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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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August 31st,
2009 - Binyam Mohamed: I Will Fight for Other Prisoners |
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Binyam Mohamed:
I Will Fight for Other Prisoners Former Guantanamo Bay inmate explains the legacy of his incarceration By Cahal Milmo The Independent August 31, 2009 Binyam Mohamed, the former
Guantanamo detainee, has reversed a decision to stay out of the public eye by
signalling his determination to campaign for justice for prisoners at the
American detention camp and highlight the lifelong effects of torture he suffered
at the hands of his interrogators. Six months after emerging as
a frail and ghostly figure from the plane which brought him back to Britain
from the US military prison in Cuba, Mr Mohamed last night used his first
public speech since his release to explain the legacy of his seven years in
detention, which he says included his "extraordinary rendition" to
a prison in Morocco where his penis was repeatedly cut with a scalpel to
force him to confess as an al-Qai'da terrorist. The 31-year-old who was born
in Ethiopia and came to Britain as a refugee at the age of 16, is one of 15
one-time terror suspects who have now made allegations that MI5 and MI6
colluded in their torture abroad. Mr Mohamed is suing the Government to prove
that he was imprisoned and tortured with the full knowledge of the UK
authorities and intelligence services. Scotland Yard is currently
investigating whether there are grounds for prosecuting any British
intelligence officers involved with the case after it was revealed that MI5
supplied lists of questions to be put to him while he was being held in
Morocco and elsewhere. He revealed that he had
found it difficult to re-adjust after life in Guantanamo, where he was
imprisoned between 2004 and February this year. Speaking at a fundraising
event for Cage Prisoner, a campaign group for Muslim detainees held in Cuba
and elsewhere, he said there was an obligation to press for the release of
the remaining prisoners held without trial: "Helping people in
Guantanamo, or Bagram is an obligation upon us. Whether from an Islamic or
non-Islamic point of view, it is an obligation. People cannot be held for
seven or eight years on grounds of suspicion alone. That is not enough of a
reason." Mohamed said he was
constantly re-visited by memories of his ordeal, in particular at the
so-called "Dark Prison" – a CIA facility in Afghanistan where
detainees were kept in darkness and bombarded with loud pop music. For 10
months, Mr Mohammed said he was kept chained in a room in the prison as an
Eminem CD played on a loop. "You have to live it to explain it. It's
very hard. If I enter a room and the light turns off for some reason, I
wonder if I'm back in the dark prison." After struggling against
drug addiction in London, Mr Mohamed said his Muslim faith helped him beat
his craving for heroin and crack cocaine. At the suggestion of a fellow
mosque member, he travelled to Afghanistan in 2001 to help other refugees and
admits attending an Islamist "boot camp". He was arrested in Pakistan
in April 2002 travelling on a false passport and handed over to US
interrogators who he says turned nasty when he mentioned a website he had
seen with instructions for building a nuclear bomb. The website included
instructions such as refining uranium by whirling it in a bucket above an
individual's head. What followed, he insists,
was a catalogue of encounters with foreign intelligence agents in Pakistan
and later Morocco while being subjected to tortures that included being
chained to a gate for 22 hours and being cut on his genitals 20 or 30 times
during interrogation sessions over two years. Last month, it emerged in a
High Court judgment that an MI5 officer visited Morocco three times during
the time Mr Mohamed was being held there. MI5 insists it was unaware of his
rendition to Morocco in 2002. Upon his return to Britain,
Mohamed gave a number of interviews about his treatment before removing
himself from public view. But he now says the legacy of his torture and the
situation of former US prisoners who are returned to developing countries
without facilities to treat torture victims had persuaded to take a higher
profile. He said: "I cannot fit
into society. What the world doesn't understand is that most people love to
hear about torture stories. Someone was hanged here. Blood here, blood there.
What remains every time you see a rope, you always go back to the time when
you were hung. That doesn't go away." The former detainee is one
of several inmates who have joined the Guantanamo Justice Centre, a not-for-
profit group which was launched this month to help former and current
prisoners find work and secure medical treatment. "From my point of
view," he said, "there's a mess that has been done and someone has
to fix it." Where are they now? Guantanamo detainees - Moazzam Begg, 41 A former law student and the
owner of a Birmingham bookshop, Begg was arrested by the CIA in Pakistan in
2002. He was held for a year in Afghanistan before being transferred to
Guantanamo. Since his release in 2005, he has been at the forefront on the
campaign for the closure of his former prison and is a prominent human rights
activist. - Jamil el-Banna, 57 A Jordanian citizen with
refugee status in Britain, he was arrested in Gambia in 2002 and sent to the
"dark prison" in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantanamo.
He was released in December 2007. Upon his return to Britain, he was detained
due to Spanish claims he was an al-Qai'da member. The proceedings were
dropped after a medical report found he had post-traumatic stress due to
torture. He lives in north London with his five children. - Bisher Al Rawi, 48 A former public school boy
whose family came to Britain from Iraq to escape Saddam Hussein's regime, Al
Rawi was arrested in Gambia in 2002. British intelligence claimed he was
carrying bomb components, but they turned out to be a battery charger.
Released from Guantanamo in April 2007, he now works for a human rights group
and lives in south-west London. - Shafiq Rasul, 33 One of the so-called Tipton
Three, Rasul was picked up in Afghanistan in 2001, transferred to Guantanamo
and released in 2004. Six months later, Rasul and two others from the West
Midlands launched a $10m lawsuit against the American government, alleging it
authorised the use of illegal interrogation techniques. The US has claimed they
have no right to sue in American courts. External link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/mohamed-i-will-fight-for-other-prisoners-1779633.html |