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<DIV>Marine Hijinks in Cuba. From Salon's War Room section:</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=3>Freed Gitmo prisoners speaking out
--<BR></FONT><BR></FONT>The Center for Constitutional Rights sent a report to
senators today containing graphic, disturbing details of Abu Ghraib-like
treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay -- including sexual humiliation of
prisoners that began, the report says, when General Geoffrey Miller first came
to Gitmo. Miller, you'll recall from the Abu Ghraib scandal, was sent to Iraq
from Cuba to implement his special brand of interrogation techniques in U.S.
prisons there. But we're still being asked to believe that this kind of
treatment -- such as forcing prisoners to sodomize one another while being
videotaped -- was meted out by a few "bad apples." And as for the quality of
"intelligence" gleaned from the Gitmo prisoners? The report sheds light on the
tactics used to coerce false information from prisoners desperate to please
their captors by saying whatever they want to hear -- including one man who
admits to being in a videotape with Osama bin Laden when he was in fact, in
Birmingham, England, at the time.
<P></P>
<P>The report tells the story of Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed,
three Britons released from Gitmo in March, who were never charged with any
crime, but were, according to their account, subject to sexual and religious
humiliation and physical abuse. CCR is asking for an independent commission to
investigate allegations of abuse at Gitmo. Here's CCR's description of the
report (CCR has a .pdf file of the entire report <A
href="http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=4bUT8M23lk&Content=424"
target=new lid="on its site"><FONT color=#cc0000>on its site</FONT></A>): </P>
<P>"The men completed this report solely to let the world know the truth about
what is happening to the prisoners at Guantanamo and in the hope that their
testimony might help improve conditions for those still there. The document was
compiled by the Tipton men and their attorney, noted British civil rights lawyer
Gareth Peirce. </P>
<P>The report details the several weeks that Rasul and Iqbal were held in open
cages at Camp X-Ray, allowed out for only a few minutes each week for one
shower, and otherwise left to swelter in the Cuban heat. Scorpions and snakes
were allowed to roam the cells, and many prisoners were bitten. According the
report, the US marines who ran the camp were “very brutal,” and the abusive
treatment was focused in a carefully planned and sophisticated manner to have
maximum impact on the individual prisoner: </P>
<P>-- The report discusses the sexual humiliation of the prisoners that first
began when General Geoffrey Miller, later of Abu Ghraib notoriety, came to
Guantanamo. For example, the prisoners would be stripped naked and forced to
watch videotapes of other prisoners who, in turn, had been ordered to sodomize
each other. The sexual humiliation was reserved for those who would be most
impacted by it, those who had been brought up strictly in their Muslim faith.
</P>
<P>-- The religious humiliation was similarly focused. The guards
would throw the prisoners’ Korans into the toilet. They would forcibly shave the
prisoners. There was a clear policy to try to force people to abandon their
religious faith. </P>
<P>-- The prisoners would be forcibly injected with unidentified drugs as
part of the interrogation process. They were told they could only get
medical care if they cooperated. </P>
<P>-- Some among the British detainees – Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi – have
been held in total isolation for well over a year. </P>
<P>It is hardly surprising that as a result of these abusive and torturous
tactics, prisoners routinely confessed to things they had not (and could not
have) done. After endless pressure, Asif Iqbal agreed that he was the
person interrogators pointed to on a videotape with Osama Bin Laden. The
interrogator said, “I’ve put detainees here in isolation for 12 months and
eventually they’ve broken. You might as well admit it now so that you
don’t have to stay in isolation.” After being in the isolation cells for
about six weeks, Asif finally said, “Okay, it’s me.” It was his pure good
fortune that this was disproved by British Intelligence – in truth, along with
the other Tipton men, he was living and working around Birmingham at the time
the videotape was made." </P>
<P align=right><FONT color=#666666>-- Geraldine Sealey
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