US/CUBA: The US base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where prisoners from Afghanistan will be housed in expensive new high-security facilities, is a running sore in relations with Havana. Patrick Smyth, Washington Correspondent reports.
The bay was seized by the US during the Spanish-American war. In 1903 it was leased by Cuba in perpetuity for 2,000 golden crowns a year ($4,000) - a lease that can only be revoked by mutual consent.
Throughout subsequent decades, US forces stationed at the base helped prop up regimes threatened by uprisings, and the base served as a refuge for leaders in flight more than once.
Since the Cuban revolution of 1959 Havana has been extremely hostile to the heavily-fortified US presence. The Cuban government now refuses to cash the rental cheque. But the US regards it as a valuable strategic presence, which serves as an important listening post in Cuba and is part of US anti-drug interdiction efforts in the Caribbean.
Guantanamo's natural harbour is a perfect refuelling-retooling stop for US ships patrolling the Caribbean. Its presence deterred Nazi submarines from Caribbean waters during the second World War.
The presence was used during the Cold War by the government as a pretext for the stationing of Soviet troops on the island and the heightened tensions culminated in the Cuban missile crisis.
The decision to use Guantanamo as a prison had been expected to produce protests from President Fidel Castro but, keen to distance himself from the perpetrators of September 11th, he has quietly told a couple of visiting congressmen that he has no objections.
The base, a 117-sq km enclave surrounded by sea and a massive 27-km barbed wire fence, has some 2,700 Americans living on it, including service personnel, family members and contractors. Beyond the fence is a cactus wall built by Dr Castro in the 1960s to dissuade Cuban defections.
Some 1,500 extra troops and construction specialist are being sent to the base to prepare facilities for an expected 2,000 prisoners from Afghanistan.
The US government has committed $30 million in spending for the work to create a facility which will be designated as top security and may well be used for years to come. "This is not going to be a short-term operation," said Lieut Col Bill Costello, an army spokesman.
Court facilities may also have to be built at the base, although trials may be held at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station in South Carolina, which has facilities for up to 280 military prisoners. But lawyers say the holding of trials of non-citizens outside US territory may be important to prosecutors in limiting their right of access to the US courts to challenge procedural points.