Strawberry Fields

A disturbing C.I.A. nickname for the Guantánamo Bay detention centre.

In a fascinating exploration of the Bush-era interrogation program, published in The Times, David Johnston and Mark Mazzetti described the Central Intelligence Agency’s construction of clandestine jails around the world, noting, in passing, one of Gitmo’s nicknames:

Eventually, the agency’s network would encompass at least eight detention centers, including one in the Middle East, one each in Iraq and Afghanistan and a maximum-security long-term site at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that was dubbed Strawberry Fields, officials said. (It was named after a Beatles song after C.I.A. officials joked that the detainees would be held there, as the lyric put it, “forever.”)

(The writers also reported that a secret jail – or “black site” – in Thailand was code-named Cat’s Eye, before the agency decided this term might appear “racially insensitive”.)