Posted on 01/29/2005 5:47:05 PM PST by quidnunc
Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar finally arrived back in Britain last week after their three-year imprisonment in Guantanamo, to near-universal acclaim and sympathy. Their lawyers insist that they are totally innocent of any involvement in terrorism. The men themselves say that they have been tortured, and that the admissions made by three of them that they had been recruited by al-Qa'eda , and undergone training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan are completely false.
The horrors of what undoubtedly took place in Abu Ghraib, the prison in Iraq, have convinced many people that the Americans must also have administered hideous tortures to everyone they imprisoned at Guantanamo. In fact it is not at all clear that the Americans have tortured anyone in Guantanamo. Some of the "sexual tortures" women interrogators rubbing their breasts against the backs of those being questioned sound, to Western ears, too close to the comfy chair of Monty Python's Spanish Inquistion to be taken seriously. Surprisingly, perhaps, the US army authorities took them very seriously: they dismissed for "inappropriate conduct" a female interrogator who was found to have run her fingers through one detainee's hair and sat on his lap during an interrogation.
The detainees in Guantanamo were certainly humiliated and made to feel extremely uncomfortable. They may have been deprived of light and sleep and forced to stand for long periods. But did it constitute torture? The US Department of Defence insists that none of the Britons even alleged they had been tortured or abused until October last year and that when US officials investigated those claims, they not only found they had no foundation, but that one of the Britons had assaulted one of his interrogators.
The men's claim that they were tortured at Guantanamo should also be set in the context of the al-Qa'eda training manual discovered during a raid in Manchester a couple of years ago. Lesson 18 of that manual, whose authenticity has not been questioned, emphatically states, under the heading "Prison and Detention Centres", that, when arrested, members of al-Qa'eda "must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security investigators. [They must] complain to the court of mistreatment while in prison". That is not, of course, proof that the Britons were not tortured in Guantanamo. But it ought to encourage some doubts about uncritically accepting that they were which seems to be the attitude adopted by most of the media.
-snip-
Horrific!
I say we start using real torture now.
If we're going to take the hit for it regardless, we might as well get the benefit of its use.
It will also let those who are making the claim experience the difference so they aren't so confused about it in the future.
I can't imagine our female interrogators rubbing their breasts on the backs of the detainees without cracking up laughing. And, if they did this, they could claim hazard pay....that sounds worse than combat!
One word for ya'll.
TAQIYYA
http://www.ci-ce-ct.com/Feature%20articles/02-12-2002.asp
It is almost funny, except it makes me think that we are going to lose the war against Jihad.
haha.......I"ve had worse experiences at some frat parties
Exactely.. Everyone NEEDS to know what this arabic word means....
Obviously the author has never seen any of the Saddam videos. After you watch them .. the stupid stuff at the prison was just that .. stupid stuff.
Heard a commercial on local radio last week that said, "worry is emotional torture." Not that we're defining the term down or anything.
Excellent point. About time someone pointed it out.
Here is the link to the Al Qaeda Training Manual.
http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/trainingmanual.htm
EXCERPT from Lesson 18 below:
Lesson Eighteen
PRISONS AND DETENTION CENTERS
IF AN INDICTMENT IS ISSUED AND THE TRIAL, BEGINS, THE BROTHER HAS TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING:
1. At the beginning of the trial, once more the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by State Security [investigators] before the judge.
2. Complain [to the court] of mistreatment while in prison.
6. During the trial, the court has to be notified of any mistreatment of the brothers inside the prison.
7. It is possible to resort to a hunger strike, but it is a tactic that caneither succeed or fail.
8. Take advantage of visits to communicate with brothers outside prison and exchange information that may be helpful to them in their work outside prison [according to what occurred during the investigations]. The importance of mastering the art of hiding messages is self evident here.
-When the brothers are transported from and to the prison [on their way to the court] they
should shout Islamic slogans out loud from inside the prison cars to impress upon the people and their family the need to support Islam.
- Inside the prison, the brother should not accept any work that may belittle or demean him or his brothers, such as the cleaning of the prison bathrooms or hallways.
- The brothers should create an Islamic program for themselves inside the prison, as well as recreational and educational ones, etc.
(s) it was horrible, first it was the beautiful women, then it was the hours and hours of lap dances from beautiful women in skimpy bikinis, then they made us watch football and drink beer all day sundays. (/s)
Too bad iraqies can't be like this...growwwllllllll
Yep...Taqiyya opened my eyes.
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