On whether Guantánamo detention center management has been presented with any particular challenges by the September arrival of so-called high-value detainees from CIA custody:

"Subject to the greater thing that I'm not going to talk about them, in general they have not posed any unusual challenges."

On whether a U.S. military Muslim chaplain should work in the prison camps:

"The issue with a military Muslim chaplain is that there simply aren't that many of them. The value of the Muslim chaplain when the suicides happened was his expertise in the proper burial and proper caring of the bodies, and that stuff. We have a Muslim chaplain that's on call, that makes a rotational visit to Guantánamo. Some detainees want to talk to him. Some detainees don't. He is a military officer, and so he goes down there in uniform. . . . If I could have one, then personally I'd like to have one. There simply aren't that many in the military. Who has the greater need? Right now, it's been decided that I didn't have that greater need."

On managing visits by civilian lawyers who have filed habeas corpus unlawful detention lawsuits on behalf of many detainees, some in their sixth year of detention:

"Managing habeas visits is a lot of work for the JTF. Managing any visit is work, but it's good work. I believe it is part of our transparency piece. It is easier to say no than to say yes. But it's important to say yes to have people come down here to see what we do. And also the habeas bit is important for the detainees, it is important to us that the habeas visits be allowed.

"Habeas visits are important. I have no issue with habeas visits. We've had habeas visits for my whole time here and I'm OK with it. I don't want to make a blanket statement that the habeas visits are what contributes to disruptions. Sometimes some visits do result in a disruption, but that could be a habeas visit, it could be any other visit. . . . Suffice it to say I think that habeas visits serve a useful purpose, and we've had good success with them, I believe.

"The detainees ought to have the opportunity to visit with lawyers, to discuss their cases, and for that reason the visits do serve a useful purpose. They have in the past."