Posted on 03/04/2006 4:33:52 PM PST by saquin
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Abdul Hakim Bukhary was once ready to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But the former holy warrior has told his American captors he now loves democracy — and that hardline Taliban fighters prompted his conversion.
Bukhary traveled from his native Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan in 2001 after the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan using a strict interpretation of the Quran, called for a jihad against American soldiers. The U.S. troops were set to invade in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Bukhary told his tribunal at Guantanamo Bay that he had been in Afghanistan earlier — in the 1980s to fight Soviet troops. His tale appeared in transcripts of hearings at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in eastern Cuba, where Bukhary was detained along with hundreds of other prisoners.
Bukhary said that as he waited in a guest house in Afghanistan for the U.S. invasion to begin, he told his Taliban hosts that he admired Ahmed Shah Massood, a veteran of the war against the Soviet occupation and a rebel commander revered by many Afghans.
But Massood was an enemy of the Taliban who was killed days before the Sept. 11 attacks by a Taliban assassination squad posing as journalists. The Taliban disapproved of Bukhary's idle comment.
"For saying that, they punished me. They bothered me. They beat me. They hit me very badly," Bukhary said at his hearing, according to the transcripts, released to The Associated Press late Friday.
The Taliban accused Bukhary of being a spy and threw him into prison in Kandahar, along with 1,600 other prisoners.
"There was no food in prison," Bukhary said. "In the prison we would receive one piece of bread in 24 hours. ... if anyone talked too loud, they would kill him."
"It was a terrible time," he recalled. "Horrible."
Bukhary told the U.S. military tribunal that he was transferred from jail to jail before falling into custody of U.S. ground forces.
He said Guantanamo was better than the prison in Kandahar. He could eat. He could talk.
"Prisoners here are in paradise," he exclaimed. "American people are very good. Really. They give us three meals. Fruit juice and everything!"
Bukhary told the tribunal that, unlike the Taliban, the U.S. guards did not care if he talked.
"I like to talk because I found that nobody bothers me. Nobody beats me. Nobody hits me," he said, adding: "About democracy. It is really good."
The transcripts did not indicate whether Bukhary's testimony swayed the tribunal. It was unknown if he remained in custody.
This fellow sounds like a good candidate for Yale law school.
Stockholm syndrome ... he obviously doesn't realize he is being tortutured by the Americans.
Looks like the demonic muslim spirits have left this guy, as he has some sense. What would happen if every Christian would perform in unison a mass exorcism ritual for all Muslims?
Hey dick durbin,kiss Guantanamo a$$.
But the former holy warrior has told his American captors he now loves democracy
Based on what? ... a few years at Gitmo? and ...
..three meals. Fruit juice and everything!
If he's prone to violence and religious fanaticism and this dumb at the same time he's suicide bomber material.
No problem dude, we'll let you go home to Afghanistan tomorrow. Now you have to promise that you won't associate with any terrorists and go back to your old ways, oK????
You know, maybe he's sincere. RFID.
LOL! Yeah, the spin cycle must have been broken...
Maybe he has changed, people do. I'd eatch him though, remember muslims are perfectly expected to lie to infidels for jihad.
Something stinks here! Karl Rove must have cut a deal with this turn coat!
How could anyone who has had their Koran flushed doon the toilet be so light and fluffy about his fight for freedom from the Great Satan???
( Sarc.)
Of course, to drink it he had to strain it through the panties over his head...
/sarc
< /SARC >
(big, bold, and underlined because, y'know, there's always someone who won't see it)
bump
Eveery prisoner finds Jesus as soon as the gates click shut behind him.
He's a Lutheran, now?
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