Notes From a Guantánamo Survivor

I'm not going to quote the entire article, but I suggest reading the whole thing because it is an insider's view on the situation in Guatanamo, especially in regards to the legitamcy of it all. These people were used more or less as propaganda tools while they were tortured in US custody.

In essence we aren't capturing terrorists, we are capturing innocent people and actually creating terrorists that didn't exist to begin with. These are your enemy combatants that so many demonstrate anger against with out really knowing the whole story, except that of the MSM.

So why would we round up a group of people whose intensions we knew nothing of? Apparently we weren't looking for terrorists, we just needed some scapegoats, which should really make you question the whole story to begin with.


Skipping around a bit here...

At one point, I was chained to the ceiling of a building and hung by my hands for days. A doctor sometimes checked if I was O.K.; then I would be strung up again. The pain was unbearable.

After about two months in Kandahar, I was transferred to Guantánamo. There were more beatings, endless solitary confinement, freezing temperatures and extreme heat, days of forced sleeplessness. The interrogations continued always with the same questions. I told my story over and over — my name, my family, why I was in Pakistan. Nothing I said satisfied them. I realized my interrogators were not interested in the truth.

I was in Pakistan, on a public bus on my way to the airport to return to Germany when the police stopped the bus I was riding in. I was the only non-Pakistani on the bus — some people joke that my reddish hair makes me look Irish — so the police asked me to step off to look at my papers and ask some questions. German journalists told me the same thing happened to them. I was not a journalist, but a tourist, I explained. The police detained me but promised they would soon let me go to the airport. After a few days, the Pakistanis turned me over to American officials. At this point, I was relieved to be in American hands; Americans, I thought, would treat me fairly.

I later learned the United States paid a $3,000 bounty for me. I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently the United States distributed thousands of fliers all over Afghanistan, promising that people who turned over Taliban or Qaeda suspects would, in the words of one flier, get “enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life.” A great number of men wound up in Guantánamo as a result.

After two and a half years at Guantánamo, in 2004, I was brought before what officials called a Combatant Status Review Tribunal, at which a military officer said I was an “enemy combatant” because a German friend had engaged in a suicide bombing in 2003 — after I was already at Guantánamo. I couldn’t believe my friend had done anything so crazy but, if he had, I didn’t know anything about it.

A couple of weeks later, I was told I had a visit from a lawyer. They took me to a special cell and in walked an American law professor, Baher Azmy. I didn’t believe he was a real lawyer at first; interrogators often lied to us and tried to trick us. But Mr. Azmy had a note written in Turkish which he had gotten from my mother, and that made me trust him. (My mother found a lawyer in my hometown in Germany who heard that lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights represented Guantánamo detainees; the center assigned Mr. Azmy my case.) He did not believe the evidence against me and quickly discovered that my “suicide bomber” friend was, in fact, alive and well in Germany.

(Source)

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


Stories like this upset me so much because it really shows the suffering of framed and innocent people. What bothers me the most is that most of these people are not given a fair trial and it is sad to see such crimes taking place. Ah virtuoso if only the population really believes what is going, the entire system would be turned upside down.

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


Thank God for the NDAA!

Now the criminal elected officials in D.C. have no witnesses to their crimes; the rest of the prisoners will never see the light of day. And we'll never know just how sick those 'people' in D.C. really are. Criminals, actually. Elected war criminals, covering their own asses, indefinitely.

Man g-bay sucks! whichever are innocent , those poor people. I suspect many of them , but beating a confession out is apparently higher then quality (closest to truth).


" I was relieved to be in American hands; Americans, I thought, would treat me fairly.

I later learned the United States paid a $3,000 bounty for me"


lol Can you imagine .


Joe : Yes im in american hands ! , thank god . Its gotta be 100's times better then what im getting here .

Uncle S: 3k bounty lol



that sucks that he found out later on , and we know now lol. They are something else. They trying so hard to justify these costs , and the wars. Almost like there buying false positivies. To show consistancy and intelligence.


g-bay is where dictators should be , but doesn't seem to be that way . What a terrible place , and how dare it not be apologized yet for





i would be ashamed ...

This is very scary.

It's also quite sad.

Torture over long captivity is pointless, barbaric and inhumane.
I can understand an urge to apply certain interrogation techniques for time-sensitive information, but, torture? Anyone tortured enough will tell you anything they think you want to hear just to make it stop.

Torture, if anything, is counter productive.

You have to wonder if there isn't a psy-ops experiment going on to see how innocent prisoners will react to torture and degredation. Will they end up admitting guilt just to make the punishment stop a little quicker.

Just imagine what valuable intel they learned...

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


That's the American way right there, uselessly and endlessly torturing people to find out nonexistant information. Luckily the NDAA broadened that so any of us can be picked up and tortured, as long as we're suspected to be associated with terrorism in any conceivable way

In reading between the lines here ....

The problem that I see with all of this is that they are testing their methods in secret ....to be later used upon US !

US As in US Citizens especially with the recent NDAA laws !

And we dare proclaim ourselves to be "Civilized" ?

Peace

question is this: how do you know this is real or propaganda?

Originally posted by Unvarnished
reply to post by v1rtu0s0

 

Stories like this upset me so much because it really shows the suffering of framed and innocent people. What bothers me the most is that most of these people are not given a fair trial and it is sad to see such crimes taking place. Ah virtuoso if only the population really believes what is going, the entire system would be turned upside down.

Sad? So many are saying it's sad. It's not sad! It's infuriating!!! It's inHuman!!! It's ANTI-AMERICAN!!!

It's ugly, evil and vile!!! It is not MY will, nor is it the will of the Americans I know. It should be risen up against!

Do We want THIS to represent the behavior of this country???

Originally posted by HomerinNC
question is this: how do you know this is real or propaganda?

Abu Graib (sp?) comes to mind...

But I'm sure that was just an isolated incident.

Originally posted by HomerinNC
question is this: how do you know this is real or propaganda?

email american law professor baher azmy

here's his email. [email protected]. he teaches at seton hall. it would be interesting to hear his comments.

This is one reason why American makes me sick these days, because they lie to achieve "their" goals not the countries goal. Corrupt people in government, they say we detain and hold them because they threaten our security as a nation, I tell you that our government is more threading to us then these so called terrorist.

Some days I hate the fact that I'm from this country, and that I let these stupid people in to office

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0
In essence we aren't capturing terrorists, we are capturing innocent people and actually creating terrorists that didn't exist to begin with.

He said/she said.
There is no proof of your statement other than what these supposedly 'innocent' people have said.
Flame away .. but it's true.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Nobody knew what went on in the Nazi concentration camps either. It was their word against the Nazis. Nobody figured anything out until the war was over, and the camps were examined.

Detention without trial or legal representation, and being held by the military with no oversight, is a sure recipe for torture. History is rife with this fact. Do you honestly feel that these people are making this up for attention, and that they are guilty of something?

Given the choice between believing somebody who was detained, and believing our government, I'll take the detainee, every time. If you believe our government, I have some fabulous swampland in Florida to sell you.

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0
In essence we aren't capturing terrorists, we are capturing innocent people and actually creating terrorists that didn't exist to begin with.

He said/she said.
There is no proof of your statement other than what these supposedly 'innocent' people have said.
Flame away .. but it's true.

It's strange how they

1. Released the guy...
2. He fabricated such an elaborate story...

Originally posted by FlyersFan

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0
In essence we aren't capturing terrorists, we are capturing innocent people and actually creating terrorists that didn't exist to begin with.

He said/she said.
There is no proof of your statement other than what these supposedly 'innocent' people have said.
Flame away .. but it's true.

Actually, at this point it's just 'he said.' Unless, of course, somebody who was actually there comes out and says that this did not happen to this person. But if what he said is true, no one will come forward to dispute his story. We know people were tortured there, and the torturers wouldn't want their neighbors knowing what they did. Could you imagine if your church congregation knew that you waterboarded people hundreds of times?