For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup.

Camp 7, where 15 "high-value detainees" are held, is so secret that its very existence was not publicly known until it was mentioned in December by attorneys for Majid Khan, a former Baltimore resident who allegedly plotted to bomb gas stations in the United States.

"Under the gag order ... we are prohibited from saying anything more about their camp," said lawyer Gitanjali Gutierrez, who met with Khan in October. Most of the lawyers’ notes and memos have been stamped "top secret" by the government.

Buzby, who heads all military detention operations on Guantanamo, said he controls Camp 7, but would not discuss whether the CIA might still be talking with the high-value detainees.

Buzby said the 15 are kept isolated in part to protect other prisoners. "Detainees have told us a lot of things about this group of people, and if there were potential for retribution it would be a very, very dangerous situation," he said.

Army Col. Bruce Vargo is commander of the military’s Joint Detention Group at Guantanamo, Vargo is responsible for the camps holding 260 detainees. But not for Camp 7.

For his part, Vargo said he is preoccupied by the possibility of an al-Qaida attack on Guantanamo.

"Although we are trying to be open, security is paramount," he said. "I mean, if you can fly a plane into the towers, you can attack Guantanamo if that’s what you choose to do. It’s something I think about on a day-to-day basis."

Vargo declined to discuss whether the U.S. has received information that al-Qaida may be planning such an attack. "We have intelligence reports, but I don’t want to release what we know for obvious reasons," he said.