Gitmo Guards Brag of Beatings
michaelbor...@yahoo.com
from
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100606T.shtml
AP Learns Gitmo Guards Brag of Beatings
By Thomas Watkins
The Associated Press
Friday 06 October 2006
Camp Pendleton, California - Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about
beating detainees and described it as common practice, a Marine
sergeant said in a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press.
The two-page statement was sent Wednesday to the Inspector General
at the Department of Defense by a high-ranking Marine Corps defense
lawyer.
The lawyer sent the statement on behalf of a paralegal who said men
she met on Sept. 23 at a bar on the base identified themselves to her
as guards. The woman, whose name was blacked out, said she spent about
an hour talking with them. No one was in uniform, she said.
A 19-year-old sailor referred to only as Bo "told the other guards
and me about him beating different detainees being held in the prison,"
the statement said.
"One such story Bo told involved him taking a detainee by the head
and hitting the detainee's head into the cell door. Bo said that his
actions were known by others," the statement said. The sailor said he
was never punished.
The statement was provided to the AP on Thursday night by Lt. Col.
Colby Vokey. He is the Marine Corps' defense coordinator for the
western United States and based at Camp Pendleton.
Calls left for representatives at Guantanamo Bay on Friday were not
immediately returned. A Pentagon spokesman declined immediate comment.
Other guards "also told their own stories of abuse towards the
detainees" that included hitting them, denying them water and "removing
privileges for no reason."
"About 5 others in the group admitted hitting detainees" and that
included "punching in the face," the affidavit said.
"From the whole conversation, I understood that striking detainees
was a common practice," the sergeant wrote. "Everyone in the group
laughed at the others stories of beating detainees."
Vokey called for an investigation, saying the abuse alleged in the
affidavit "is offensive and violates United States and international
law."
Guantanamo was internationally condemned shortly after it opened
more than four years ago when pictures captured prisoners kneeling,
shackled and being herded into wire cages. That was followed by reports
of prisoner abuse, heavy-handed interrogations, hunger strikes and
suicides.
Military investigators said in July 2005 they confirmed abusive and
degrading treatment of a suspected terrorist at Guantanamo Bay that
included forcing him to wear a bra, dance with another man and behave
like a dog.
However, the chief investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M.
Schmidt, said "no torture occurred" during the interrogation of Mohamed
al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was captured in December 2001 along the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Last month, UN human rights investigators criticized the United
States for failing to take steps to close Guantanamo Bay, home to 450
detainees, including 14 terrorist suspects who had been kept in secret
CIA prisons around the world.
Described as the most dangerous of America's "war on terror"
prisoners, fewer than a dozen inmates have been charged with crimes.
This fall, the Navy plans to open a new, $30-million maximum-security
wing at its prison complex there, a concrete-and-steel structure
replacing temporary camps.