Penny Lane (Guantanamo)


Penny Lane was a secret Central Intelligence Agency facility on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The Facility's common name was taken from a Beatles song, from the same album that gave the common name to Camp Strawberry Fields—the camp where the CIA's most prominent torture victims were to be kept "Forever".
Penny Lane was to be used to "turn" particular captives into double agents, who would be released, to penetrate terrorist organizations, and inform on them, from within. According to Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, of the Associated Press, Intelligence officials who insisted on anonymity asserted that the double agent program had successful graduates—individuals who were believed to be trustworthy enough to be released early, and who would then betray terrorists. However, they acknowledged that at least some of those individuals defected, and stopped reporting back to the CIA.
In anticipation of the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush, which was going to allow access to habeas corpus for individuals held in Guantanamo, Penny Lane, and other CIA black sites, like Camp Strawberry Fields, were shut down.
The conditions of confinement were reported to have been comfortable, with every individual provided with a private suite, with a real bed, private bathroom, kitchenette, and private patio.
Following the release of the United States Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's use of torture, some Press Reports would later assert that Penny Lane remained in operation, after the CIA stopped holding its own captives there, and that it was the site Scott Hickman identified as "Camp No", when three captives died under mysterious circumstances, on June 9/10, 2006.