Human-rights attorneys have come to call it a black hole, a legal conundrum that emerged 20 months ago as the first of the hooded and shackled men from Afghanistan began arriving at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The spartan, hastily built prison camp now has 660 inmates who have been granted no rights under U.S. military or civilian law, international law or the Geneva Conventions.

An espionage investigation and the arrests in recent weeks of two translators and a Muslim chaplain have focused new attention on the largely secret activities at the camp. On Thursday, two dozen investigators began searching for security breaches there.

Meanwhile, a flurry of new legal activity could mean movement toward some resolution of the detainees’ status.

Lawyers have filed a petition with the Supreme Court in an attempt to win legal rights in some court for the detainees. Former diplomats, judges and government officials have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the petition, as has an association of British lawyers. And the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents that might show whether the men are being tortured.

But the rush of activity is lost on the detainees, who have been described as living in boredom, isolation and despair. They almost certainly don’t know that any of this is going on, according to lawyers working on their behalf. In fact, they probably don’t know that they have lawyers, and many still may not even know where they are.

“It may be that all they know is that there was a war in Iraq, and the United States won,” said Joseph Margulies, a Minneapolis lawyer who was hired by the families of four men being held at Guantanamo.

The only outsiders allowed to speak with the detainees are from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which ended its seventh visit to the camp Oct. 10. The organization’s findings generally are confidential, but a spokesman in Geneva said the team had found “a worrying deterioration” in the mental health of some prisoners caused by their being held indefinitely without charges or legal counsel.

Over the months, there have been 32 suicide attempts by 21 inmates, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind, a Pentagon spokeswoman. None has been successful, she said.

Those familiar with the camp, called Camp Delta, describe a life of uncertainty and stupefying boredom, interrupted five times a day by the Muslim call to prayer relayed over the camp’s loudspeakers.

For the most part, the men live in rows of individual, cagelike metal cells measuring 6 feet 8 inches by 8 feet, with the lights kept on 24 hours a day. Each has a built-in bed and a metal toilet seat fastened over a hole in the floor. Each cell has a water trough situated for the washing of feet according to Muslim custom, and an arrow pointing in the direction of Mecca.

The prisoners are given three meals a day prepared in accordance with Muslim dietary laws and are allowed two 15- to 20-minute exercise periods a week, as well as two showers.

The cells have no heating or air conditioning but are open to the air through tightly woven metal screens. Those in the right locations might pick up a gentle ocean breeze; the base is on the southeastern coast of Cuba.

In recent months, some detainees who have cooperated with investigators trying to unravel the world of terrorism have been allowed to live in group settings, where they are able to socialize with each other and are awarded special privileges. There have been reports that some have been rewarded with Twinkies and other sweet treats, which are said to be highly prized.

Just who these men are and what may have caused them to end up in the camp is unknown. The Defense Department has refused to release their names or even say what countries they are from. Most of that information has come out in a circuitous route, relayed piecemeal to governments whose citizens are being held.

Family members then learned from their governments and have been permitted to exchange letters – heavily censored – through the Red Cross. In all, more than 8,000 letters have been exchanged for detainees from 40 countries, according to the Red Cross.

There have been no verified reports of torture or abuse at the camp, but neither is there any way for the public to know that such things are not happening. Last week Richard Bourke, an Australian lawyer working on behalf of some of the detainees, said the practices of the camp violate provisions of the Geneva Conventions that prohibit deliberate infliction of mental or physical torture.

Bourke said he believes there are credible reports of detainees being threatened with bodily harm or harm to their families after they were picked up but before they reached Guantanamo.

“Guantanamo Bay is the last stop on the torture railroad,” he said.

The issue of torture also was raised last week by the American Civil Liberties Union in its request to the Defense Department, the CIA, the Justice Department and the State Department for records related to the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and other American bases around the world. The requests cite recent news reports that detainees have been tortured or subjected to interrogation techniques that are prohibited by U.S. and international law.

There have been confirmed reports of detainees who have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan or were tortured after they were turned over to certain foreign governments.

Tensions at Guantanamo have heightened in the past week as officials ratcheted up pressure to get to the bottom of the recent allegations of espionage. On Wednesday, investigators from the U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami, reported to the island. Later, five foreign-born interpreters arrived on the island to help. They were sent by Titan Corp. of San Diego, the same company that had employed the translators accused of spying.

Investigators are trying to determine how a translator already under investigation got secret clearance and was allowed onto the base, and how a second translator managed to leave with classified information. A Muslim chaplain was charged Friday with disobeying orders by taking classified material home. He came under investigation after allegedly leaving with diagrams of the prison layout.

It is unclear whether the investigation and the espionage allegations will have any effect on the lives of the detainees, the length of their stay or the legal battle going on in Washington.

Lawyers said they believe the Supreme Court will decide in the coming months whether to accept the case brought on behalf of the detainees. Even if the court does, there is no way of knowing when it might rule.

The case was brought on behalf of two British and two Australian citizens of Arab descent and 12 Kuwaitis. The Justice Department has argued successfully in lower courts that the men are not entitled to the rights granted under U.S. laws.

The lawyers point out that the government never has disclosed information about any particular detainee, “including the circumstances of his seizure, what the government believes he may have done to justify his continued detention, or his current welfare.”

The attorneys are pressing a habeas corpus action before the Supreme Court, essentially calling on the authorities to show under what authority or evidence they are holding the men.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District Columbia had rejected the habeas corpus action in March, saying, “no court in the country has jurisdiction to grant habeas relief … to the Guantanamo detainees.”

The Bush administration has remained steadfast in its position that the detainees do not qualify for prisoner-of-war status – and thus the rights accorded to prisoners of war – because they were “unlawful combatants.” Nor are they entitled to due process under American law because they technically are in Cuba, notwithstanding that the base is under U.S. control.

“The United States has created a prison on Guantanamo Bay that operates entirely outside the law,” the lawyers argue in their petition. “Within the walls of this prison, foreign nationals may be held indefinitely, without charges or evidence of wrongdoing, without access to family, friends or legal counsel, and with no opportunity to establish their innocence.”

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