By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

              WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is preparing to transfer more
              than 300 prisoners in the Afghan war 8,000 miles to its Naval base in
              Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

              It is tripling its forces there, to more than 2,000, and is reinforcing prison
              facilities at the place Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has called ``the
              least worst'' choice for a prison camp.

              Here, in question and answer form, is a look at Guantanamo.

              Q: Why transfer South Asians to the Caribbean?

              A: Military officials explain that it is one of the most secure bases overseas,
              lowering the prospects for escape -- or for a break-in by sympathizers. It's
              surrounded on three sides by the sea, and the fourth side, guarded by
              Marines, fronts a cactus wall Cuban leader Fidel Castro built in the 1960s to
              stymie Cubans seeking refuge. Beyond the cacti is unfriendly scrubland.

              It's also got plenty of hardware. Recently declassified Pentagon documents
              suggest that the base has stored nuclear weapons -- probably
              submarine-seeking depth charges -- since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

              Q: Wouldn't a high-security prison in the United States be just as safe?

              A: Probably safer, but that would rob the Bush administration of an aim
              should it try some of the prisoners in military tribunals: denying them the
              chance of appeal. In 1950, the Supreme Court ruled unequivocally that
              nonresident enemy aliens have ``no access to our courts in wartime.'' The
              Supreme Court reserves the right to hear an appeal of any verdict handed
              down on U.S. soil, and has reviewed military tribunals in the past.

              Q: Is there enough space to hold them?

              A: Plenty. Guantanamo's 45 square miles on Cuba's southeastern coast
              currently house only 2,700 residents -- three-quarters of them civilians --
              and 1,500 troop reinforcements are on the way to help guard the prisoners.
              In the mid-1990s, it housed tens of thousands of Cuban and Haitian
              refugees.

              Prison facilities for about 100 inmates exist from that time and troops are
              expanding those barracks.

              Q: What are U.S. forces doing on Cuban territory?

              A: U.S. Marines set up base at Guantanamo on June 6, 1898, at the outset
              of the Spanish-American War.

              In 1903, the newly established Cuban Republic acceded to U.S. demands to
              lease Guantanamo -- it had little choice, considering it had won
              independence from Spain largely through U.S. might. The rent was and
              remains 2,000 gold coins a year, now valued at $4,085. In its act
              establishing the lease, Congress cited two goals: protecting Cubans from
              Spain, and providing defense for the United States.

              Throughout the subsequent decades, U.S. forces stationed at the base
              helped prop up regimes threatened by uprisings, and the base served as a
              refuge for leaders in flight more than once. Such actions increased U.S.
              leverage, and in 1934, the lease was renegotiated to allow the land to revert
              to Cuban control only if abandoned or by mutual consent.

              Q: Does Cuba abide by the lease?

              A: It has little choice. Castro says the base is an affront to Cuban sovereignty
              -- he refuses to cash the United States' annually delivered check. In the
              1970s, he used its existence to justify the large Soviet troop presence on his
              island -- but the law and balance of power are on the side of the United
              States. The Cuban foreign ministry acknowledges that Cuba has no
              jurisdiction over the base. There are regular two-hour flights between
              Jacksonville, Fla., and Guantanamo, but no regular travel between
              Guantanamo and Castro's Cuba.

              Q: Using Guantanamo as a prison camp for U.S. captives must infuriate
              Castro, right?

              A: Not really. The Cubans have officially expressed ``no opinion'' about U.S.
              plans, and two U.S. senators who met with him last week said he told them
              he does not plan to raise any objections. Castro does not want to appear
              pro-terrorist. He's also eager to ease U.S. restrictions on trade and
              cooperation with Cuba.

              Q: What purpose does it serve the United States to maintain a base in Cuba?

              A: Plenty, besides being the most convenient position from which to spy on
              one of its last Cold War foes. Guantanamo's natural harbor is a perfect
              refueling-retooling stop for U.S. ships patrolling the Caribbean. Its presence
              deterred Nazi submarines from Caribbean waters during World War II, and
              it was a natural stop for the region's refugees in the 1980s and 1990s. It's
              also been a base for anti-drug smuggling operations since the 1980s.