Why are the Taliban suspects being held in Cuba

A.� Men suspected of being members of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda are being flown to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� A US base in Cuba I thought America and Cuba were deadly enemies

A.� It's complicated. Guantanamo Bay, was originally a 45-square-mile Caribbean holiday retreat for newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst and then leased, for 99 years, to the US Navy shortly after the mysterious sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbour in 1898. The rent was $2,000 a year in gold.

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Q.� Only 99 years It should have run out five years ago.

A.� In 1934, the two countries signed a treaty allowing the US to stay indefinitely. Fidel Castro took power in 1959, and Guantanamo Bay often became a flashpoint, first during the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, then with the 1962 missile crisis. Two years later Castro tried to force the Americans out by shutting off water, but the Navy built a desalinisation plant.

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Q.� So why pick this place for a prison

A.� It's ideal. On one side is the Caribbean, and a naval guard. On the other are 17 miles of razor-wire fence, minefields, mangrove swamps and machine-gun towers that separate it from communist Cuba. But there's something subtler than just isolation.

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Q.� What

A.� The prisoners will have no access to lawyers, who might be able to get them bail.

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Q.� Cunning. This first batch is the bad guys, then

A.� So the Americans allege. They are sending the most dangerous lot first.

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Q.� In planes

A.� Yes - and in chains. 'There are among these prisoners people who are perfectly willing to kill themselves and kill other people,' Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claims. Those overseeing the transfer have been told to use 'appropriate restraint'.

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Q.� And what will that mean

A.� They will be chained to their seats, unable to move under any condition, outnumbered two-to-one by guards armed with stun guns. Some will be hooded, others sedated with valium for the 8,000-mile flight. If they get hungry, they will be fed on a peanut butter sandwich.

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Q.� Ugh! Inhumane! What about, ahem, bathroom facilities

A.� The prisoners are all being with 'urinal spittoons' - whatever they might be.

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Q.� And when they land at Guantanamo

A.� The first batch already has landed. They are issued with bright orange jumpsuits, and the prisoners - their beards shaved - are isolated in individual cells, measuring 6ft by 8ft, with concrete floors, walls of chain-link fence and open to the elements; they sleep on mats under halogen floodlights. The prison is called Camp X-Ray - because it contains only the bare bones.

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Brigadier-General Michael Lehnert, commander of the task force that built the prison, said: 'We have no intention of making it comfortable for them, but we'll make it humane.'

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Q.� What next

A.� Military tribunals. And the Americans will probably demand the death sentence.

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by Steve Cunningham