Posted on 12/17/2004 8:41:38 PM PST by TexasGreg
Briton freed from Guantanamo prison tells European rights body of U.S. abuse 11:27 PM EST Dec 17
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.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
"Hundreds of what must be presumed to be innocent people remain in indeterminate detention in Guantanamo Bay," he said.
Nonsense ... they are illegal combatants. They should have been shot on sight, not captured. In any event, thy don't qualify for Geneva Convention protections. They were NOT lawful combatants.
Sounds like a bunch of soccer hooligans to me.
But let's see the bruises anyway.
BTW the Human rights record of old europe is nothing to stand in awe of about.
Yea, he was quietly studying the Koran when the AK-47 fell into his hands and to his horror, began firing at the American troops! You know how those eeeevil a-salt weapons are!
"Detained in Afghanistan in October 2001, al-Harith maintains he had travelled to the region to attend a religious retreat in Pakistan."
......................................................
"I'm just passin' through with my AK-47 and my fatwa. I ain't no Taliban fighter. I just want to get to Pakistan by way of an isolated off limits country by people such as myself. Oh, yeah, and I was just shootin' at you because I thought you looked kind of like a Russian soldier, or something like that."
Geesh, those Eurocrapians will believe anything.
How come we don't see the American's side of the story in this one-sided article? Why was he picked up in Afghanistan in the first place?
Ping
10 to 12 YEARS???
Is this guy a stand-up comedian?
This guy is full of it.
If he was shackled in a cramped cell..he wouldn't have an opportunity to 'refuse' medication. This is bullshit.
How come when scumbags no matter how bad they are we have always have to say "alleged crime" or the "accuser" seems to me this article has stepped over the line and has already prejudged this case...
Cool.
He's a liar. Plain and simple. Anybody who believes these muslim losers is a fool.
Maybe?
"Geesh, those Eurocrapians want to believe anything."
:-)
This old food story is totally laughable. Military supply geeks are absolute about getting rid of food that is past the use date. You can walk into any Marine or Air Force warehouse, and everything is managed by a computer system. They know precisely when the expiration date is and they will use or sell the food by that point. I've seen MREs near their expiration date at various commissaries in my life...sold for half price because they were within 30 days of their date.
This Al-Harth character is a joker. I'm betting that he is right back at a Saudi-financed mosque in the UK...getting fed more propaganda from their religious cleric. But I'll also bet that 25 million Europeans absolutely believe his story without any doubt.
This guy is mistaken. He wasn't in Gitmo, he was in our public school system enjoying the subsidized lunch program.
The left is certainly are doing their best to take away any incentive for treating people humanely. It'd be easier to just kill them all and give the bodies to Neptune.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.