Former Gitmo Guard Recalls Abuse, Climate of Fear (AP)

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Former Gitmo Guard Recalls Abuse, Climate of Fear
Army prison guard from Guantanamo's first days
recalls abuse, climate of fear

By MIKE MELIA Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico February 14, 2009 (AP)

Army Pvt. Brandon Neely was scared when he took Guantanamo's
first shackled detainees off a bus. Told to expect vicious
terrorists, he grabbed a trembling, elderly detainee and ground
his face into the cement — the first of a range of humiliations
he says he participated in and witnessed as the prison was
opening for business.

Neely has now come forward in this final year of the detention
center's existence, saying he wants to publicly air his feelings
of guilt and shame about how some soldiers behaved as the
military scrambled to handle the first alleged al-Qaida and
Taliban members arriving at the isolated U.S. Navy base.

His account, one of the first by a former guard describing abuses
at Guantanamo, describes a chaotic time when soldiers lacked clear
rules for dealing with detainees who were denied many basic comforts.
He says the circumstances changed quickly once monitors from the
International Committee of the Red Cross arrived.

-snip-

Testimony from the other guards echoes some of Neely's concerns.
One of the other guards, Sean Baker, described in an interview with
CBS' "60 Minutes" how he was beaten and hospitalized by fellow
soldiers in a January 2003 training drill in which he wore an orange
jumpsuit to play the role of a detainee.

-snip-

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=6879032

[Solly Mack]

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