Ex-Terror Detainee Says U.S. Tortured Him

[CTLawGuy]

Source: 60 Minutes

(CBS) At the age of 19, Murat Kurnaz vanished into America's shadow prison system in the war on terror. He was from Germany, traveling in Pakistan, and was picked up three months after 9/11. But there seemed to be ample evidence that Kurnaz was an innocent man with no connection to terrorism. The FBI thought so, U.S. intelligence thought so, and German intelligence agreed. But once he was picked up, Kurnaz found himself in a prison system that required no evidence and answered to no one.

The story Kurnaz told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley is a rare look inside that clandestine system of justice, where the government's own secret files reveal that an innocent man lost his liberty, his dignity, his identity, and ultimately five years of his life.


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60 Minutes found Murat Kurnaz in Bremen, Germany, where he was born and raised. His parents emigrated there from Turkey. His father works in the Mercedes factory. Kurnaz wasn’t particularly religious growing up, but in 2001 he was marrying a Turkish girl who was. And he decided to learn more about Islam.

"I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know anything," Kurnaz says. "So I had to study more about Islam so I could go to the mosque and pray."

More at link.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/28/60minutes/main3976928.shtml

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People deserve to be JAILED for stuff like this. I pray that the next president will start prosecuting the monsters that carry out this torture.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. A very disturbing report.

Somebody HAS to pay for this at some point. I am so ashamed of our government.

[merh]

2. Not.in.my.name.

:cry:

[girl gone mad]

3. The 60 Minutes report was heartbreaking.

War crimes have been committed and must be prosecuted, all the way up to the top.

[FightingIrish]

4. I watched the 60 Minutes report

I could not help thinking that this man has every right to hate me. We don't get immunity from our country's atrocities just because we are opposed to them.

[DesertFlower]

5. i saw it and i was appalled.

Jesus H. Christ. is this what we've become?

[AndyTiedye]

6. This is What Has Taken Over Our Country

[NeoConsSuck]

7. It was sickening to watch this show

I want to see bush, cheney and every other neo-con hanging from a rope.

[Senator]

8. K&R&ImpeachForTortureNow

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R

and America continues to pretend

[leveymg]

10. Hayden claimed only 3 waterboarded. This seems to put the lie to that.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror6feb06,0,5100734,full.story

Three were waterboarded, CIA chief confirms

Director Michael V. Hayden says the Al Qaeda suspects were the only ones subjected to the interrogation method. The CIA needs access to such 'enhanced' techniques, he argues to a Senate panel.
By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 6, 2008

WASHINGTON -- CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said publicly for the first time Tuesday that his agency had used the harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three Al Qaeda suspects, and he testified that depriving the agency of coercive methods would "increase the danger to America."

In the most detailed public comments on a CIA program that had been shrouded in secrecy for years, Hayden said the agency had used simulated drowning to extract crucial information from terrorism suspects in 2002 and 2003.

He also testified that only three detainees were ever subjected to the method: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks; Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda operative tied to the Sept. 11 plot; and Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of playing a key role in the bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000.

Appearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Hayden said the CIA had ceased using waterboarding nearly five years ago, but he made a vigorous case for preserving the agency's ability to use "enhanced" interrogation techniques.

But, I guess, since it was the military that did this, it doesn't count.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

11. Prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity ARE IN ORDER!

ALL THOSE RESPONSIBLE for approving/encouraging/performing torture are traitors to their own nation. Such behavior is absolutely ANTI-American, ANTI-Democratic, ANTI-Constitutional, and vulgarly illegal! NO ONE should get away with that kind of barbaric lawlessness, bringing lingering shame to and distrust of the USA. But, it appears 'those people' will get away, scot-free.

[Heywood J]

12. Whatever was done to these men,

should be done to the war criminals who did it in the first place - from the foot soldiers who couldn't seem to tell that it was wrong to violate another human being, to the commander without a shred of humanity who ordered such grotesque things to be done. It's only sauce for the goose - and if they considered it legal to do to these captives, it's just as legal to do to the captors.

Perhaps these men, released without charge after five years, might like a chance to repay the favor. They could be paid to do so, as part of reparations and compensatory damages - paid for out of the seized assets of war criminals. How much do you think Dick Cheney's wealth or George Bush's assets would pay for?