On their knees during an inspection, and chained up in their orange overalls. With small blue masks over their mouths, ear muffs on their ears, and goggles covered up with sticky tape. Opposite the cages, those cages of theirs not even two meters by three meters -- which seen together look like a chicken farm run by a sadist -- built from wooden beams and sheets of metal, cement, and barbed wire, exposed to the rain and the wind of the Tropics. Their beards shaven off: for hygiene, say the camp's military commanders; to humiliate them in their religion, reply human rights defenders half the world over. That world which had looked in tears at the photos and the pictures of September 11, the Towers collapsing, and the infamy against civilization, and which is now discovering these other photos, the first ones to come out of Camp X-Ray, the open-air prison which the United States has set up at Guantanamo base, their historic outpost on the island of Cuba. One hundred and forty-four is the number, so far, of prisoners captured in the 100 days of the Afghanistan war, and taken here from Kandahar air base on a 27-hour flight, blindfolded, gagged, tied up, and dosed up with sedatives on the C17 cargo planes belonging to the Stars and Stripes air force. They are Taliban, and perhaps members of al-Qa'ida, but nobody can say so with certainty because their names are not known, and there are no formal charges. 
	
	
 Their number will rise to at least 1,000 over the next three months. The government has 30 million dollars ready to build in Guantanamo ('Gitmo' to generations and generations of Marines) nine top-security prisons just for them: But up until then it will keep them in the cages. "We could keep some of them for an undetermined period, they are dangerous individuals," announced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Without a trial, without an attorney. Because they are prisoners, admittedly, but in the view of the Americans they do not have the status of prisoners of war, and the Geneva Convention is not valid for them: "They are unlawful combatants, and we are not running a recreational center. I do not have the slightest concern over their treatment. In any case, they are better off than they were when we caught them," added the Minister. But the photos of 'Gitmo' are now in danger of removing the United States from the niche of affection and solidarity which September 11 had guaranteed it in the hearts of many people. 
	
	
 It is hard not to see a desire for revenge in cages which recall 'Hotel Hanoi', set up by the North Vietnamese, or the punishment cells in Japanese camps in the 'Bridge on the River Kawi.' Even its most loyal ally, Great Britian, is showing signs of disquiet in the statements made by its members of parliament, and in the reports carried by its media. The BBC has been posing questions about those photos which "are stirring up protests," and many people believe them to be "a scandal": photos taken in part at the landing of the C17s after the trip from Afghanistan, which already showed the prisoners reduced to objects, with gags, masked goggles, and ear muffs. "Those people were ready to gnaw through the cables of the C17 to make it crash," said Richard Myers, the Chief of Staff. "They are pictures which do not represent everyday life at the camp. They wore the muffs and the goggles during the trip. And the masks are to prevent tuberculosis from spreading," assured the commander of X-Ray, Brigadier General Mike Lehnert. But the head of the medical staff of Amnesty International, Jim West, has claimed that "there is no other explanation for these measures than the attempt to degrade the human condition." "I am shocked -- he said -- because they still wear the ear muffs and the goggles inside the camp. As for the hospital masks, it is highly unlikely that tuberculosis can spread in open places." Other human rights groups have talked in terms of "sensory segregation,'" "In that condition, you suffer from hallucinations," stated Helen Bamber, from the Medical Foundation for Protecting Victims of Torture, on television. Four envoys from the Red Cross arrived Saturday, and will talk with the prisoners. But 'torture' is a word which is now filtering through in insidious fashion. 
	
	
 The Americans are issuing denials, saying "There is no inhumane treatment, and we are open, as far as possible, to the suggestions of the Red Cross." As for the rest, they are raising the objection of reason of State, and an emergency which is definitely not over: Since September 11, 1,500 suspected terrorists have been captured in 50 countries, but the intelligence services claim that at least 10,000 affiliates of al-Qa'ida are still scattered across the world, "their network all around us." The inmates at 'Gitmo' must confess, and serve as a warning to their comrades who are still free: This is the unpleasant truth. The status of prisoners of war (which, by law, ought not to be decided on by Rumsfeld, but by a tribunal) would protect them from interrogation, and would guarantee that they get a trial, by court martial, that was much fairer than that of the secret special tribunals which Bush is trying to set up. "Our system will in any event be much fairer than that of the!
 Taliban, and of Usama," the President said. "But if the yardstick of our juridical civilization is the Taliban, we are ruined," noted one or two commentators. 
	
	
 In the camp, life is regulated by prayers (five times a day, the only freedom allowed) and by searches. Three meals (cereal bars, rice, beans, fruit), showers, and medical checks with handcuffs on. A small foam mattress to try and sleep, with the light of the halogen lights on their faces. 
	
	
 Around the fenced off area, two acres in size, stand seven towers with sub-machine guns and grenade launchers. And then there are helicopters, patrolling the skies without interruption. 
	
	
 Outside the camp, there lies the absurd small piece of the United States which is Guanatanamo on Cuban soil: a McDonald's outlet, the school with its yellow bus for the children of families living on the base, the store windows with the latest roller-blades at 50 dollars, and the cinema, currently showing 'Domestic Disturbance.' And, around this small piece of the United States, the Cuba of old man Castro, who up until now has not batted an eyelid, and has renounced using the scandal of X-Ray and attacking the 'hated Yankees' with his propaganda, relying on the possible end of the embargo against his regime. 
	
	
 The 'Gitmo' camp is many things. It is a clash of civilizations, and it is perhaps about to become the first global prison in the new world: Yesterday Stockholm announced that in a cage of Guantanamo there is a Swedish citizen, while the next ones due to arrive are six Algerians, who have nothing to do with the war in Afghanistan, and who were arrested in Bosnia on a tip-off from the US secret services, because they are suspected of preparing an attack against the US embassy in Sarajevo (one of them is said to have phoned a member of al-Qa'ida). A Bosnian judge had ordered them to be released, on grounds of lack of evidence, but the US troops had them handed over, and will soon bring them here. The matter raises major questions of international law. Morton Haplerin, from the Council for Foreign Relations, said: "It is clear that the United States sees Guantanamo as a place where it can gather persons caught in all parts of the world. But it is not clear what they are thinking of doing with these people." Kenneth Roth, of Human Rights Watch, claims that this policy could offer a pretext to less democratic countries among those countries which are allies of the Americans, "to suppress any domestic dissent." If a tip-off truly is enough to end up in a cage on the other side of the Ocean, the new history of 'Gitmo' has only just begun.