Factbox: Guantanamo prison camp enters second decade

Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the opening of the US military detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in eastern Cuba. Here are some facts about the operation:

* The United States set up the camp after US -led forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the al Qaeda network that launched the hijacked plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon outside Washington and in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

* The first 20 prisoners arrived on January 11, 2002. They and other early arrivals were held at "Camp X-Ray," in chain-link wire cages that have long since been replaced by modern prison buildings. The camp has held 779 foreign captives, 171 of whom remain. They are from 23 nations and range in age from 25 to 62.

* The camp was set up to hold and interrogate detainees suspected of links to al Qaeda, the Taliban and other groups classified by the United States as terrorist organizations. Many were captured outside Afghanistan as part of the "global war on terror."

* Many detainees have said they were tortured at Guantanamo. The US government has acknowledged that interrogators used now-banned techniques that included sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and loud music, and chain prisons in painful "stress positions." The CIA admitted using the simulated drowning technique known as "waterboarding" on three of the captives who were held at secret prisons and then transferred to Guantanamo.

* Eight prisoners have died at Guantanamo. Six deaths were classified as suicides and two as natural causes, namely colon cancer and heart attack.

* President George W. Bush authorized military tribunals to try captives on war crimes charges about two months before the Guantanamo camp opened. President Barack Obama criticized the tribunals but has continued them under revised rules. Only six trials have been completed in 10 years, including four that ended with guilty pleas and one in which no defense was presented. Pretrial hearings are ongoing for a Saudi prisoner accused of orchestrating a boat-bomb attack that killed 17 US sailors aboard the American warship USS Cole in 2000. Charges are expected to be re-filed soon against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks.

* Obama ordered the camp closed by January 2010 but missed the deadline. Nearly half the remaining prisoners are Yemenis, and he suspended transfers to that nation due to reports that an al Qaeda affiliate there was behind a failed attempt to blow up a US airplane on Christmas Day 2009. Congress blocked funding for his plan to move some detainees to the United States and tightly restricted all transfers out of Guantanamo. Before any transfer could occur, the administration must notify congressional intelligence committees and guarantee that the prisoner will not engage in terrorism. Recent legislation, which Obama criticized but signed, codified into law the policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial for terrorism suspects.