July 31, 2006
Gitmo Guards Often Attacked by Detainees
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 3:25 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON -- The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons, Pentagon reports say.
Incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press indicate Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by ''cocktails'' of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners.
They've been repeatedly grabbed, punched or assaulted by prisoners who reach through the small ''bean holes'' used to deliver food and blankets through cell doors, the reports say. Serious assaults requiring medical attention, however, are rare, the reports indicate. ...
Guards currently stationed at Guantanamo describe a tense atmosphere in which prisoners often orchestrate violence in hopes of unnerving their captors, especially with attacks using bodily fluids.
''I mean, seeing a human being act that way, it's terrifying. ... You are constantly watching before you take your next step to see if something is about to happen,'' Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Mack D. Keen told AP in an interview from Guantanamo. ...
Though all detainees are foreigners, many are clearly Americanized when it comes to their insults and gestures. Male guards are frequently derided as ''donkeys'' while female guards are routinely called ''bitches'' or harassed by references to their breasts or genitalia, the reports said. ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Guantanamo-Prisoner-Attacks.html>
Carl