The huts have no windows, the walls are unpainted wood and lack any decoration, and the only furniture is a chair for the prisoner and a desk and a chair for the interrogator to avoid distractions, they said.

Manacled prisoners must remain seated throughout the interviews, which last from 30 minutes to four hours and go on from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but the interrogators can sit or walk about as they choose, they said.

No cameras are visible in the room and detainees can drink water but are not allowed to smoke, Ruiz said. Camp X-Ray rules forbid tobacco for the prisoners.

Malone said some of the prisoners were visibly nervous during their first interviews, afraid of what awaited them behind the interrogation huts' doors. In many of their homelands, that would be brutal torture and summary executions.

One prisoner sedated for surgery at the Navy's Fleet Hospital 20 later told his doctor that he "thought he would never wake up again," said hospital commander Capt. Pat Alford, 45, of Cheyenne, Wyo.

Another told guards in the C-141 cargo jets that fly the prisoners from Afghanistan to this isolated U.S. military base in eastern Cuba that he expected to be pushed to his death in mid-flight.

The prisoners then may be cooperating out of relief that they are safe, or perhaps contrition for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America that killed more than 3,000 people in the name of Islam.

Many have expressed remorse over the terror attacks and criticized the Taliban for sheltering bin Laden, said Navy Lt. Abuhena Saiful-Islam, a Navy Muslim chaplain who talks regularly with the prisoners. None admit to having met bin Laden, he added.

Malone said a surprisingly high number of prisoners speak some English - camp guards said some claimed to have studied in U.S. universities - but that not all the interrogators speak the inmates' various languages.

TRANSLATION TEAM

A mixed team of military and civilian translators is on call to help at the prison camp, the interrogation huts and the Navy hospital where eight of the prisoners are undergoing treatment, camp officials said.

"The interrogation is a real smooth process," said Malone. "We treat them [the prisoners] in a firm, fair and humane way and they don't give us any hassles at all."

Malone said interrogators and guards underwent briefings before the start of the interviews on procedures and ground rules - especially the one that bans interrogators from making physical contact with prisoners.

It has never happened, he said. But if it ever did, his unit is under orders to immediately take the prisoner back to his cell.

"Our job," he said, "is both to guard and protect the prisoner."