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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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February 24th,
2009 - Freed Detainee in U.K. Tells of Abuse by U.S. |
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Freed Detainee in U.K. Tells
of Abuse by U.S. ‘Medieval’ Methods Were Used, Statement Says By Kevin Sullivan Washington Post February 24, 2009 London, Feb. 23 - A former
British resident released after seven years in detention, more than four of
them at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arrived back in
London on Monday and issued a statement alleging that the United States
government had subjected him to years of "medieval" torture. "It is still difficult
for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next,
and tortured in medieval ways -- all orchestrated by the United States
government," Binyam Mohamed said in the statement released by his
attorneys at a London news conference. Mohamed, 30, the first
Guantanamo detainee released during the Obama administration, has become a
symbol of international anger at the anti-terrorism practices of the United
States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His arrival at a Royal Air
Force base near London on Monday afternoon ended what his attorneys have
described as a seven-year odyssey of torture, "rendition" by U.S.
authorities to secret prisons in Morocco and Afghanistan, and legal limbo in
a system where he was held without charge for much of his detention. "He is a victim who has
suffered more than any human being should ever suffer," said his
attorney, Clive Stafford Smith, who visited Mohamed half a dozen times at
Guantanamo. U.S. officials charged
Mohamed initially with plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty
bomb" in the United States and later with conspiring with members of
al-Qaeda to murder and commit terrorism. All the charges were eventually
dropped. The government of British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown had been petitioning the U.S. government for
Mohamed's return since August 2007. British and European
officials have been harshly critical of U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects
at Guantanamo, although few European governments have expressed willingness
to take any of the detainees as the Obama administration works to close the
controversial facility. "We very much welcome
President Obama's commitment to close Guantanamo Bay, and I see today's
return of Binyam Mohamed as the first step towards that shared goal,"
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Monday. In a statement, Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr., who traveled to Guantanamo on Monday, said,
"The friendship and assistance of the international community is vitally
important as we work to close Guantanamo, and we greatly appreciate the
efforts of the British government to work with us on the transfer" of
Mohamed. Holder was scheduled to
receive briefings from military officials about the case histories of the
approximately 245 inmates who remain at Guantanamo as well as the charges
pending against some of them before military commissions were suspended. He
was also expected to tour the facilities, including the center where trials
are held. In one of his first actions upon taking office last month,
President Obama issued an executive order directing officials to close the
prison within one year. Mohamed, a native of
Ethiopia who immigrated to Britain in 1994, was arrested in Pakistan in April
2002 and turned over to U.S. authorities a few months later. American officials
accused him of traveling to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban, which he
has denied. In accounts provided by his
attorneys, Mohamed said that U.S. officials flew him to Morocco and that he
was tortured there for 18 months. He said he was beaten and had his penis cut
with a razor. He said he was then transferred to a CIA-run site in
Afghanistan and was beaten there regularly before being moved to Guantanamo
in September 2004. U.S. officials have never
acknowledged taking Mohamed to Morocco; Moroccan officials deny having held
him. U.S. officials have also repeatedly denied torturing terrorism suspects. In his statement Monday,
Mohamed also accused British officials of being complicit in his
"horrors over the past seven years." "The very worst moment
came when I realized in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were
receiving questions and materials from British intelligence," he said.
"I had met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with
them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later
realized, had allied themselves with my abusers." Mohamed apologized for not
appearing in person at the news conference, saying that for the moment he was
"neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media." He said he wanted to speak
out on behalf of the 241 Muslim prisoners he said were still being held at
Guantanamo and the "thousands of other prisoners held by the U.S.
elsewhere around the world, with no charges and without access to their
families." "While I want to
recover, and put it all as far in my past as I can, I also know I have an obligation
to the people who still remain in those torture chambers," he said.
"My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned
me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten." He added, "I am not
asking for vengeance; only that the truth should be made known, so that
nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured." A spokesman for the British
Home Office said Mohamed faces no charges in Britain. But he would not
comment on news reports that Mohamed would be kept under surveillance. "He has been granted
temporary admission to the U.K. while his immigration status is being
considered," the spokesman said, adding that Mohamed has not been
granted residency but can apply for asylum or residency if he chooses to. Stafford Smith, Mohamed's
attorney, said he was convinced of his client's innocence, and he challenged
anyone who disagreed to prove it in a British court. "If anyone has any
charges they want to bring, we have had a system for the last 800 years which
has proved perfectly satisfactory, and they should put up or shut up,"
Stafford Smith said, adding: "If anyone wants to put him on trial, in
the immortal words of George Bush, bring them on." The Pentagon on Monday
released a review of conditions at Guantanamo that found that the continued
detention of prisoners who have been approved for release has spawned
widespread frustration and anxiety, which has led to protests and friction
with guards. "We conclude that
certainty regarding the detainees' future has a direct correlation to
detainee behavior and, therefore, conditions inside the camp
population," Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations,
who led the review, said at a Pentagon news briefing. Of the about 245 prisoners
at Guantanamo, 59 have been cleared for release but remain at the prison. Walsh led a 13-day
investigation at the military prison, interviewing staff and detainees and
conducting announced and unannounced inspections round the clock. He said he substantiated allegations
of abuse that included insults and the preemptive use of pepper spray. But
the report concluded that "all detainees are well protected from
violence." He said guards or others who engaged in abuse were
reprimanded or immediately relieved of their jobs, depending on the nature of
the offense. Walsh said his report
focused on current conditions at Guantanamo and was not an attempt to review
its seven-year history. Human rights and civil
liberties groups challenged Walsh's findings. They have said that solitary
confinement has led to the deterioration of the physical and psychological
health of detainees, some of whom are force-fed because they are on hunger
strikes. A spokesman for the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the only organization with
unfettered access to the prisoners, said the group supports the
recommendations for increased socialization for all detainees but disagreed
with Walsh's conclusion that force-feeding is in compliance with the Geneva
Conventions. "For ICRC it is an
issue of human dignity," said Bernard Barrett, a spokesman for the
agency. "Freely made choices and the preservation of human dignity are
critical." Staff writers Carrie Johnson
and Peter Finn and staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington and special
correspondent Karla Adam in London contributed to this report. © 2009 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022301200.html |