"The conditions were orderly," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, or MPAC, who was on the April 10 delegation comprised of legal scholars, analysts, and journalists. MPAC issued a report on the visit stating that "the U.S. military is trying to make the best out of a very bad situation."

But Al-Marayati told InFocus that delegates were not allowed to speak to the prisoners or see them for the most part, and there was no way to verify or reject claims of torture.

For Chaplain James Yusuf Yee, that’s not surprising. "That’s nothing new," said Yee, a Captain in the U.S. army and a Muslim chaplain for the miltary who served at Guantanamo Bay from November 2002 to September 2003. "People do not get to see the reality of what goes on inside the prison camp. These visits are extremely sanitized versions of what we used to call down there ‘the dog and pony show.’"

According to the MPAC report, "officials vehemently reject any claims of torture or Qur’anic desecration."

The government’s statement stands in contrast to an Amnesty International report released in April that says the vast majority of prisoners in Guantanamo are held in cruel and inhumane conditions that breach international standards. The report also revealed that detainees are confined 22 hours a day to windowless steel cells with no access to human contact.

"During investigations, I was threatened with rape, attacks on my family in Saudi Arabia, my daughter being kidnapped, and my murder," said Jumah Al-Dossari in an account released by Amnesty International. Dossari further described the torture he witnessed on another inmate, "One detainee, called Abdul Aziz Al-Masri, was ill and was asleep in the hospital. These soldiers went and beat him very badly in the hospital in front of the doctors and nurses. His injuries were excessive and caused his spine to break. He is now hemiplegic."

Officials also told Al-Marayati and the delegates that "halal" meals, or meals which meet the Islamic dietary laws, were provided to the detainees three times daily. According to MPAC’s report, officials "repeatedly mention[ed]" that the prisoners’ Islamic faith was respected and that each cell has a Qur’an and an arrow indicating the direction for prayer.

"These are rather cosmetic facts," said an unimpressed Yee, who’s book "For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire" details firsthand accounts with prisoners. "This doesn’t indicate the quality of treatment they are getting. Giving food is one thing, but denying due process is something totally different."

Yee added,"We should look much more closely at specific interrogation tactics that have been approved and carried out, in which religion has been used against these prisoners in trying to break them. Specifically because all of the prisoners are Muslim, Islam has been used against them."

Al-Marayati reported that the delegation saw prisoners from afar "pacing back and forth in claustrophobic cells." A man had a "gaze of despair" on his face while another "plastered his face to a glass window." MPAC recommended in the report that the government bring in criminal psychoanalysts and psychiatric professionals to assess the mental state of the detainees. Al-Marayati also said these were "troubling observations," and the MPAC report said that human rights organizations were concerned that conditions could lead to adverse mental and psychological conditions of detainees.

According to Yee’s personal experience, however, these adverse conditions were reached long back. "This past summer we already saw three detainees take their lives. These are acts of desperation. Prisoners have gone on hunger strike to the extent that they have to be force-fed. Anyone can see that this level of direness already exists in Guantanamo."

A CBS news report stated that there were over 350 "self-harm" incidents in just one year at the prison, including 34 suicide attempts.

But perhaps what is most troubling about the government facility is the lack of due process. It has been more than five years since detainees first arrived at Guantanamo, but many have yet to be charged with a crime. Hundreds of men, including minors as young as 13 years old continue to be incarcerated with no access to legal representation. U.S authorities have labeled these detainees as "enemy combatants," a status that gives them no legal rights and allows for their indefinite detention.

The Bush administration has sought to subject detainees to military tribunals, which according to Human Rights Watch, rely heavily on classified evidence and coerced statements.

In June of 2006, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals violated American military law and the Geneva Convention, making it possible for prisoners to challenge their detentions in federal court. Only a few months later, however, Congress passed legislation that revoked that right, thereof suspending habeus corpus for detainees.

For Al-Marayati, this is highly disturbing. "It is an extrajudicial process that is not bound to American law or international law. Those with evidence against them should be charged in a criminal court where they have proper legal representation, and those who are innocent should be released."

Yee agreed. "If we have any legitimate terror suspects anywhere, they should be put into fair and just court of law, not one that would be perceived as a kangaroo court that ensures guilty convictions and does nothing to help the reputation of the U.S. as a country that abides by the rule of law or upholds justice."

Both Al-Marayati’s organization and Yee agreed that government transparency is also essential.

"The American public will become more confident in decision-making at the policy and military levels of our government if more transparency is placed in the process," stated MPAC’s report.

According to Yee, transparency was essential to fix the growing perception in the world that the U.S. continuously tortures and abuses prisoners in custody.

Many human rights groups and even some government officials have called for the closure of Guantanamo, which MPAC supports, but Yee warned that this would be meaningless if the prisoners were moved to other places without a change in conditions. "This could move the problem underground to other black sites, where we have no knowledge to what occurs there," he cautioned. "In my view, Guantanamo Bay Cuba is not going anywhere any time soon."

Al-Marayati told InFocus that MPAC would continue to work with the Pentagon to seek an end to the legal uncertainty faced by detainees and ensure that they all receive adequate legal representation and a fair trial.