America's torture ethic

[pappajacks]

Freed Swede Says He Was Tortured in Guantanamo

By Jan Strupczewski

 

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) - A Swede released from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay last week said he had been tortured by exposure to freezing cold, noise and bright lights and chained during his 2 1/2-year imprisonment.

 

 

 

Mehdi Ghezali, the son of an Algerian-born immigrant who was arrested in Pakistan where he says he was studying Islam, told Swedish media in interviews published or aired Wednesday that he was subjected to interrogations almost every day.

 

 

The 25-year-old man was released on July 8 after pressure from Sweden including a meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Goran Persson and President Bush (news - web sites).

 

 

Ghezali told Dagens Nyheter daily and Swedish public radio that he had answered all questions put to him for the first six months but gave up talking when his interrogators kept asking the same questions.

 

 

After more than two years in the camp, in April this year the military stepped up the pressure on him.

 

 

"They put me in the interrogation room and used it as a refrigerator. They set the temperature to minus degrees so it was terribly cold and one had to freeze there for many hours -- 12-14 hours one had to sit there, chained," he said, adding that he had partially lost the feeling in one foot since then.

 

 

CHAINED FEET

 

 

Ghezali said he was deprived of sleep for about two weeks by constant switching of cells and interrogation, was exposed to powerful flashes of light in a dark room, to very loud music and noise and was chained for long periods in painful positions.

 

 

"They forced me down with chained feet. Then they took away the chains from the hands, pulled the arms under the legs and chained them hard again. I could not move," he said.

 

 

After several hours his feet were swollen and his whole body was aching. "The worst was in the back and the legs," he said.

 

 

Some of these torture methods have also been used by the U.S. military on Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in a scandal which has embarrassed the U.S. government this year.

 

 

Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds told public radio that if correct, the allegations meant that the U.S. had broken international laws. "That is wholly unacceptable," Freivalds said.

 

 

She said that she hoped the United States would investigate the allegations.

 

 

Ghezali said he went Pakistan to study Islam in August 2001, before the Sept. 11 attacks which triggered the U.S. war on terrorism and the invasion of Afghanistan (news - web sites).

 

 

He said he was visiting a friend in the Afghan town of Jalalabad near the Pakistani border when the U.S. attack started and decided to return to Pakistan when he heard that villagers were selling foreigners to the U.S. forces.

 

 

But he was captured by Pakistani villagers while crossing the border from Afghanistan and sold to Pakistani police, who turned him over to the U.S. military. He was flown from Pakistan to Afghanistan and arrived in Guantanamo in January 2002.

[pappajacks]

Imagine an innocent American held by the official government of another country for 2 1/2 years without charges being laid and not subject to the Geneva Convention. Now imagine that prisoner tortured for information. What do you think of that country and their government?

[Guest MikeSC]

Imagine somebody making outrageous claims without anything resembling proof or corroborative evidence.

-=Mike

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Come on Mike, where's your tin foil hat? Can't have the government spying on us.

[Guest INXS]

Sad news but not at all surprising. I don't even want to THINK about the scale of abuse that has been going on in Guantanamo.

[Guest UncleJesseMark]

A MikeSC Posted on Jul 15 2004, 03:08 PM

  Imagine somebody making outrageous claims without anything resembling proof or corroborative evidence.

-=Mike 

 

Your ignorance, and lack of civility amazes me. The guy was locked up for 2 and a half years for NO REASON. HE DID NOTHING.

 

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

*Edited after gaining composure* (Thanks JOTW)

 

(What is a PBP?)

[Jobber of the Week]

NO REASON. HE DID NOTHING.

 

 

FUCK YOU.

You're either a new here or a previously banned poster.

 

I'll err on the side of caution, and just say that if you're going to get that intense about something, calm down, start posting again after you've collected yourself. Namecalling posts drag things down for the whole thread.

[kkktookmybabyaway]

Nah. Namecalling RULES. Keep up the good work.

 

JOTW = Angel on Jesse's shoulder.

 

kkk... =

[Guest Birds in the Hotel]

The fact that people fail to recognize that this is common place, shows what brainwashed idiots they really are.

[Highland]

Was he a "Person of Interest"?

Because if that's the case then he can be accused, interrogated, etcetera and possibly detained without any formal charges being held against him nor an expeditious trial. Just ask Steven Hatfill.

[Skywarp!]

The fact that people fail to recognize that this is common place, shows what brainwashed idiots they really are.

The fact that it's commonplace doesn't make it any less shocking, or any less wrong.

[justsoyouknow]

The fact that people fail to recognize that this is common place, shows what brainwashed idiots they really are.

The fact that people believe everything that they read on the internet shows what brainwashed idiots they really are.

 

The US is constantly being weakened by all of these reports of prisoner abuse. Is it so hard to believe that this guy would be making it up in a further attempt to discredit the US?

[AndrewTS]

"The US is constantly being weakened by all of these reports of prisoner abuse. Is it so hard to believe that this guy would be making it up in a further attempt to discredit the US?"

 

I don't know, but frankly I yawn and move on, treating this sort of thing as something about as eventful or interesting as the newest car bombing/suicide bombing in Iraq/Israel. It's barely news even if it technically is.

 

The media has desensitized me. "More torture reports? So what?"

[Guest MikeSC]

Your ignorance, and lack of civility amazes me. The guy was locked up for 2 and a half years for NO REASON. HE DID NOTHING.

 

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

*Edited after gaining composure* (Thanks JOTW)

 

(What is a PBP?)

So, questioning what PROOF he has is a lack of civility? But "Fuck you" isn't?

 

Hmm, amazing that when people say thing you happen to agree with, your standards for, you know, PROOF are really low.

The fact that people fail to recognize that this is common place, shows what brainwashed idiots they really are.

Proof of this is coming, I have to assume.

-=Mike

[Toshiaki Koala]

Imagine somebody making outrageous claims without anything resembling proof or corroborative evidence.

-=Mike

 

Actually, someone did just that. His name is George W. Bush.

 

 

And to think it took fourteen replies for somebody to say that.

[pappajacks]

Imagine somebody making outrageous claims without anything resembling proof or corroborative evidence.

-=Mike

 

Actually, someone did just that. His name is George W. Bush.

 

 

And to think it took fourteen replies for somebody to say that.

[Guest PlatinumBoy]

Imagine an innocent American held by the official government of another country for 2 1/2 years without charges being laid and not subject to the Geneva Convention. Now imagine that prisoner tortured for information. What do you think of that country and their government?

Like Vietnam, China, Korea for example?