A prisoner's day at Guantanamo

It's probably not the endorsement Kellogg's was looking for.

But by far, the most popular item on the detention camp menu for suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters is the cereal Froot Loops.

"It is apparently their favorite snack," says Army Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green. "They immediately were asking folks for the Froot Loops - and, when offered a choice of cereal, they'll take Froot Loops."

It would appear that the role once played by cigarettes and chocolate in wartime detention camps in past conflicts has now been eclipsed by puffed corn and sugar in a virtual rainbow of fruity colors.

Two months after Camp X-Ray opened its chain-link and razor-wire gates to suspected terrorists and their supporters captured in Afghanistan, the prisoners are settling into a routine that is Spartan and grueling enough to make a single-serving box of cereal the high point of the day.

A typical day for an Al Qaeda suspect begins just before dawn with the call to prayer. Breakfast at 6:30 a.m. is served to each prisoner in his cell on paper plates passed through a slot in the cell door. The menu: oatmeal, an orange, fresh bread, and a bottle of water.

The center of every detainee's universe is an eight-foot-by-eight-foot slab of concrete enclosed by walls and ceiling of chain-link fencing. Among the variety of activities prisoners engage in in their cells: standing, sitting, squatting, lying down, pacing, reading the Koran, talking to their neighbors, and sleeping.

"They spend the vast majority of their day inside those units," says Marine Maj. Stephen Cox. "Their activity is not that much different than inmates in a maximum-security prison."

From 7:30 to noon, the prisoners may be involved in any one of four different activities outside their cells: showering, sick call, recreation, or interrogation.

Each detainee is required to bathe at least once every two days. This is more challenging than it sounds, since prisoners must first master the art of scrubbing and shampooing with both hands still shackled together.

Whenever a prisoner leaves his cell, his wrists and ankles must be shackled. The wrist cuffs are attached to a belt at the waist to prevent any swinging of both arms together (although this waist restraint is removed at shower time). Any prisoner outside his cell is escorted by at least two guards.

While in the recreation area near the center of the camp, prisoners have 15 minutes outside their cells during which their leg shackles are removed. There are no recreation facilities or sports equipment. No soccer balls, Ping-Pong tables, lawn darts, croquet mallets. Instead, prisoners have the option of either standing still, walking, or jogging, all with their wrists still shackled. Prisoners are scheduled for two 15-minute recreation experiences per week.

Also during this same period, detainees may be called into one of five air-conditioned interrogation huts on the south side of Camp X-Ray. One of the primary purposes of the camp is to extract information that might help prevent future terrorist attacks and identify Al Qaeda operatives both in the camp and elsewhere.

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