospitals. One of the first challenges A’rienzo faced when he arrived at Guantanamo in 2005 was a hunger strike involving 200 detainees.
“The medical community went crazy,” he recalled. “We tried to use our psychology skills to end the hunger strike but eventually the decision was made to force-feed some of the detainees.”
As for the future of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, A’rienzo, who qualified his remarks by making it clear the opinions he expressed to the Rotarians were his own and not those of the U.S. Department of Defense, said, “Military review panels evaluate each detainee and the people who don’t belong there aren’t there any more — but I think there are 80 to 100 detainees that need to be held indefinitely.”
Retired Adm. Jon Howe introduced A’rienzo and commented, “Cuba and Guantanamo have certainly been in the headlines. President Obama, almost the day he took office, signed an order to close the detention center. It’s a dilemma that continues to unfold.”
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