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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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 Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:46 pm Post subject: NEW GITMO MEDICAL REPORT: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING |
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Once again a group of activist doctors have signed a petition calling for the closure of the Guantanamo facility for terror suspects. Of course, it includes the usual litany of complaints but has the audacity and the obvious lack of proportionality to compare the going-ons there to a South African prison during apartheid:
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Guantanamo detainees tell of abuses
By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer
Detainees flinging body waste at guards. Guards interrupting detainees at prayer. Interrogators withholding medicine. Hostility and tension between inmates and their keepers at the Guantanamo Bay prison are evident in transcripts obtained by The Associated Press.
These rare detainee accounts of life inside the razor wire at the remote U.S. military base in Cuba emerged during Administrative Review Board hearings aimed at deciding whether prisoners suspected of links with the Taliban or al-Qaida should continue to be held or be sent away from Guantanamo.
The Pentagon gave the AP transcripts of hearings held last year in a trailer at Guantanamo after the news agency sought the material under the Freedom of Information Act.
Amid the tensions, the transcripts also show a few relaxed encounters between detainees and their guards and interrogators.
The military has said Guantanamo is relatively calm compared to last year. But a report released by the detention center last month shows mass disturbances are up sharply over 2006 and forced removal of prisoners from cells and assaults with bodily fluids are on pace to match or exceed last year's total.
The transcripts, obtained by the AP on Friday, illustrate the friction.
A Yemeni detainee, Mohammed Ali Em al-Zarnuki, warned his panel of three U.S. military officers that inmates would attempt suicide unless guards stop interrupting prayers, moving detainees during prayer time and whistling and creating other distractions.
Four detainees have committed suicide at Guantanamo � three last year and one on May 30. Several other detainees have tried to kill themselves, including by overdosing on hoarded medicine.
"I want you to be aware of it because I don't want you to face a big problem," al-Zarnuki said. "The problem happened before. The detainees took medication before because of this. So if you do not put a stop to this, it is going to be worse than before."
The hearing's presiding officer assured the detainee he would pass the complaint on, but added: "We do not make the camp rules and we have nothing to do with the camp rules."
Commanders at Guantanamo had no comment Tuesday on the allegations. Guards have been trained to be sensitive about religious matters at Guantanamo, where wailing calls to prayer blare from loudspeakers while traffic cones are placed next to cells during prayer time, reminding guards not to interrupt.
In determining whether a detainee should remain at Guantanamo, the Administrative Review Boards consider whether he poses a security threat or has intelligence value. But detainees told the panels that lying to interrogators is common, calling into question the validity of the intelligence interrogators extract.
Some prisoners said their enemies inside the prison have lied to gain favor with interrogators or settle old scores.
One detainee bluntly informed his panel that he lies to interrogators and that others do as well.
"Why do you feel you have the right to lie to the interrogators?" a surprised panel member asked the detainee, Abdennour Sameur, an Algerian who was a resident of Britain.
"I was lying so that I can get my medical (treatment)," Sameur said. "Every interrogation that I have gone to I had to lie, because that was the only way I could get medical attention. ... They were giving me some kind of medical pills, but the interrogators stopped it. Every time they get a new interrogator the interrogator stops it."
Responding to questions from AP, military officers denied that detainees were deprived of medicine.
A Guantanamo spokesman, Army Lt. Col. Edward Bush, said no officials at Guantanamo had ever heard of a detainee being prevented from taking medicine.
Navy Capt. Bruce Menele, commander of the Joint Medical Group at Guantanamo, said that "interrogators have no authority over medical personnel administering medicine, or over any other aspect of detainee medical care."
"I would be highly disturbed and feel obligated to take significant actions if I discovered that this had ever occurred," Menele added.
Asked whether prayers are being interrupted and whether interrogators have withheld medicine, Bush said he was checking with appropriate commands at the base.
A letter signed by physicians and published Friday in the British medical journal Lancet compared the role of doctors at Guantanamo to the South African doctors involved in the case of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who was beaten and tortured to death in 1977 in police custody.
The letter, signed by some 260 people from 16 countries � most of them doctors � accused the U.S. medical establishment of turning a blind eye to the role of military doctors at Guantanamo.
It did not allege doctors were involved in withholding any medicine from detainees, but took serious issue with the involvement of medical personnel in force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo.
The detainees' accounts also described a few lighter moments in the prison, set on an arid bluff overlooking the Caribbean Sea.
"There was a time when the guards opened my cell by mistake and I joked with them by asking 'Can I help you?'" said Abdul Aziz Alsuwedy. "They laughed and apologized. The same guard thanked me later for not causing any problems."
Alsuwedy, whose account was contained in a statement sent to his Administrative Review Board, did not say whether the guards belonged to the Immediate Reaction Force that carries out forced cell extractions and suppresses disturbances.
Another detainee described how interrogators said he resembled Cuba Gooding Jr., and later brought him photos of the star because the detainee had never heard of the actor.
Several detainees said some guards and interrogators treat them with respect, while others do not.
"Who treats me good, I treat them good," said Sameur, the Algerian detainee. "Who treats me like a dog, I give them the same treatment."
Sameur then described what he did to guards he doesn't get along with: "I threw feces and I have spit on them." |
I say let them starve and hang themselves in they want; no more dragging out these theatrics to let them use it for propaganda purposes. One less terrorist or terrorist sympathizer in the world, and one less dollar from the American taxpayer. And get rid of the daily calls to prayer. They don't need to be summoned to worship and the guards don't need to endure listening to that relentless chanting, either. If they throw feces, put them in solitary for a week or at least cut privileges and make them clean latrines. Enough pandering to these scum.
What say you? |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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| stevemcgarrett wrote: |
| What say you...? |
I say, in a war such as this, what are we doing bringing back prisoners from the battlefield in the first place? |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:28 am Post subject: |
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You hope that people who have been found guilty of nothing and are being held without trial should be starved so they can hang themselves.
I'm trying to figure out who exactly the scum is here. Looks like its you. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:41 am Post subject: |
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| If they shot at US soliders charge them with attempted murder. |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:37 am Post subject: |
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| and if US soldiers shoot at someone..if u want to try them for murder, thats cool, at least then u would have a charge. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:15 am Post subject: |
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| JMO wrote: |
| and if US soldiers shoot at someone..if u want to try them for murder, thats cool, at least then u would have a charge. |
No cause Al Qaeda's cause is criminal.
They are not soliders they are criminals.
That is like saying if Klansman started shooting at US soliders during the civil war that it was the same as Union soldiers shooting at Klansman.
At any rate start charging those who took shots at US soliders with attempted murder and try them in military courts. |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:11 pm Post subject: |
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| That analogy would work if they were US citizens and had the right to a trial. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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| JMO wrote: |
| That analogy would work if they were US citizens and had the right to a trial. |
miltary trials.
They took a shot at US troops , was that to kill the US soliders or not to kill them?
Non US citizens can't be charged with murder or attempted murder?
Cause they are non US citizens it makes what they did ok? |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
| They are not soliders they are criminals. |
Then they should be arrested and treated like criminals with all of the legal rights of such.
Then again, that whole concentration camp fantasy give you guys on the right a boner, so it's going to be hard to convince you GitMo needs closing down. |
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duns0014
Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Location: Ilsan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Who says these guys are guilty of anything? A lot of them are there because neighbors wanted to settle scores by claiming they were terrorists. No one checked into it, they just grabbed them. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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| duns0014 wrote: |
| Who says these guys are guilty of anything? A lot of them are there because neighbors wanted to settle scores by claiming they were terrorists. No one checked into it, they just grabbed them. |
Yeah, that is quite true. It seems that Afgan warlords would use the Americans to help consolidate power.
GITMO should be closed. We can't allow ourselves to become like them in any way. |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:44 am Post subject: |
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This question isn't limited to Al-qaeda. Is anyone and everyone who ever fights against America going to be an terrorist or enemy combatant from now on?
No matter how much I despise the Taliban regime I find it absurd that "ANYONE" who fires a shot against American troops is to be considered a terrorist. They were the legitimate goverment at the time. They didn't give in to Bush's demand, they got invaded.
The rank and file of these guys is some uneducated goat herder with an AK-47. Someone shows up in his country shooting, I think he has a right to fight back. In fact, no matter what you think of his cause he had an obligation to fight.
If I were a Canadian soldier and anyone, for any reason, entered my country I would have a duty to fight them, would I not?
Last edited by yawarakaijin on Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:36 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 1:20 am Post subject: |
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| twg wrote: |
| Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote: |
| They are not soliders they are criminals. |
Then they should be arrested and treated like criminals with all of the legal rights of such.
Then again, that whole concentration camp fantasy give you guys on the right a boner, so it's going to be hard to convince you GitMo needs closing down. |
then the US will have to let them know how they got information about them and what the source of the info are.
Can the US handle 70,000 or more terror trials?
Not just a judicial problem but a national security problem,
Anyway if they took a shot at US solider then book them for attempted murder. That is what they were doing wasn't it? |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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| But,but don't you see, they're bad and we are good. So unless they give up their war, we have the right to detain anyone without trial or charge. They lost their rights when they allegedly shot at US soldiers, no proof of which we will actually have to submit. It all makes sense. Oh yea and they should give up their war also. |
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee
Joined: 25 May 2003
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| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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| JMO wrote: |
| But,but don't you see, they're bad and we are good. So unless they give up their war, we have the right to detain anyone without trial or charge. They lost their rights when they allegedly shot at US soldiers, no proof of which we will actually have to submit. It all makes sense. Oh yea and they should give up their war also. |
Al Qaeda isn't a fascist hate group? Say they aren't. What does that make them?
They shot at US soldiers what was that ? That isn't attempted murder?
The ones that did it give 'em a military trail and then send them away for 15 , if they are guilty of anything else book them for that too. |
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