Posted on 04/27/2006 8:44:25 PM PDT by auzerais
War on Terror Alleged al-Qaeda bomb instructor shows mangled hand to court in Guantanamo hearing
By Ben Fox ASSOCIATED PRESS
4:41 p.m. April 26, 2006
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – Holding up a scarred, mangled hand, an alleged al-Qaeda explosives instructor told a U.S. military court Wednesday his transfer to a maximum security unit has made his life in the Guantanamo Bay prison more difficult. [b]Sufyian Barhoumi, who lost four fingers and damaged his thumb in a land mine explosion in Afghanistan, said he struggles to use the sink[i] and toilet[/i] in the prison's Camp Five.[/b] He also said air conditioning and the loss of outdoor recreation time has worsened the pain in his hand.
“It deteriorated a lot,” Barhoumi, speaking through an interpreter, said of his physical condition after being moved on March 30 from Camp Four, a section of the prison where detainees live communally and are allowed more outdoor recreation and other privileges.
To emphasize his point, the detainee removed a gauze wrap[i] from his damaged left hand,[/i] keeping it uncovered for most of the 50 minutes he spent testifying from the witness stand.
“My bones, they hurt every time I use the button (to operate the toilet),” he said. “It causes me a lot of pain.”
Barhoumi, a burly man with a thick beard who was dressed in a striped, short-sleeved shirt, wore headphones to listen to an Arabic translation of the proceedings.
He is the first of the 10 Guantanamo detainees charged with crimes to testify in a pretrial hearing before their military trials begin. He testified at the request of his defense attorney, Army Capt. Wade Faulkner, who asked the court to move him back to Camp Four.
Faulkner said Barhoumi, who is accused of conspiring with other suspected members of al-Qaeda to attack U.S. troops, argued the transfer undermined his ability to defend his client, who viewed the move as punishment. Barhoumi is charged with conspiracy and faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Camp Five prisoners are kept in one-man cells with solid walls and a small slot in the door through which they receive food and can shout to other detainees and guards. They are allowed outside for only two hours a day for recreation.
In Camp Four, small groups of detainees live in dormitory-type rooms surrounding a common area where they can play sports. The section is reserved for the most compliant of the prison's detainees or those who are soon to be released.
Faulkner said Monday that his client threatened to boycott the proceeding to protest his transfer to the maximum security unit.
Barhoumi, 32, told the court he changed his mind just before the hearing began Wednesday, hoping his lawyer could persuade the judge to ease his confinement.
The judge, Navy Capt. Daniel O'Toole, rejected the defense request. He said the military had a “reasonable” objective in preserving order and security at the prison by transferring prisoners facing trial to Camp Five.
A Guantanamo prison official, who must be identified as “Colonel B” under military rules, testified that men facing military tribunals were moved to Camp Five to protect them from attacks by other detainees and to guard against them hurting themselves or trying to escape.
“I have to take care of him and I have to ensure his safety,” the officer told the court. “I take that task seriously.”
The colonel also said they had adjusted the sink in Barhoumi's cell so the water would stay on longer to accommodate his wounded hand.
Barhoumi was arrested with senior al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubayda and other alleged militants on March 28, 2002, in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The Defense Department says that, among other things, he helped prepare explosives for use against U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Some of the other nine Guantanamo detainees charged with crimes are boycotting the proceedings, including Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al-Bahlul, a Yemeni who wants to represent himself or hire an attorney from his native country, and Jabran Said bin al-Qahtani, a Saudi who dismissed the legal process Tuesday and said his fate was in the hands of God.
“Colonel B” testified that nine of those charged are kept in Camp Five. The other is held in another section of the prison for “operational reasons” that the officer declined to disclose.
Find this article at: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/terror/20060426-1641-guantanamo-tribunals.html
What I really [not]want to know is -- just how does this guy wipe his arse without the use of his Left hand? Since Muslims are commanded to use only their left hand to wipe their butt and for nothing else, and use of their right hand for such purpose would be forbidden, I'd say this guy is SOL if he lost the use of either hand. Which understandably makes the muslim penalty for thievery by cutting off the right hand such a severe punishment for any muslim.
The Navy should use these bums as shark chum.
I hit post before preview, so my HTML didn't work as I had hoped. I guess posting on a computer is somewhat different than on my Webtv for HTML. What should I have done differently to highlight [bold] and [italics]?
To create italics: < i>italics< /i>
Without the spaces...
For further info, search for the thread entitled "HTML Sandbox".
Have you read this ?
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
Can't they just fix it up so he can crap on the floor like they do back home?
"“My bones, they hurt every time I use the button (to operate the toilet),” he said. “It causes me a lot of pain.”"
I am deeply saddened...
Not. :)
Thanks, I had forgotten that on Freep, you use <> instead of [] as in some other newgroups.
What!!
And miss one of the finest experiences of club med.....a push button toilet.
I give this pathetic scum a 1 on a scale of 10 of BFD!
I recommend Nancy Pelosi, or Barbara Boxer, or Dianne Feinstein, or, the best one of them all, Hillary.
Oh, geez.
I guess I wasn't supposed to laugh at this.
A bomb instructor who blows up men, women, and children, has mangled himself so much he can't use the toilet, and has the nerve to complain that it is our fault he suffers.
Sometimes life is too funny.
hahaha, his hand hurts every time he has to push the toilet button? As opposed to wiping his hiney with sand? Cry me a river.
To display an HTML tag as text without requiring spaces to bust it up, use < and > for the angle brackets, instead of angle brackets themselves. Those are "ampersand-ell-tee-semicolon" and "ampersand-gee-tee-semicolon" respectively, for "less-than" and "greater-than".
Then you can do this: <I>italics</I>
Hmm...He apparently isn't smart enough to use his right hand on the button...Poor baby...Maybe it would be the merciful thing to send him to meet his 72 helens
Sufyian Barhoumi should be anging from the nearest 'yardarm'.
Then you shouldn't have been blowing up Americans!
DUUUUuuuuuuUUUH!
We can end your pain, just start running across this field here.
Thank you very much for posting how to make text appear in italics. I never knew and appreciate your post.
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