Ex-guard, prisoner speak out against Gitmo

[unhappycamper]

Ex-guard, prisoner speak out against Gitmo
By Charlie Reed, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, February 9, 2009

Before they met last month in London, Chris Arendt and Moazzam Begg could have crossed paths at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Arendt, a former Michigan Army National Guard soldier, spent much of 2004 deployed at Guantanamo, where Begg, a Briton considered an "enemy combatant" by the Pentagon, had been held since 2002. Arendt, 24, left in October 2004 and has since floated between odd jobs and school.

Begg, 40, was released without being charged in January 2005 and now acts as spokesman for Cage Prisoners, a Muslim-led group that campaigns against the detention facility.

Four weeks ago — on the seventh anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo — Arendt became the first American to join Begg on a national tour for Cage Prisoners named "Two Sides, One Story." The tour wrapped up last week in Cardiff, Wales.

Along with Sami Muhyideen Al Haj, another former Guantanamo detainee who is also still considered an enemy combatant of the U.S., the two men criss-crossed the country speaking about their experiences at the much-criticized facility.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60585%2e