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Freed Briton tells of beatings and torture
A Briton released after more than two years at Guantanamo Bay today told of the beatings and psychological torture he faced at the hands of the American military.
| "Oooh! Ouch! Hey! Stop that! O-o-o-o-o-o-ow! My ear! Give it back!" |
Jamal al-Harith, a 37-yearold website designer, claims his captors forced the most devout Muslims to watch prostitutes and described vicious attacks by US soldiers that left him and other inmates black and blue. He said inmates were not given access to clean water, being forced to drink water which was either murky and yellow or "black - the colour of Coca-Cola".
| "And it was sweet-tasting... And if you spilled it and it dried it was sticky... And it had bubbles in it..." |
He also claims they were fed meals that were up to 10 years past their sell-by date.
So thatâs what they do with them
The Muslim convert, who is divorced and has three children, said that brutal camp guards known as the Extreme Reaction Force (ERF), who would shackle prisoners for up to 15 hours, would come into his cell in riot gear and rain blows on him with batons, fists and feet.
"Smedley! Rain some blows on that man!"
"Yessir! Shall I use fists and feet? Or my baton?"
"All of them, Smedley! Use all of them!" |
Prostitutes were brought into the camp and the ERF would pick out the most committed Muslims, some of whom had never seen an unveiled woman before, and force them to sit and watch her touching her naked body.
"Me, me Iâm the most committed"
Mr al-Harith claimed one had even smeared menstrual blood on a young inmate.
What sort of drugs were they giving these nuts
He said: "I knew of this happening about 10 times. It always seemed to be those who were very young or very religiousâ"I would joke with the other British lads âBring them to us - weâll have them.â It made us laugh. But the Americans obviously knew we wouldnât be shocked by seeing western women, so they didnât bother.
Bummer
| "I mean, I tried to fake it, tryin' to look real young or real holy, but they wouldn't buy it. All I had for company was my hand. Sometimes Mahmoud, in the next cage, would back up real close to the wire, but it was... never... close... enough!" |
"It was a profoundly disturbing experience for these men. They would refuse to speak about what had happened.
"Wha' hoppened, Mahmoud?"
"I don' wanna talk about it." |
"It would take perhaps four weeks for them to tell a friend â and we would shout it around the whole block."
Is that when they used to send in the Extreme Reaction Force (ERF)?
He added: "The whole point of Guantanamo was to get to you psychologically. The beatingsâwere not nearly as bad as the psychological torture â bruises heal after a week, but the other stuff stays with you."
| "But I'm tough. Wanna see my muscle?" |
Mr al-Harith, who comes from the Moss Side district of Manchester,
Anyone from the Moss Side would never worry about a biffin
told the Daily Mirror he accidentally strayed into Afghanistan after going to Pakistan to study Islam.
| "I'm very devout, but really lousy with directions..." |
He had asked a truck driver to take him to Turkey so he could get home, but when the driver used a route through Afghanistan he was captured by the Taliban who imprisoned him and accused him of being a British spy.
"Yore name?"
"Harith. Al Harith." |
After US forces took the country the Red Cross offered him the chance to go home, but he had no money and stayed in the country trying to contact the British Embassy. Then the Americans arrested him and flew him to Cuba. At Camp Delta his cell was a wire cage, exposed to the elements and to snakes and scorpions common in the area.
Cue violins
Posted by: tipper 2004-03-12 |
