GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – To enter one of the heavily barricaded camps for detainees here feels like walking into a low-grade war zone. Which is what it is. The extremists held here haven’t given up their ideology, or their fight. The struggle to harm America in whatever way, no matter how minuscule, carries on.

In one camp, detainees were taking apart the push-button faucets in their cells to get at a metal spring that they would stretch out to be used as a weapon. The Asian-style toilets on the floors of the cells used to have footrests, until detainees wrenched them from the floor to use as bludgeoning weapons. The guards are splashed routinely with urine and feces. The detainees have even been known to try to kick their soccer balls out of their recreation area into barbed wire, to cost the infidels the price of one ball.

All the disturbances or suicides have taken place in the camps where security has been loosened. It was in Camp Four, where the best-behaved detainees are allowed to live communally, that a minor riot took place this past spring. A detainee faked a suicide attempt to lure the guards into the living area, where the floor had been smeared with urine, feces and soap. When they slipped, the detainees attacked them with light fixtures and other makeshift weapons. The man in charge here, Adm. Harry Harris, says his conclusion was “There is no such thing as a medium-security terrorist.”

While always mindful that they are dealing with dangerous men, the Americans treat them humanly, even sensitively. Seemingly every surface has a painted arrow pointing toward Mecca. Every detainee gets a Quran, and should it be necessary to search one, it is done by a Muslim translator, not a guard. Detainees are offered 4,200 calories a day. U.S. combat troops get 3,800. The average detainee has gained 18 pounds.

It is often alleged that the facility here is full of innocent men. But they were first screened in Afghanistan, then a Combat Status Review Tribunal examined them upon arrival, and now an Annual Review Board acts like a parole board. Roughly 300 detainees have been released or transferred for detention in another country. Of those, roughly 20 have been confirmed to have returned to fight and probably others too. Nonetheless, roughly another 130 out of 460 are set to be transferred or released.

The rest are considered too dangerous. One detainee has said that 85 percent of the Saudis would return to the fight if released. One hundred twenty-five detainees are still being interrogated. Just last year, an extremist cell of North Africans was broken up in Italy, based partly on information gleaned here. Last fall, FBI sketch artists were able to depict a wanted al-Qaida official from the Konar Province of Afghanistan, thanks to input from three Saudi detainees.

Interrogators rely on the soft sell. Detainees sit in a La-Z-Boy chair during interrogations, and beverages and movies are available to put them at ease. The most effective interrogator is said to be an older woman who adopts a nurturing attitude.

The facility here has been used, of course, to smear the United States. The press still uses photos from Camp X-Ray – the Spartan, temporary facility used for just four months in 2002 to house detainees – in its Gitmo stories, although it has been overgrown with weeds for years and replaced by modern facilities. The detainees are aware of the power of the media, so they time their suicide attempts and disturbances for maximum attention. The principle among the guards is to respond to any provocation with minimal possible force to avoid giving critics any new propaganda.

Dealing with unappeasable murderous fanatics, while at the same time honoring our civilized norms, is never going to be easy. Gitmo is an attempt to find that balance, in the midst of what everyone here – the detainees and their minders – recognizes as an ongoing war.

Rich Lowry is a syndicated columnist. He can be reached via e-mail at: [email protected].