Guantanamo Briton 'in handcuff torture'

[cal04]

A British detainee at Guantanamo Bay has told his lawyer he was tortured using the 'strappado', a technique common in Latin American dictatorships in which a prisoner is left suspended from a bar with handcuffs until they cut deeply into his wrists. The reason, the prisoner says, was that he was caught reciting the Koran at a time when talking was banned.

He says he has also been repeatedly shaved against his will. In one such incident, a guard told him: 'This is the part that really gets to you Muslims, isn't it?' The strappado allegation was one among many made about treatment at both Guantanamo and the US base at Bagram in Afghanistan made to the British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith when he visited his clients Moazzam Begg and Richard Belmar at the Cuban prison six weeks ago, having tried for the previous 14 months to obtain the necessary security clearance.

But it is clear the disturbing claim is only the tip of the iceberg. Under the rules the United States military has imposed for defence lawyers who visit Guantanamo, Stafford Smith has not been allowed to keep his notes of meetings with prisoners, and will not be able to read them again until they have been examined and de-classified by a government censor. He cannot disclose in public anything the men have told him until it too has been been de-classified, on pain of likely imprisonment in the US.

Stafford Smith has drawn up a 30-page report on the tortures which Begg and Belmar say they have endured, and sent it as an annexe with a letter to the Prime Minister which Downing Street received shortly before Christmas. For the time being - possibly forever - the report cannot be published, because the Americans claim that the torture allegations amount to descriptions of classified interrogation methods. However, Stafford Smith's letter to Tony Blair - which has been declassified - says that on his visit to the Guantanamo prisoners, he heard 'credible and consistent evidence that both men have been savagely tortured at the hands of the United States' with Begg having suffered not only physical but 'sexual abuse' which has had 'mental health consequences'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1382033,00.html

[melnjones]

1. Horrific.

What else can I say.

[genieroze]

9. Sick. eom

[TahitiNut]

2. torture = "classified interrogation methods" (Orwellian)

Outfuckingrageous! Why haven't we tarred and feathered these corrupt bastards yet? :grr:

[DELUSIONAL]

3. This isn't the America I know -- or thought I knew

This report goes against everything we've been taught.

Nazis were bad -- Americans are good -- we are law obeying blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Torture was something that other countries did -- you know the bad third world countries with military dictators who "disappear" anyone who disagrees with Der dictator.

bushie and his gang of thugs have brought all the torture home -- but this isn't being reported in the US propaganda media -- it is being reported in a UK news source.

This part is really telling: "torture allegations amount to descriptions of classified interrogation methods."

The bushies are trying to keep everything they do a secret -- but they want ALL information on their own citizens AND everyone in the world who leaves any sort of record.

Hey -- Sadist & Bullies the military needs you -- like to torture people? Like to rape helpless people? Sign up with the US military -- and get paid for doing things that might get you some serious jail time in the state -- as a guard or prisoner -- depends on the uniform.

[shraby]

4. NOT IN MY NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gratuitous]

5. This is what a majority of Americans voted to endorse

I remember a country called the United States that used to condemn torturing prisoners. At least publicly. That country was supposed to be a bulwark against oppression and injustice.

What country George W. Bush governs coincidentally has the same name, but that's where the parallels end, it seems.

[aikido15]

6. Oh, this is so sad...

And then you have Daniel Pipes, another one of Bush's buddies, publishing this article in papers across the country today.

Why the Japanese Internment Still Matters

http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2309

For years, it has been my position that the threat of radical Islam implies an imperative to focus security measures on Muslims. If searching for rapists, one looks only at the male population. Similarly, if searching for Islamists (adherents of radical Islam), one looks at the Muslim population.

And so, I was encouraged by a just-released Cornell University opinion survey that finds nearly half the U.S. population agreeing with this proposition. Specifically, 44 percent of Americans believe that government authorities should direct special attention toward Muslims living in America, either by registering their whereabouts, profiling them, monitoring their mosques, or infiltrating their organizations.

**Surf around his site...it is horrible, I felt like I needed a bath afterward.

[OutsourceBush]

7. TORTURE

WE KNOW IT HAPPENED, NO NEED TO AGUE THE POINT ANY MORE

THE US IS A COUNTRY THAT ENGAGES IN TORTURE

BUSH AND COMPANY MADE IT LEGAL

[genieroze]

8. Cage Of Freedom

http://www.hellblazer.com/archives/2004/08/cheesy_song_lyr_5.html

http://www.nfte.org/yesworld/lyrics/CageOfFreedom.html

edited to add extra link

[Moderator]

10. locking

dupish. discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1113640