Revealed: full horror of Gitmo inmate's beatings

[Turborama]

Source: The Observer

Former British resident Binyam Mohamed arrives back in Britain tomorrow after his release from Guantanamo Bay. British and US lawyers claim that sustained beatings - which have only recently stopped - have left him with severe psychological and physical problems. Defence correspondent Mark Townsend reports

Mark Townsend

Sunday 22 February 2009

Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain suffering from a huge range of injuries after being beaten by US guards right up to the point of his departure from Guantánamo Bay, according to the first detailed accounts of his treatment inside the camp.

Mohamed will arrive back tomorrow in the UK, where he was a British resident between 1984 and 2002. During medical examinations last week, doctors discovered injuries and ailments resulting from apparently brutal treatment in detention.

Mohamed was found to be suffering from bruising, organ damage, stomach complaints, malnutrition, sores to feet and hands, severe damage to ligaments as well as profound emotional and psychological problems which have been exacerbated by the refusal of Guantánamo's guards to give him counselling.

Mohamed's British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said his client had been beaten "dozens" of times inside the notorious US camp in Cuba with the most recent abuse occurring during recent weeks. He said: "He has a list of physical ailments that cover two sheets of A4 paper. What Binyam has been through should have been left behind in the middle ages."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/22/binyam-mohamed-injuries

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Turborama]

2. This article is about Gitmo, not Gaza n/t

[The Stranger]

3. Why does the Guantanamo disaster continue even one more day?

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[gratuitous]

5. Thank goodness he's back in England

So that stateside media outlets don't have to face inconvenient questions about why they're running wall-to-wall coverage of the Oscars while ignoring Mr. Mohamed's compelling but embarrassing story.

[No Elephants]

11. Good point. I sometimes wish momentarily that we could revoke the First Amend.

[mmonk]

27. By design. Our so called press is an embarassment, especially

when we proclaim it to be the fourth estate.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

29. I'm sure the media here knew all this - they know it all and always protect the torturers

The MSM is, more times than not, the enemy of the U.S. Instead of exposing the creeps that ordered this (Bush et al.) they protected them.

[rrneck]

6. We're going to have to

bear this shame for a long time, even if we fail to own up to it.

Those troglodytes have done more to damage the reputation of the United States and the cause of peace in the world than a nuclear bomb. And they would have used that if they thought they could get away with it.

[jtrockville]

7. How to reconcile this with the Pentagon report?

They both can't be right: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guantanamo21-2009feb21,0,2083521.story

[EFerrari]

23. The Pentagon report was likely "released" in anticipation of this story. n/t

[Radical Activist]

25. Or what one source claims the report says.

[MrMickeysMom]

8. Torture that should have been left behind with the middle ages...

To the curious watcher of crap on the tube, this should conjure up some questions as to what kind of images these are. They go beyond whatever shitty shows pass for "reality tv" these days.

Only when we plaster the contents of those physical ailments covering more than two sheets of A4 paper in our newspaper and MAIN STREET newscasts will this filter through. I hope.

[lunatica]

9. this story leaves me nauseated with that ever familiar knot in my stomach

I just can't get into ranting rages anymore because this isn't new shit. This is old shit and I feel we've been saturated with this evil till we're covered in the blood spilled by our own torturers. Americans who do this have sunk to the lowest form of humanity imaginable and are dragging the rest of us down with them. I truly despise always ending up with the lowest common denominator on every level representing us in the world.

:puke:

[annm4peace]

10. Prosecute all involved

Start at the bottom with the guards and interirogators and work up

and do this quickly, there is physical evidence on paper and video, and many many many memos.





Obama should send over a force w/those who treat survivors of torture, counselor, and religious and civil rights professionals.. and get those guys out of solitary confindment.

And remove all the guards who are currently there.. help them at Guantamao..to help them slowly adjust.. then from there decide who is going to be procecuted and who isn't.

[No Elephants]

12. Obama does not seem inclined to investigations of ANYthing..

[Turborama]

15. Seconded

Re: "Obama should send over a force w/those who treat survivors of torture, counselor, and religious and civil rights professionals.. and get those guys out of solitary confindment.

And remove all the guards who are currently there.. help them at Guantamao..to help them slowly adjust.. then from there decide who is going to be procecuted and who isn't."

After reading this story, I was shocked to find out that this was still going on and he hadn't put an abrupt end to these practices at the same time he signed the order to close this torture den down....

[chill_wind]

18. Leon Panetta has declared that won't happen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_go_co/cia_panetta

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will not prosecute CIA officers who participated in harsh interrogations that critics say crossed the line into torture, CIA Director-nominee Leon Panetta said Friday.

Asked by The Associated Press if that was official policy, Panetta said, "That is the case."

It was the clearest statement yet on what Panetta and other Democratic officials had only strongly suggested: CIA officers who acted on legal orders from the Bush administration would not be held responsible for those policies. On Thursday, he told senators that the Obama administration had no intention of seeking prosecutions for that reason.

(..)

He also will not take *the future use* of rendition off the table-- "as long as we are confident the prisoners will not be tortured in the process." Panetta also said he would keep on Deputy Director Steven Kappes and three other top officials at the agency. Sailed right through.

What happens to the top torture authors and order givers still remains an open question. The NYT revealed a few days ago they are putting their final touches on a review of the Bush Admin Torture Memos and have drafted a report. Holder may or may not make the conclusions of that report available anytime soon.

Will he stick with Panetta, all sweaty to get past the Republicans' raised eyebrows in confirmation proceedings?

Panetta formally retracted a statement he made Thursday that the Bush administration transferred prisoners for the purpose of torture.

"I am not aware of the validity of those claims," he said.

[Turborama]

19. "as long as we are confident the prisoners will not be tortured in the process."

Well, that statement was made more than 2 1/2 weeks ago and prior to this horror story coming out. They need to go back to the table about this one...

Again, how on earth can this still be going on under an Obama administration? I'm not an expert on the law but how can they prosecute Bush and his cronies for condoning such acts if it's still being done?

I'm truly shocked, disappointed and saddened.

[EFerrari]

24. They knew about Binyam two and a half weeks ago

because the story was leaking out in the British press.

[ThomWV]

13. The time for legitimate charges of War Crimes is drawing closer and closer

We aren't seeing nut cases screaming from the rooftops. This will soon be Government to Government accusations and will demand a response.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

22. Who will we charge now that the torture seems to have continued under Obama?

[spanone]

14. didn't the pentagon just file a report that gitmo was geneva convention friendly?

god help us

as shameful as it will be, and probably only when the evidence is overwhelming....someone must be help responsible. otherwise, we're the terrorists.

[jtrockville]

17. Yes, I linked to the LA Times report of it in reply #7.

[CrispyQ]

16. I just watched the final episode of season six of MI-5

& I can't shake it. The Jo character is so moving - first, in her speech about how torture is wrong, & at the end, her consuming fear once she's been captured & knows she's going to be tortured.

I didn't read the article. The snippet you provided was disturbing enough. I simply can't fathom how one person can do such things to another. I just can't. When I was a little girl, I took a piece of red licorice & covered it in dirt & then lightly shook it off. I offered it to a girl I didn't like & she was so thrilled that I had offered her something. I've never shaken the feeling of shame I have from that act.

Will there always be barbarians among us?

[Turborama]

20. Is There a Nexus between Torture and Radicalization?

Terrorism Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 13June 26, 2008 03:58 PM Age: 241 days

By: Chris Zambelis

A great deal of debate surrounds the factors driving the brand of radical Islam in the Middle East that inspires some individuals to commit acts of violence. A recurring theme in extremist discourse is opposition to incumbent authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. For radical Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda, unwavering U.S. support for the autocracies that rule Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region tops a list of grievances toward what amounts to pillars of U.S. foreign policy in the region. In addition to al-Qaeda, however, most Muslims in the Middle East also see these regimes as oppressive, corrupt and illegitimate. Authoritarian regimes in the region are also widely viewed as compliant agents of a U.S.-led neo-colonial order as opposed to being accountable to their own people. Ironically, having realized that most of al-Qaeda’s leaders and foot soldiers received their start in radical opposition politics in their home countries, including U.S. allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the United States identified the persistence of authoritarianism in the Middle East as a critical factor in the spread of radicalization in its call for greater political liberalization and democratization in the region after the September 11 attacks <1>.



Radical Islamist discourse highlighting the scourge of authoritarianism in the Middle East takes on many forms. One subject in particular, however, receives a great deal of attention in militant literature, communiqués, and discussions on radical Islamist chat room forums: The practice of systematic torture by the ruling regimes, especially that which occurs in prisons. Brutal and humiliating forms of torture are common instruments of control and coercion by the security services in police states intent on rooting out all forms of dissent. Previously the domain of human rights activists, researchers investigating the many pathways toward radicalization in the Middle East are increasingly considering the impact of torture and other abuses at the hands of the state during periods of incarceration in an effort to better understand the psychology of the radicalization process. Many researchers see these kinds of experiences as formative in the path toward violent radicalization <2>.



There is ample evidence that a number of prominent militants—including al-Qaeda deputy commander Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and the late al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—endured systematic torture at the hands of the Egyptian and Jordanian authorities, respectively (see Terrorism Monitor, May 4, 2006). Many observers believe that their turn toward extreme radicalism represented as much an attempt to exact revenge against their tormentors and, by extension, the United States, as it was about fulfilling an ideology. Those who knew Zawahiri and can relate to his experience believe that his behavior today is greatly influenced by his pursuit of personal redemption to compensate for divulging information about his associates after breaking down amid brutal torture sessions during his imprisonment in the early 1980s <3>. For radical Islamists and their sympathizers, U.S. economic, military, and diplomatic support for regimes that engage in this kind of activity against their own citizens vindicates al-Qaeda’s claims of the existence of a U.S.-led plot to attack Muslims and undermine Islam. In al-Qaeda’s view, these circumstances require that Muslims organize and take up arms in self-defense against the United States and its allies in the region.

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews=5015">More

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

21. So more than a month after Obama took office the torture continues.

[No.23]

26. Guantánamo 'is within Geneva conventions'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5111344#5113070

[ihavenobias]

28. Kick n/t