Episode at Guantanamo Leaves Family at a Loss/Cause of Injuries Disputed

[maddezmom]

By Faiza Saleh Ambah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 11, 2007; Page A14

MEDINA, Saudi Arabia -- Mishal al-Harbi's brain was deprived of oxygen for several minutes on the evening of Jan. 16, 2003, while he was in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As a result, he cannot stand, his speech is slurred, and he has a twitch that periodically causes his head to shake and his legs to jerk.

U.S. authorities say Mishal's brain was damaged when he tried to hang himself at Guantanamo. But his brother Fahd says a beating by prison guards cut off the flow of oxygen, leaving Mishal unable to walk or talk properly. Fahd said his brother needs intensive physical therapy and costly medicine to control his seizures and hallucinations -- side effects of the injury -- and he wants the U.S. government to help pay for them.

Mishal's family says it is seeking not only financial compensation but also concrete answers from the U.S. government -- either an admission that Mishal was injured by guards or proof that he tried to kill himself. But given the intense secrecy surrounding the detainees at Guantanamo, finding out exactly what occurred that day in 2003 appears almost impossible.

"He was just like the rest of his brothers before he left," said Mishal's mother, Hamida Owayid, her head covered with a blue scarf and her feet decorated with henna. "What did the Americans do to him?"

~snip~

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/10/AR2007031001253.html

[ninkasi]

1. They hate us for our freedoms

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Divernan]

2. Couldn't Bush's favorite, water-boarding, deprive brain of oxygen for several minutes?

It replicates drowning, and that is what happens - no oxygen to the brain. Given how these prisoners are kept in cages, it's unlikely he had the opportunity or means to hang himself.
But if that WAS how he was injured, he was driven to such despair by the brutal treatment by his U.S. jailers.