Guantanamo Detainees Grow Gardens

This is surreal. So they're allowed to grow flowers after they're tortured? Be sure to see "The Road to Guantanamo."

A select group of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been allowed to plant gardens for the first time, a military spokesman said.

Prisoners in Camp 4, which holds the “most compliant” detainees, started growing tomatoes several weeks ago in concrete soil-filled planters, Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said.

The military allowed the gardens — and provided plastic gardening tools, watering cans and seeds — at the request of lawyers for detainees, Durand said Friday in an e-mail response to questions about the activity.

Gardening is intended to “provide intellectual stimulation,” to prisoners, he said, comparing it to the military’s detainee library and literacy programs in Arabic and Pashto.

Camp 4 holds about 35 detainees, who are allowed to congregate with each other, spend 12-14 hours a day outside, eat communally and live in barracks-style housing.