Man 'blinded at Guantanamo'

[emad]

London Evening Standard
17 February 2005

A British resident has been blinded in one eye by American military police at Guantanamo Bay, his lawyer claimed today.

Omar Deghayes' family appealed for the British Government to intervene and secure his release, almost 25 years to the day since his father was assassinated by Colonel Gaddafi's regime in Libya.

Mr Deghayes mother Zohra Zewawi, from Brighton, wept as lawyer Clive Stafford Smith described the injuries the detainee has allegedly suffered at the Cuban base.

"In March 2004 the Emergency Reaction Force in Camp Delta came into his cell," he said.

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/16680139?source=PA

[LinuxInsurgent]

1. i thought it was just "psychological torture"

Are eyes part of "psychology" now?

We are no better than the Gestapo...the difference is only in quantity, not quality.

Let's give ourselves a few more years...and we'll match the Gestapo in quantity too.

[Supersedeas]

7. just a few bad apples

[DBoon]

10. Fraternity prank

Surely you know about all the one-eyed pledges?

[gratuitous]

2. Well, at least we got valuable information out of him!

Right? Right? Isn't that the standard rationale from this murderous and corrupt regime currently squatting in the White House for torture? We're getting valuable information that can't be obtained any other way? I mean, taking a guy's eye out means that lives are being saved by the bushel, right?

Right?

[Supersedeas]

16. winning the hearts, minds, and eyes

[plcdude]

3. nothing to see here

and now back to Katie Couric and her magazine shoot. We do not have a real press anymore.

[primavera]

4. Just a harmless frat prank, after all

Sure would love to see old Limpballs go blind, oh wait, he already is blind.

[motherfather]

5. Organ failure?

Um, since the eye is an organ, wouldn't this technically be organ failure?

[mainer]

6. which definitely makes it torture. Even Gonzales says so! n/t

[Jacobin]

19. Actually, he said more than that

Gonzales said something like "organ failure that could lead to death" or something along those lines.

So they could chop off his genitals, arms and legs, poke out his eyes, cut off his ears and burn his face off, but hey, its okay, cause he's still probably alive.

[lebkuchen]

8. Who was having the Emergency? The man being blinded

or those doing the blinding?

What another FUBAR name for a US force...pure propaganda, like Camp Normandy in Iraq.

[al bupp]

9. Just F*cking Lovely

FWIW, the police have been known to use this pepper spray "technique" on protesters, as well. Think it was on LinkTV, or perhaps IndyMedia.org, I saw something about this, including pictures of, yes, handcuffed arrestees (I forget for what now) having their eyes held open while sadists in uniforms applied pepper spray w/ q-tips. Made me sick to my stomach to see it.

Unfortunately, it probably wasn't a big stretch for them to decide to do this to the detainees in Gitmo as well...

The MSM didn't report it when it happened to US citizens then, wouldn't expect them to report it when it happens to the non-humans (in their eyes) more recently.

:puke:

[RamboLiberal]

12. Yes this was done to some logging protestors

If I remember the story correctly they had handcuffed themselves in some logging company office. The police came in and wiped their eyes with either q-tips or patches soaked in pepper spray. I'm sure some DU'er has a link to that one.

I can understand pepper spraying an inmate who is fighting with guards, but holding him down to wipe his eyes with pepper spray is torture.

Both the cops who did this to the handcuffed protesters and if soldiers did this to a prisoner - then they are thugs that should be prosecuted.

[al bupp]

15. Yes, you are right

Now that you've jogged my memory, that was it. Not handcuffed arrestees, but protesters who had handcuffed themselves.

Either way, clearly a torture technique.

Here's a couple of links to the protest event, and the legal aftermath (apparently still ongoing) I found on Google:

http://www.treesfoundation.org/affiliates/specific-43

http://www.nopepperspray.org/

[Bake]

11. Dear God, this makes me sick - and ANGRY!

It is beyond my comprehension that we do this to people. Sadistic sick bullshit. What have we become ...

Bake

[skeeters]

13. Sick And Angry Here As Well

I'm glad we are showing these folks how great Democracy works. Holding prisoners without a trial are just the reason we kicked out those nasty British.

OK. Chimp. You say we caught a bunch of terrorists. Where the hell are the guilty verdict? Where are all the weapons of mass destruction they wanted to kill us all with?

Even with a military tribunal you can't hold trials.

Put the Hell up or shut the hell up.

There, now I feel so much safer.

[KansDem]

14. Trial by ordeal?

"They brought their pepper spray and held him down.

"They held both of his eyes open and sprayed it into his eyes and later took a towel soaked in pepper spray and rubbed it in his eyes.

"Omar could not see from either eye for two weeks but he gradually got sight back in one eye.

Well, at least they didn't use a taser on him...:eyes:

[0007]

17. I am not proud of this Country and what it does and what it preaches

as the truth.

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable."
U.S. historian Howard Zinn, 1993

[Voltaire99]

18. "Let The Eagle Soar!" --with apologies to John Asscroft

Let the eagle soar
Like she's never soared before
Right into your cornea--what gore!
Then pile you up nude on the floor
Oh, let the fascist eagle soar!

Gitmo-Ghraib flies on eagle's wings
Keep it up until his eyeball stings
He'll see what noncooperation brings
Oops, wrong guy? Sorry, Abdul, for the dings!

Four more years of eagle flight
Doors kicked down in the night
Your husband died of awful fright
This little check'll put things right!

[al bupp]

20. No apologies necessary, if ask me

You hit the nail on the head!

[struggle4progress]

21. kick