Detainees 'beaten to death'

[cal04]

ONE of four Britons freed last week from US detention in Guantanamo Bay has described being tortured, witnessing the killing of fellow detainees by US interrogators and receiving threats to his family.
Moazzam Begg's testimony was quoted in Britain's Independent on Sunday today.

He said his ordeal, beginning at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, included being shackled and dragged, having a "suffocating hood" placed on his head and being struck in the head several times.
He also said he had witnessed two fatal beatings during interrogations by US officials in Afghanistan.

"Two of these beatings resulted in the deaths of two detainees in June and December 2002. I was witness to both, in some fashion," said Mr Begg, who was arrested in Pakistan in January 2001.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12096767%255E1702,00.html


My nightmare of torture and assault, by Briton held in Guantanamo
One of the four Britons freed from Guantanamo Bay last week has alleged being tortured, nearly suffocated and repeatedly assaulted in American detention, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.He also said he was interrogated more than 250 times during his detention, according to the newspaper.The 25-page testimony was written while in solitary confinement last year at the Camp Delta detention centre in Cuba, in order to rebut US and British government allegations of his terrorist activities. He said a confession he signed at Guantanamo Bay was executed "by coercion, and under duress".
Mr Begg was now in a "safe house" with his family, The Independent on Sunday said.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=606033

[Nitrogenica]

1. When are good Repubs going to care about news like this?

How long do we have to wait for them?

[Voltaire99]

5. Christ could return...

...and tell them that due to their support of this evil, they're not getting the keys to that great Lexus in the sky.

And it wouldn't make a jot of difference to them. In fact, I imagine they'd send him to Gitmo for interrogation.

[Raised_In_The_Wild]

7. Maybe there are no good republicans? There used to be! n/t

[Demeter]

13. The Only GOOD Republican......

no, don't go there, mustn't alert the FBI!

[Judi Lynn]

2. I hope and pray he can find a way to be safe from retribution.

He has mentioned two killed in Guantanamo. We've only heard of the ones in Abu Ghraib.

I'm sure there are lunatics out there who would love to shut him down altogether because he dared to speak "against" his loss of freedom, and torment, and questioned U.S. decision-making.

[mhr]

3. Meet The Face Of American Fascism

[American liberal]

4. What did Cheney and Rumsfeld say? We abide by the Geneva Convention

*pshaw*!!!

Those Britains were held for THREE YEARS without access to legal counsel!!! and apparently tortured...and witness to torture...How do those bastards (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, Wulfowitz, Ashcroft, Rice, etc.) how do they sleep at night?

But remember the names of this latest era of corruption and subterfuge. The House of Cards will fall. It may not be til years later, years after Halliburton, Lockheed, GE, Westinghouse, Boeing, etc., have made their billions and pillaged all they could get away with, but the truth will prevail in the end. It will filter through the McDonald's ads and seep into the walking dead's brains and there will be some form of retribution.

The punishment will never fit the crimes. It will be meted unevenly. But the day will come when these murdering crooks will pay.

Remember Iran-Contra. Remember Watergate. It will come out in the wash.

In the meantime, I will keep coming here and getting educated and sharing my opinions and keeping the issues alive. The bastards MUST PAY!!!

[proudbluestater]

6. Where are all the "Preachers" now? You know the ones...

who suggest that John Kerry and others should be excommunicated for supporting a woman's right to make her own choices?

The ones who rail against homosexuality as being "sinful."

Where are they when we turn our back on the Geneva Conventions and nominate a torturer as Attorney General?

The silence, "Reverends," is deafening.

[Raised_In_The_Wild]

8. Oh, yeah, "republican family values", "compassionate conservatism"

"biblical morality" and all that other bogus crap. Who do they think Jesus would have tortured?

[saigon68]

12. They are out

Doing their favorite off duty activity. Sodomizing little boys.

[twaddler01]

9. just one of the stories to add to the others

:argh:

[American liberal]

15. no, it's not

There are not hardly ANY stories from the prisoners themselves. This really should stay "above the fold" lest we all become numb to such travesties of justice. THE U.S. IS SUPPOSED TO BE OPERATING UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS! If the powers that be are not, then it is OUR responsibility to hold them accountable!

[CoffeeCat]

10. I'm curious...

...I believe that what is going on at Gitmo is evil and a sick abuse by our government.

However, I'm curious about why our government would allow these detainees to leave.

Surely, our government understood that these detainees would reveal damaging truth, probably sue and create loads of unwanted bad publicity.

I really don't get this situation at all.

It was right to give these men their long-overdue freedom. However, I don't understand why the sick, evil scum at Gitmo decided to let them go now.

Does this situation seem off to anyone else?

[Disturbed]

11. How does the Bush Junta sleep ?

They all probably sleep well, as most Sociopaths do.

[American liberal]

14. They are not free

They were turn over to the Brits who have them under house arrest, or something. Maybe the Bush cartel was counting on Blair's ability to keep 'em quiet. And remember, we're getting this news from Australian and UK sources. Monitor U.S. networks over the next few days. I'm willing to bet we won't hear a peep of this from the corporate-owned media.

On edit: Most of the sheeple in this country tune into FOX or ABC for their news. It won't make the mainstream.

Final edit: And then look at the scant attention it gets even here on DU! The Halle Berry story posted today already has 5x as many responses as what's going on at Gitmo and Abu Graab. I guess torture is passe...

[Raised_In_The_Wild]

16. yes, you make a good point, I think they deliberately let some go

to tell the story to the rest of us, it's all part of the grand design. After all, how does having torture facilities all over the world keep the dissidents (us) down unless you let them know they exist and what goes on there. Secret torture is only limited to the hell it can impose on it's victim, but well known and accepted torture can keep the entire population in line. We can be indefinitely detained, tortured, and now, we know it, too.

[CoffeeCat]

17. There you go....

...that's a very astute observation. A very sick reality though.

There were some very specific, self-serving reasons that these men were allowed to leave Gitmo.

I suspect you are right. They want others to know what is going on. This way they can deny it until the cows come home, to escape accountability; but they also get the benefit of disseminating the message, "We torture. We'll get away with it. Even if you live to tell about it, we won't be stopped."

I don't think our govt fears retribution anyway. They escape all U.S. laws, due to the location of the prison, don't they?

I feel like I'm being psy-oped.

[Judi Lynn]

21. I could be wrong, but I think it's because they are British citizens

and it became hard to justify keeping British citizens without anything close to adequate evidence of wrong doing.

I think there was pressure to release them.

[madmark]

18. test

test

[struggle4progress]

19. kick

[lebkuchen]

20. I wonder how many we've killed trying to get information from them

This isn't "interrogation." It's an exercise in sadism, at which the US excels.