Ex-Gitmo prisoner: US tortured me with needles, IV tubes
Published: June 8, 2009
Updated 5 months ago
A former prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay says he was never interrogated about the reason the US said they’d arrested him for — even after seven years in captivity.
He also provided a graphic account of new elements of what may be considered “ad-lib” torture — guards inappropriately using hypodermic needles and IV tubes intended for forced feeding during hunger strikes.
He further said he was kept awake for 16 days straight — which was often done by splashing detainees eyes with cold water when they nodded off in their cell under bright lights. The account was published by ABC News.
The former detainee, Lakhdar Boumediene, is now in France with his family. He was never charged. Was it torture? an ABC News reporter asked.
“I don’t think. I’m sure,” he replied.
“Boumediene described being pulled up from under his arms while sitting in a chair with his legs shackled, stretching him,” an ABC News interview account Monday reported. “He said that he was forced to run with the camp’s guards and if he could not keep up, he was dragged, bloody and bruised.
“He described what he called the ‘games’ the guards would play after he began a hunger strike, putting his food IV up his nose and poking the hypodermic needle in the wrong part of his arm.
“You think that’s not torture?” he quipped. “What’s this? What can you call this? Torture or what?” he said, indicating the scars he bears from tight shackles. ‘I’m an animal? I’m not a human?’”
Boumediene was first captured and accused of being part of a plot to bomb the US embassy in Sarajevo. But charges against him were dropped by the Bosnian government. Subsequently, however, they turned him over to the US military.
The charges were dropped, and the Bosnian courts ordered him and five others freed. But under pressure from the Bush administration, the Bosnian government handed him over to the U.S. military. He was shackled and transported by military plane to Cuba.
Two weeks later, in his State of the Union address, President Bush touted the arrests in Bosnia to show early progress in the war on terror.
“Our soldiers, working with the Bosnian government, seized terrorists who were plotting to bomb our embassy,” Bush said in his address. To this day, officials of the Bush administration have provided no credible evidence to back up that accusation.
Boumediene said the interrogations began within one week of his arrival at the facility in Cuba. But he thought that his cooperation, and trust in the United States, would serve him well and quicken his release.
“I thought America, the big country, they have CIA, FBI. Maybe one week, two weeks, they know I am innocent. I can go back to my home, to my home,” he said.
But instead, Boumediene said he endured harsh treatment for more than seven years.
The full interview can be read here.
This video is from ABC’s Good Morning America, broadcast June 8, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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Indict.
Prosecute.
Convict.
Punish.
Another story:
Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo by Murat Kurnaz and Patti Smith
According to ABC News: As for Boumediene’s allegations of abuse, the Pentagon said, “Any abuse of detainees is unacceptable. It is against our values, endangers our security and is not tolerated. All credible allegations of abuse are thoroughly investigated and, when substantiated, individuals are held accountable for their actions.”
When will this start? I’m waiting.
Why aren’t the wingnuts here shreiking ‘kill him!’?
Wingnuts? What say you now?
Because the wing nuts, to their delight, get to sit back and watch Obama wage this endless war now. The wars didn’t end and any changes made to U.S. policy to inhibit torture have no effect whatsoever on whether the U.S. murders a bunch of civilians today.
What I want to know is why aren’t the supposed anti-torture and anti-war types sit silently. Why do people cry about this guy spending 5 years behind bars for no good reason and then sit silent about, for instance, the 53 Iraqi casualties that were incurred over the past 2 days? Why are these reletively tame issues repeatedly presented to the American people as being ‘the issue’ of the day? Does anyone recall a longer period of warfare the U.S. has engaged in? 1991-2009?
Death and murder and illegal war are far worse than torture and unjust detentions, any day.
Should wrongfully incarcerated and abused / tortured detainees from Gitmo be compensated?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=5461
.
Scary that more in the Democratic Party aren’t screaming for Prosecution?
Makes me think that far more Democrats Support Torture
than I thought. If you are not one of them…
HELP Push our basically Good President To Enforce Our Federal Laws.
SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute the Torturers
in the Republican Extremist Party
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot
“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare”
James Madison
.
And yet, Obama will say nothing about this torture practice. What does Cheney have on him? I wonder what Obama’s daughters will think when their father is put on trial with Bush for war crimes? Cheney will rat them out for no time served. Cheney has something on Obama, and most of the wimps in congress and the senate. This is why Obama will do nothing to Cheney. You don’t do anything to the boss, and Obama now knows who his boss and owner really is.
As americans, we should ALL hang our heads in shame for what happened to this man, and no Mr. Obama, we should not put this part of our past behind us. We must hold those responsible accountable. If we refuse to do so, we are no better than our enemies.