Posted on 11/19/2004 10:30:49 AM PST by Mo1
this is so deceptived by the headlines you think the guy was English when he is Islamic Jamal al-Harith's....so how can you tell if he is being truthful or a card carrying militant!
***
Briton freed from Guantanamo prison tells European rights body of U.S. abuse
10:56 PM EST Dec 18
PARIS (AP) - A Briton released from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told Europe's top human rights body Friday he was beaten, shackled, kept in a cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of "systematic abuse" in custody.
Jamal al-Harith's testimony before a Council of Europe panel came as part of an inquiry by the body into human rights abuses at the U.S. prison camp to be made public in a report due out early next year.
Reading from a 10-page statement, al-Harith described his two-year detention at Guantanamo Bay as a period of continual mistreatment that ranged from humiliation and 15-hour interrogations to physical abuse he said left scars.
At one point, al-Harith said he refused to take an unidentified injection and was chained up and attacked by five men wearing helmets, body armour and shields.
"They jumped on my legs and back and they kicked and punched me," said the 37-year-old website designer and father of three from Manchester, England.
"Then I was put in isolation for a month."
Al-Harith said he was kept mostly in a wire cage and given food marked "10 to 12 years beyond their usable date," as well as "black and rotten" fruit. Sometimes, unmuzzled dogs were brought to the cage and encouraged to bark, he said.
Detained in Afghanistan in October 2001, al-Harith maintains he had travelled to the region to attend a religious retreat in Pakistan.
He and three other Britons were released in March and have filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court seeking $10 million each in damages. Never charged, they maintain they were innocents caught up in the U.S. war on terrorism. They were denied access to lawyers, as are most prisoners in Guantanamo.
When al-Harith and the others filed their lawsuits in October, the Pentagon denied the abuse allegations and said the men were properly held in Guantanamo after being captured in Afghanistan and having fought for al-Qaida.
"The U.S. policy is to treat all detainees and to conduct interrogations, wherever they may occur, is in a manner consistent with all U.S. legal obligations," Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said at the time.
Robert Lizar, al-Harith's lawyer, urged the panel to use strong language in its report and to condemn U.S. behaviour at Guantanamo that he called "totally shocking and unacceptable from international norms."
"The actions are closer to those of kidnappers and bandits, than to those of a state with a strong tradition of liberty and due process," Lizar said.
Al-Harith said during long interrogations, he was given no choice but to urinate on the floor and repeatedly threatened or asked to confess to crimes he had not committed in exchange for a payoff.
Interrogators threatened to seize his family's home, unless he admitted to having gone to Pakistan to buy drugs or to become involved with terrorism, al-Harith said.
"On another occasion, the interrogators promised me money, a car, a house, a job if I admitted those things," he said.
"I refused."
During questioning, al-Harith said he was placed in shackles that prevented him from standing upright and cut into his flesh, leaving scars on his wrists and ankles.
Similar abuses are detailed in a memo obtained exclusively by The Associated Press this month that suggests the U.S. Defence Department has done nothing about FBI complaints of "highly aggressive" interrogations reported as early as 2002. The memo quotes a U.S. marine telling an FBI observer some interrogations led to prisoners "curling into a fetal position on the floor and crying in pain."
Kevin McNamara, who presided over Friday's hearing for the council, said the global fight against terrorism should not be used as an excuse to violate basic human rights, the right to a fair trial and the rule of law.
"Hundreds of what must be presumed to be innocent people remain in indeterminate detention in Guantanamo Bay," he said.
"By all accounts, the abuse continues."
McNamara said the council plans to publish its report on the subject in the early months of 2005.
Good night Westy and blessings be upon you!:)
But I know that in the long run .. we will just have to bail their butts out at the cost of even more American lives
Me?????? hehehe
Good to hear you were able to get out and enjoy the day.
I managed to pick up a few more things for Christmas, but I never made it to the mall
It took me about 15 minutes to get in the parking lot ... then another 30 minutes of driving around to try and find a parking space with no luck. Then it took me another 20 minutes to get out of the dang parking lot.
With every fiber of my being .. I HATE MALLS!!!
Merry Christmas Babe .. sounds like you had a wonderful evening
God Bless.
Yeah, but he doesn't care about that.
We just got in from Little Rock a little over an hour ago. The plane was delayed in Dallas, and the screen kept coming up showing the delays longer, but the kids finally made it safe and sound, but starving. We went to Western Sizzlin for supper.
I guess I didn't need to worry about Nermal not remembering Tyler. Can you believe this kid is only 7?
.
OMG! I spent all day in Little Rock. The kids weren't due in till 6:40 tonight (before the delays) so I thought I would do a little shopping. Yeah....very little! I think everybody in the state of Arkansas, or at least all the really bad drivers, were in Little Rock and trying to go shopping. What a nightmare!
I was getting really stressed at one point and as I'm scoping the shopping center out what do I see but a Mexican restaurant across the way. Hmmmmm...so I'm thinking a stress reliever would do nicely right around then so I went over there. After all, I hadn't eaten lunch and it WAS nearly 3 pm. And whaddya know....they knew how to make a blue thingy. So he says to me, "do you want a regular size or a jumbo?" I'm still having an unChristmaslike urge to strangle someone, so I went for the jumbo. I couldn't finish it, but I left feeling a lot better than when I went in. LOL! Oh, and the tacos were the best I ever had!
LOL! I was thinking about that cartoon when I was telling that story.
That you know of.
Did you check the connections?
Sounds great, Cheri. Thanks a bunch!
She's gonna take a chill in that get up!
You're easily amused, aren't you?
Sounds like a wonderful day. I am thrilled to have Dawn and Tyler here and I am looking forward to making more memories with them.
It seems to be getting cold again. It was pretty nice today and the past couple of days, but now the wind is howling and when I walked outside, it felt like the temperature had dropped 15 degrees.
Okay; I'm gonna quit talking to myself now. For once, I'M up late and y'all are all in bed....or doing whatever it is you do.
And that makes a double funkle. Eat your heart out, Sharkey.
Nighty night y'all.
Nermal: "Pet me, you know you want to. You are powerless to resist. You are my human servant. It is pointless to resist."
Your grandson is not just handsome, but beautiful. It must be those long lashes.
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