*.*
March 12th 04, 01:37 PM
Oelewapper wrote:
>
> Found this article on alledged human-rights-abuses by the U.S.E.R.F. (the
> U.S. military Extreme Reaction Force). Interesting stuff, but is it true?
> Or maybe it's just the tip of the iceberg ...
>
> MY HELL IN CAMP X-RAY
> Mar 12 2004
>
> A BRITISH captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells the world of its
> full horror - and reveals how prostitutes were taken into the camp to
> degrade Muslim inmates.
>
> Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago after two years of
> confinement, is the first detainee to lift the lid on the US regime in
> Cuba's Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta.
>
> The father-of-three, from Manchester, told how he was assaulted with fists,
> feet and batons after refusing a mystery injection.
>
> He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a time in hand and leg
> cuffs with metal links which cut into the skin.
>
> Their "cells" were wire cages with concrete floors and open to the
> elements - giving no privacy or protection from the rats, snakes and
> scorpions loose around the American base.
>
> He claims punishment beatings were handed out by guards known as the Extreme
> Reaction Force. They waded into inmates in full riot-gear, raining blows on
> them.
>
> Prisoners faced psychological torture and mind-games in attempts to make
> them confess to acts they had never committed. Even petty breaches of rules
> brought severe punishment.
>
> Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations of limbs were more
> drastic than required, claimed Jamal.
>
> A diet of foul water and food up to 10 years out-of-date left inmates
> malnourished.
>
> But Jamal's most shocking disclosure centred on the use of vice girls to
> torment the most religiously devout detainees.
>
> Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before would be forced to
> watch as the hookers touched their own naked bodies.
>
> The men would return distraught. One said an American girl had smeared
> menstrual blood across his face in an act of humiliation.
>
> Jamal said: "I knew of this happening about 10 times. It always seemed to be
> those who were very young or known to be particularly religious who would be
> taken away.
>
> "I would joke with the other British lads, 'Bring them to us - we'll have
> them'. It made us laugh. But the Americans obviously knew we wouldn't be
> shocked by seeing Western women, so they didn't bother.
>
> "It was a profoundly disturbing experience for these men. They would refuse
> to speak about what had happened. It would take perhaps four weeks for them
> to tell a friend - and we would shout it out around the whole block."
>
> Jamal added: "The whole point of Guantanamo was to get to you
> psychologically. The beatings were not as nearly as bad as the psychological
> torture - bruises heal after a week - but the other stuff stays with you."
>
> HE was talking from a secret location after being reunited with his family.
> The website designer, a convert to Islam, had gone to Pakistan in October
> 2001, a few weeks after September 11, to study Muslim culture.
>
> He accidentally strayed into Afghanistan - believing he was being driven to
> Turkey - and was arrested as a spy, perhaps because of his British passport.
> He was held in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and fell into US hands.
>
> Now Jamal bears the scars of Guantanamo. He stoops into a hunch as he walks
> because the shackles that bound him were too short.
>
> As a punishment, inmates would be confined so tightly they would be forced
> to lie in a ball for hours. During lengthy interrogation, they would be
> tethered to a metal ring on the floor.
>
> Jamal said: "Sometimes you would be chained up on the floor with your hands
> and feet actually bound together. One of my friends told me he was kept like
> that for 15 hours once.
>
> "Recreation meant your legs were untied and you walked up and down a strip
> of gravel. In Camp X-Ray you only got five minutes but in Delta you walked
> for around 15 minutes."
>
> Jamal said victims of the Extreme Reaction Force were paraded in front of
> cells. "It was a horrible sight and it was a frequent sight."
>
> He said one unit used force-feeding to end a hunger strike by 70 per cent of
> the 600 inmates. The strike started after a guard deliberately kicked a copy
> of the Koran.
>
> Rice and beans was the usual diet and the water was "filthy". Jamal added:
> "In Camp X-Ray it was yellow and in Delta it was black - the colour of
> Coca-Cola.
>
> "We had it piped through with a tap in each 'cage' but they would often turn
> the water off as punishment.
>
> "They would shut off the water before prayers so we couldn't wash ourselves
> according to our religion.
>
> "The food was terrible as well, up to 10 years out-of-date. They would open
> a hatch and shove it through a section at a time.
>
> "We had porridge and something they called 'like-milk', which was disgusting
> and 'like-tea' and a piece of fruit. The fruit had been frozen and pounded
> with chemicals. An apple might look red but there was waxy white stuff all
> over it and inside it would be black and brown.
>
> "They would play tricks on people by denying them things - you might be the
> only person on your block who didn't get any bread. I prided myself on never
> asking them for anything. I would not beg." Jamal said they were told they
> had no rights. "They actually said that - 'You have no rights here'. After a
> while, we stopped asking for human rights - we wanted animal rights. In Camp
> X-Ray my cage was right next to a kennel housing an Alsatian dog.
>
> "He had a wooden house with air conditioning and green grass to exercise on.
> I said to the guards, 'I want his rights' and they replied, 'That dog is
> member of the US army'.
>
> "You would be punished for anything - for having six packets of salt in your
> cell rather than five, for hanging your towel through the cage if it wasn't
> wet, even for having your spoon and things lined up in the wrong order."
>
> Being forced to use a bucket as a toilet in view of other inmates and guards
> was particularly embarrassing. Jamal said: "I never got used to it - we
> would all put our towels and clothes around us.
>
> "But the Military Police up in the tower would see us and would shout to
> each other.
>
> "We were only allowed a shower once a week at the beginning and none at all
> in solitary confinement.
>
> "This was very tough because you are supposed to be clean when you pray.
>
> "Gradually the number of showers rose to three a week. They were always
> cold.
>
> "You would be chained by two MPs while you were still in the cage before
> being taken off for what they called 'rec and shower'.
>
> "You could sometimes see the guards tampering with the shower heads to make
> water squirt all over the inmate's clothes if he had put them up to protect
> his privacy."
>
> Inmates were issued with "comfort items" - known as CIs - like shampoo,
> towels, a washcloth and boxer shorts. CIs would be removed as a punishment.
>
> Jamal defiantly refused "treats", such as watching a James Bond film in a
> room dubbed The Love Shack by inmates.
>
> He added: "Some people were given pizzas, ice-cream and McDonald's, but they
> didn't offer them to me. I guess they knew bribery would work with some and
> not with others."
>
> To pass the time, inmates would chat to each other, pray, read the Koran and
> sing Islamic songs. In Camp X-Ray, they were given Mills and Boon-style
> romance novels in Arabic, which they refused to read.
>
> Describing medical treatment, Jamal said he knew of 11 men who had legs
> amputated and two who lost toes and fingers. He was told that the Americans
> had removed far more tissue than was necessary.
>
> HE added: "The man in the cell next to me had frostbite in two fingers and
> two toes. He also had it in his big toe, but they didn't treat that for a
> year by which time they had to cut off much more than was needed.
>
> "All the men who had lost limbs complained they would chop them off high up
> and not bother to try to save as much as possible."
>
> Jamal added that he didn't have close friends in Guantanamo, saying: "When I
> did meet the other Brits, we would reminisce about home - particularly the
> food.
>
> "We were all obsessed with Scottish Highland Shortbread - we wanted some so
> much.
>
> "One of the Brits told me he was asked why he was a Muslim, because he ought
> to be praying to the Queen."
>
> Jamal, who is divorced with daughters aged three and eight and a son of
> five, is convinced his refusal to succumb to mind-games gave him the will to
> come through.
>
> He said: "It was very, very hard at times, but I tried to think about
> nothing but survival.
>
> "I kept my thoughts from home as much as possible because it would drive me
> crazy.
>
> "About a year into my time, I had a dream. A voice said, 'You will here for
> two years'.
>
> "In my dream I said, 'Two years! You're joking'. But when I woke up, I was
> calmer because at least that meant I would be getting out one day.
>
> "I was sent to Guantanamo on February 11, 2002 and left on March 9, 2004, so
> I was there for just over two years, just like the voice in the dream said."
>
> By Rosa Prince and Gary Jones
>
> ----
>
> TERROR OF TORTURE IN CUBA CAMP
> Mar 12 2004
>
> JAMAL al-Harith told last night how he suffered a brutal attack by US
> military police because he refused to have a mystery injection.
>
> A squad of five men used batons, fists, feet and knees in an assault that
> left him with severe bruising.
>
> During the beating the officers barked in automated unison: "Comply, comply,
> comply. Do not resist. Do not resist."
>
> Jamal told how the men swung into action after he politely refused a jab an
> orderly was trying to give him because he didn't know what it was and he was
> fit and healthy.
>
> The squad was from the US military's Extreme Reaction Force, a unit trained
> to hand out beatings and known to prisoners at Guantanamo as ERF.
>
> Jamal said: "I could hear their feet stomping on the ground as they got
> closer and closer to my cell. They were given a briefing about me refusing
> the injection, then I heard them readying themselves outside.
>
> "I was terrified of what they were going to do. I had seen victims of ERF
> being paraded in front of my cell.
>
> "They had been battered and bruised into submission. It was a horrible sight
> and a frequent sight."
>
> Jamal, who had been warned by interrogators they would inject him with drugs
> if he did not answer their questions, cowered in his cell awaiting the
> inevitable.
>
> When it came the full force of heavily protected men in riot gear, with
> batons and shields, was used against him.
>
> He said: "They were really gung-ho, hyped up and aggressive. One of them
> attacked me really hard and left me with a deep red mark from my backbone
> down to my knee. I thought I was bleeding, but it was just really bad
> bruising.
>
> "I said to myself, 'You shouldn't have put yourself through that', but said
> nothing to the ERFs. I didn't want to give them the satisfaction.
>
> "There is principle and I wasn't going to take the injection so if they
> wanted to beat me up that was down to them. This huge black bruise was there
> for days after that."
>
> But Jamal's ordeal didn't end there. Half an hour later as he was
> recovering, a second ERF squad arrived to dish out more punishment.
>
> HE SAID: "They accused me of biting a military policeman. I said nothing. I
> knew it wouldn't help whatever I said.
>
> "They laid into me again. When they were finished I sat down, picked up the
> Koran and started reading. Then two guards put me in more chains and said:
> 'Will you comply?'"
>
> Jamal was taken to the feared isolation units, nicknamed ISOs, where those
> accused of misbehaving are kept in solitary confinement with just a mat and
> towel.
>
> A toothbrush, toothpaste and soap, considered "comfort items", were denied.
> Jamal admits this was the first time he cried, although he did not let the
> guards see he was upset.
>
> He added: "I sobbed a little, twice. Everything had been taken away from me.
> All I had was my dignity."
>
> Jamal told of the psychological torture used on those in the isolation unit
> by guards who were trying to break their resolve.
>
> Bright lights were left on in their cells overnight making it impossible to
> sleep properly. And the rooms were turned very hot in the day or freezing in
> the early morning by using fans in the ceiling.
>
> Jamal said: "I'd wake up at 3am shivering like crazy. Just to keep a little
> bit warm I'd try to sleep under a metal bed to protect me from the cold air
> that was blowing in.
>
> "I'd kept a towel which I hid from a guard to lie on. It wasn't much, but it
> made things a bit better."
>
> He was put in the isolation unit twice more. Once when he kept ripping off
> wrist bands with his name and the number 490 written on and another time
> after guards set up a group of detainees by pretending some spoons had gone
> missing. Jamal said: "Non-compliance were the favourite words thrown at us."
>
> Jamal told how he was interrogated on a regular basis by FBI and CIA agents
> and later MI5.
>
> On 40 occasions he was quizzed in chains, which were bolted to the floor,
> for up to 12 hours at a time.
>
> Jamal quickly became an expert in their interrogation techniques, often
> turning questions on his tormentors.
>
> He said: "They'd ask me the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I'd
> say nothing and they asked me why I wasn't responding.
>
> "I'd say: 'You're boring me, ask me something new and I will reply'." After
> the Americans failed to glean any information, MI5 officers and British
> consular officials interviewed him. On eight or nine occasions they tried to
> make him admit he was involved in terrorism.
>
> Jamal said: "They would say: 'Are you a terrorist?' I'd say 'no, get me out
> of here'."
>
> Speaking about his British interrogators, Jamal added: "They were a mixed
> bunch. There was one young nervous guy who looked about 21. I called him
> Youth Training Scheme MI5.
>
> "He wasn't very professional and hadn't even checked out my background. One
> of them did say they had run my name and details through every Interpol
> check, but could find nothing. I told them that's because I'm innocent.
> There's nothing on me. I haven't even got a parking ticket.
>
> "The young guy got a bit frustrated with me and said: 'Are you trying to
> tell me how to do my job?'
>
> "One MI5 guy I just didn't want to talk to. He kept asking me questions and
> I'd say 'it's in my file'.
>
> "In the end I said: 'I'm not talking any more.' He replied: 'I've come all
> this way from England to see you.' I only saw him for 10 minutes. He was
> very red faced and angry."
>
> Jamal said his US interrogators were much meaner in their approach to
> questioning.
>
> One told him after not getting the answers he wanted: "We are going to
> inject you with drugs."
>
> Jamal said: "They were trying everything they could to frighten me. They
> even staged a mock beating up in the next room to me. They started shouting
> and pulling a chair around, but I knew there wasn't anyone there because I
> couldn't hear any chains clanking on the floor."
>
> Another officer threatened Jamal with torture to get a confession. He told
> him: "Then we will kill your family and you."
>
> Jamal said: "Sometimes they'd joke about what they were going to do to me.
> But I was determined to show no weakness. I didn't want to let them think
> they were getting to me.
>
> "Other times they'd play a good cop, bad cop routine. I tried to remain
> calm, although I was fuming inside. It would been giving in to have lost my
> temper and I never did, not once.
>
> "I don't swear and I didn't fight back. It was only on principles that I
> stood my ground.
>
> "The mental torture was far tougher than any of the physical punishments. I
> knew I was being treated a lot worse than any of the other detainees. They
> tried everything to break me.
>
> "Ridiculously, they even accused me of being an MI5 spy.
>
> "I began to tease them a little because it was my way of coping. They could
> never work out when I was serious or not.
>
> I HAD three plaits in my beard. I suggested, although I didn't say it, that
> it was for three people I had killed during drug deals in Moss Side,
> Manchester.
>
> "I was making the whole thing up but they believed me. Next time I saw an
> officer he said MI5 had confirmed the story.
>
> "They couldn't get a handle on me and that frustrated them. In the end one
> said: 'Who are you?' And I said: 'I've been here for over one a half years
> and you're asking who I am?'
>
> "I took a stand against them because what they were doing to me was
> barbaric. I wouldn't get down on my knees for the chains to be pulled around
> my body because it was demeaning.
>
> "About 20 per cent of us wouldn't co-operate. Eventually they backed down
> and we would stand while the guards went on their knees to chain us up.
>
> "That was a small victory. There weren't many, but they were memorable. I
> will cherish them."
>
> Despite the horror, Jamal said there were lighter moments.
>
> One particular interrogation technique amused him. He said: "They started
> playing different music to see how I would react.
>
> "They started with country singer Kris Kristofferson which I said I quite
> liked. Then some Fleetwood Mac songs.
>
> "They watched my reactions on camera. I just said the music's great and even
> started singing along. They didn't play it again."
>
> In the isolation unit, Jamal met for the first time fellow British detainee
> Tarek Dergoul.
>
> He said: "He was suave and had a pencil moustache. We had a good chat about
> life back in Britain."
>
> Jamal was released on Tuesday after being flown from Cuba to RAF Northolt,
> West London.
>
> He arrived back with four other former Guantanamo Bay Britons - Asif Iqbal
> and Ruhal Ahmed, both 22, and 26-year-olds Shafiq Rasul and Tarek.
>
> They were freed on Wednesday night after being quizzed by anti-terrorist
> police in London.
>
> Four other British suspects are still being held in Cuba.
>
> Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last night said the US was right to keep the
> men locked up and the release of the five did not necessarily prove their
> innocence.
>
> He added: "The Americans as far as they were concerned had good reason for
> detaining them."
>
> Asked whether they were innocent, he replied: "I can't answer that question,
> nobody can."
>
> ----
>
> A TALE TO SHAME THE FREE WORLD
>
> YESTERDAY saw another appalling reminder of the curse of terrorism.
>
> The terrible toll in human life and suffering in Madrid unites people around
> the world.
>
> No wonder there is hatred for the fanatics who inflict such pain and misery.
>
> Which is why some people are critical of the men who have just returned to
> this country from the camp at Guantanamo Bay.
>
> They assumed the five were linked to terrorists in Afghanistan because we
> knew nothing about them or what happened to them. Until now.
>
> Today the Mirror tells the story of Jamal al-Harith who has spent the past
> two years incarcerated in the hell of Camp Delta.
>
> He had gone on a visit to Pakistan - as he says, like thousands of other
> Britons - but a truck he hired to get him out drove into Afghanistan.
>
> That led to his capture by the brutal Taliban. He was lucky to survive.
>
> When he was freed, it was only to be seized by the Americans and sent to
> Cuba. Which is when a greater torment began.
>
> What Jamal reveals about the treatment of prisoners at Camp Delta will shock
> everyone who believes in the rule of law.
>
> They were abused, beaten, threatened, tortured and humiliated.
>
> Naked prostitutes were paraded in front of the most religious men. They were
> mockingly told they had no rights.
>
> Jamal suffered as much as anyone even though, as he says, he had never
> received as much as a parking ticket before his incarceration.
>
> Both President Bush and his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld,
> contemptuously dismissed everyone at Guantanamo as a dangerous terrorist.
>
> That was a blatant lie and shames the United States - the leader of the free
> world and supposed upholder of justice and decency.
>
> Jamal al-Harith has exposed the disgrace of what has gone on at Camp Delta -
> and is still going on to hundreds who remain there.
>
> His story should make the international community insist that the Americans
> stop their shameful behaviour.
>
> And not just for the sake of justice. For there is a connection between the
> prisoners there and the broken and bleeding bodies in Madrid.
>
> Just as the free world must unite against terrorism, so it must stand
> together to uphold civilisation and the rule of law.
>
> We will not beat the terrorists by the scandalous and debasing treatment of
> the Guantanamo prisoners.
>
> All that does is convince the perverted minds of the fanatics that they are
> right.
>
> ---
>
> The Mirror newspaper - London, UK
>
> Found this article on alledged human-rights-abuses by the U.S.E.R.F. (the
> U.S. military Extreme Reaction Force). Interesting stuff, but is it true?
> Or maybe it's just the tip of the iceberg ...
>
> MY HELL IN CAMP X-RAY
> Mar 12 2004
>
> A BRITISH captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells the world of its
> full horror - and reveals how prostitutes were taken into the camp to
> degrade Muslim inmates.
>
> Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago after two years of
> confinement, is the first detainee to lift the lid on the US regime in
> Cuba's Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta.
>
> The father-of-three, from Manchester, told how he was assaulted with fists,
> feet and batons after refusing a mystery injection.
>
> He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a time in hand and leg
> cuffs with metal links which cut into the skin.
>
> Their "cells" were wire cages with concrete floors and open to the
> elements - giving no privacy or protection from the rats, snakes and
> scorpions loose around the American base.
>
> He claims punishment beatings were handed out by guards known as the Extreme
> Reaction Force. They waded into inmates in full riot-gear, raining blows on
> them.
>
> Prisoners faced psychological torture and mind-games in attempts to make
> them confess to acts they had never committed. Even petty breaches of rules
> brought severe punishment.
>
> Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations of limbs were more
> drastic than required, claimed Jamal.
>
> A diet of foul water and food up to 10 years out-of-date left inmates
> malnourished.
>
> But Jamal's most shocking disclosure centred on the use of vice girls to
> torment the most religiously devout detainees.
>
> Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before would be forced to
> watch as the hookers touched their own naked bodies.
>
> The men would return distraught. One said an American girl had smeared
> menstrual blood across his face in an act of humiliation.
>
> Jamal said: "I knew of this happening about 10 times. It always seemed to be
> those who were very young or known to be particularly religious who would be
> taken away.
>
> "I would joke with the other British lads, 'Bring them to us - we'll have
> them'. It made us laugh. But the Americans obviously knew we wouldn't be
> shocked by seeing Western women, so they didn't bother.
>
> "It was a profoundly disturbing experience for these men. They would refuse
> to speak about what had happened. It would take perhaps four weeks for them
> to tell a friend - and we would shout it out around the whole block."
>
> Jamal added: "The whole point of Guantanamo was to get to you
> psychologically. The beatings were not as nearly as bad as the psychological
> torture - bruises heal after a week - but the other stuff stays with you."
>
> HE was talking from a secret location after being reunited with his family.
> The website designer, a convert to Islam, had gone to Pakistan in October
> 2001, a few weeks after September 11, to study Muslim culture.
>
> He accidentally strayed into Afghanistan - believing he was being driven to
> Turkey - and was arrested as a spy, perhaps because of his British passport.
> He was held in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and fell into US hands.
>
> Now Jamal bears the scars of Guantanamo. He stoops into a hunch as he walks
> because the shackles that bound him were too short.
>
> As a punishment, inmates would be confined so tightly they would be forced
> to lie in a ball for hours. During lengthy interrogation, they would be
> tethered to a metal ring on the floor.
>
> Jamal said: "Sometimes you would be chained up on the floor with your hands
> and feet actually bound together. One of my friends told me he was kept like
> that for 15 hours once.
>
> "Recreation meant your legs were untied and you walked up and down a strip
> of gravel. In Camp X-Ray you only got five minutes but in Delta you walked
> for around 15 minutes."
>
> Jamal said victims of the Extreme Reaction Force were paraded in front of
> cells. "It was a horrible sight and it was a frequent sight."
>
> He said one unit used force-feeding to end a hunger strike by 70 per cent of
> the 600 inmates. The strike started after a guard deliberately kicked a copy
> of the Koran.
>
> Rice and beans was the usual diet and the water was "filthy". Jamal added:
> "In Camp X-Ray it was yellow and in Delta it was black - the colour of
> Coca-Cola.
>
> "We had it piped through with a tap in each 'cage' but they would often turn
> the water off as punishment.
>
> "They would shut off the water before prayers so we couldn't wash ourselves
> according to our religion.
>
> "The food was terrible as well, up to 10 years out-of-date. They would open
> a hatch and shove it through a section at a time.
>
> "We had porridge and something they called 'like-milk', which was disgusting
> and 'like-tea' and a piece of fruit. The fruit had been frozen and pounded
> with chemicals. An apple might look red but there was waxy white stuff all
> over it and inside it would be black and brown.
>
> "They would play tricks on people by denying them things - you might be the
> only person on your block who didn't get any bread. I prided myself on never
> asking them for anything. I would not beg." Jamal said they were told they
> had no rights. "They actually said that - 'You have no rights here'. After a
> while, we stopped asking for human rights - we wanted animal rights. In Camp
> X-Ray my cage was right next to a kennel housing an Alsatian dog.
>
> "He had a wooden house with air conditioning and green grass to exercise on.
> I said to the guards, 'I want his rights' and they replied, 'That dog is
> member of the US army'.
>
> "You would be punished for anything - for having six packets of salt in your
> cell rather than five, for hanging your towel through the cage if it wasn't
> wet, even for having your spoon and things lined up in the wrong order."
>
> Being forced to use a bucket as a toilet in view of other inmates and guards
> was particularly embarrassing. Jamal said: "I never got used to it - we
> would all put our towels and clothes around us.
>
> "But the Military Police up in the tower would see us and would shout to
> each other.
>
> "We were only allowed a shower once a week at the beginning and none at all
> in solitary confinement.
>
> "This was very tough because you are supposed to be clean when you pray.
>
> "Gradually the number of showers rose to three a week. They were always
> cold.
>
> "You would be chained by two MPs while you were still in the cage before
> being taken off for what they called 'rec and shower'.
>
> "You could sometimes see the guards tampering with the shower heads to make
> water squirt all over the inmate's clothes if he had put them up to protect
> his privacy."
>
> Inmates were issued with "comfort items" - known as CIs - like shampoo,
> towels, a washcloth and boxer shorts. CIs would be removed as a punishment.
>
> Jamal defiantly refused "treats", such as watching a James Bond film in a
> room dubbed The Love Shack by inmates.
>
> He added: "Some people were given pizzas, ice-cream and McDonald's, but they
> didn't offer them to me. I guess they knew bribery would work with some and
> not with others."
>
> To pass the time, inmates would chat to each other, pray, read the Koran and
> sing Islamic songs. In Camp X-Ray, they were given Mills and Boon-style
> romance novels in Arabic, which they refused to read.
>
> Describing medical treatment, Jamal said he knew of 11 men who had legs
> amputated and two who lost toes and fingers. He was told that the Americans
> had removed far more tissue than was necessary.
>
> HE added: "The man in the cell next to me had frostbite in two fingers and
> two toes. He also had it in his big toe, but they didn't treat that for a
> year by which time they had to cut off much more than was needed.
>
> "All the men who had lost limbs complained they would chop them off high up
> and not bother to try to save as much as possible."
>
> Jamal added that he didn't have close friends in Guantanamo, saying: "When I
> did meet the other Brits, we would reminisce about home - particularly the
> food.
>
> "We were all obsessed with Scottish Highland Shortbread - we wanted some so
> much.
>
> "One of the Brits told me he was asked why he was a Muslim, because he ought
> to be praying to the Queen."
>
> Jamal, who is divorced with daughters aged three and eight and a son of
> five, is convinced his refusal to succumb to mind-games gave him the will to
> come through.
>
> He said: "It was very, very hard at times, but I tried to think about
> nothing but survival.
>
> "I kept my thoughts from home as much as possible because it would drive me
> crazy.
>
> "About a year into my time, I had a dream. A voice said, 'You will here for
> two years'.
>
> "In my dream I said, 'Two years! You're joking'. But when I woke up, I was
> calmer because at least that meant I would be getting out one day.
>
> "I was sent to Guantanamo on February 11, 2002 and left on March 9, 2004, so
> I was there for just over two years, just like the voice in the dream said."
>
> By Rosa Prince and Gary Jones
>
> ----
>
> TERROR OF TORTURE IN CUBA CAMP
> Mar 12 2004
>
> JAMAL al-Harith told last night how he suffered a brutal attack by US
> military police because he refused to have a mystery injection.
>
> A squad of five men used batons, fists, feet and knees in an assault that
> left him with severe bruising.
>
> During the beating the officers barked in automated unison: "Comply, comply,
> comply. Do not resist. Do not resist."
>
> Jamal told how the men swung into action after he politely refused a jab an
> orderly was trying to give him because he didn't know what it was and he was
> fit and healthy.
>
> The squad was from the US military's Extreme Reaction Force, a unit trained
> to hand out beatings and known to prisoners at Guantanamo as ERF.
>
> Jamal said: "I could hear their feet stomping on the ground as they got
> closer and closer to my cell. They were given a briefing about me refusing
> the injection, then I heard them readying themselves outside.
>
> "I was terrified of what they were going to do. I had seen victims of ERF
> being paraded in front of my cell.
>
> "They had been battered and bruised into submission. It was a horrible sight
> and a frequent sight."
>
> Jamal, who had been warned by interrogators they would inject him with drugs
> if he did not answer their questions, cowered in his cell awaiting the
> inevitable.
>
> When it came the full force of heavily protected men in riot gear, with
> batons and shields, was used against him.
>
> He said: "They were really gung-ho, hyped up and aggressive. One of them
> attacked me really hard and left me with a deep red mark from my backbone
> down to my knee. I thought I was bleeding, but it was just really bad
> bruising.
>
> "I said to myself, 'You shouldn't have put yourself through that', but said
> nothing to the ERFs. I didn't want to give them the satisfaction.
>
> "There is principle and I wasn't going to take the injection so if they
> wanted to beat me up that was down to them. This huge black bruise was there
> for days after that."
>
> But Jamal's ordeal didn't end there. Half an hour later as he was
> recovering, a second ERF squad arrived to dish out more punishment.
>
> HE SAID: "They accused me of biting a military policeman. I said nothing. I
> knew it wouldn't help whatever I said.
>
> "They laid into me again. When they were finished I sat down, picked up the
> Koran and started reading. Then two guards put me in more chains and said:
> 'Will you comply?'"
>
> Jamal was taken to the feared isolation units, nicknamed ISOs, where those
> accused of misbehaving are kept in solitary confinement with just a mat and
> towel.
>
> A toothbrush, toothpaste and soap, considered "comfort items", were denied.
> Jamal admits this was the first time he cried, although he did not let the
> guards see he was upset.
>
> He added: "I sobbed a little, twice. Everything had been taken away from me.
> All I had was my dignity."
>
> Jamal told of the psychological torture used on those in the isolation unit
> by guards who were trying to break their resolve.
>
> Bright lights were left on in their cells overnight making it impossible to
> sleep properly. And the rooms were turned very hot in the day or freezing in
> the early morning by using fans in the ceiling.
>
> Jamal said: "I'd wake up at 3am shivering like crazy. Just to keep a little
> bit warm I'd try to sleep under a metal bed to protect me from the cold air
> that was blowing in.
>
> "I'd kept a towel which I hid from a guard to lie on. It wasn't much, but it
> made things a bit better."
>
> He was put in the isolation unit twice more. Once when he kept ripping off
> wrist bands with his name and the number 490 written on and another time
> after guards set up a group of detainees by pretending some spoons had gone
> missing. Jamal said: "Non-compliance were the favourite words thrown at us."
>
> Jamal told how he was interrogated on a regular basis by FBI and CIA agents
> and later MI5.
>
> On 40 occasions he was quizzed in chains, which were bolted to the floor,
> for up to 12 hours at a time.
>
> Jamal quickly became an expert in their interrogation techniques, often
> turning questions on his tormentors.
>
> He said: "They'd ask me the same thing over and over again. Sometimes I'd
> say nothing and they asked me why I wasn't responding.
>
> "I'd say: 'You're boring me, ask me something new and I will reply'." After
> the Americans failed to glean any information, MI5 officers and British
> consular officials interviewed him. On eight or nine occasions they tried to
> make him admit he was involved in terrorism.
>
> Jamal said: "They would say: 'Are you a terrorist?' I'd say 'no, get me out
> of here'."
>
> Speaking about his British interrogators, Jamal added: "They were a mixed
> bunch. There was one young nervous guy who looked about 21. I called him
> Youth Training Scheme MI5.
>
> "He wasn't very professional and hadn't even checked out my background. One
> of them did say they had run my name and details through every Interpol
> check, but could find nothing. I told them that's because I'm innocent.
> There's nothing on me. I haven't even got a parking ticket.
>
> "The young guy got a bit frustrated with me and said: 'Are you trying to
> tell me how to do my job?'
>
> "One MI5 guy I just didn't want to talk to. He kept asking me questions and
> I'd say 'it's in my file'.
>
> "In the end I said: 'I'm not talking any more.' He replied: 'I've come all
> this way from England to see you.' I only saw him for 10 minutes. He was
> very red faced and angry."
>
> Jamal said his US interrogators were much meaner in their approach to
> questioning.
>
> One told him after not getting the answers he wanted: "We are going to
> inject you with drugs."
>
> Jamal said: "They were trying everything they could to frighten me. They
> even staged a mock beating up in the next room to me. They started shouting
> and pulling a chair around, but I knew there wasn't anyone there because I
> couldn't hear any chains clanking on the floor."
>
> Another officer threatened Jamal with torture to get a confession. He told
> him: "Then we will kill your family and you."
>
> Jamal said: "Sometimes they'd joke about what they were going to do to me.
> But I was determined to show no weakness. I didn't want to let them think
> they were getting to me.
>
> "Other times they'd play a good cop, bad cop routine. I tried to remain
> calm, although I was fuming inside. It would been giving in to have lost my
> temper and I never did, not once.
>
> "I don't swear and I didn't fight back. It was only on principles that I
> stood my ground.
>
> "The mental torture was far tougher than any of the physical punishments. I
> knew I was being treated a lot worse than any of the other detainees. They
> tried everything to break me.
>
> "Ridiculously, they even accused me of being an MI5 spy.
>
> "I began to tease them a little because it was my way of coping. They could
> never work out when I was serious or not.
>
> I HAD three plaits in my beard. I suggested, although I didn't say it, that
> it was for three people I had killed during drug deals in Moss Side,
> Manchester.
>
> "I was making the whole thing up but they believed me. Next time I saw an
> officer he said MI5 had confirmed the story.
>
> "They couldn't get a handle on me and that frustrated them. In the end one
> said: 'Who are you?' And I said: 'I've been here for over one a half years
> and you're asking who I am?'
>
> "I took a stand against them because what they were doing to me was
> barbaric. I wouldn't get down on my knees for the chains to be pulled around
> my body because it was demeaning.
>
> "About 20 per cent of us wouldn't co-operate. Eventually they backed down
> and we would stand while the guards went on their knees to chain us up.
>
> "That was a small victory. There weren't many, but they were memorable. I
> will cherish them."
>
> Despite the horror, Jamal said there were lighter moments.
>
> One particular interrogation technique amused him. He said: "They started
> playing different music to see how I would react.
>
> "They started with country singer Kris Kristofferson which I said I quite
> liked. Then some Fleetwood Mac songs.
>
> "They watched my reactions on camera. I just said the music's great and even
> started singing along. They didn't play it again."
>
> In the isolation unit, Jamal met for the first time fellow British detainee
> Tarek Dergoul.
>
> He said: "He was suave and had a pencil moustache. We had a good chat about
> life back in Britain."
>
> Jamal was released on Tuesday after being flown from Cuba to RAF Northolt,
> West London.
>
> He arrived back with four other former Guantanamo Bay Britons - Asif Iqbal
> and Ruhal Ahmed, both 22, and 26-year-olds Shafiq Rasul and Tarek.
>
> They were freed on Wednesday night after being quizzed by anti-terrorist
> police in London.
>
> Four other British suspects are still being held in Cuba.
>
> Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last night said the US was right to keep the
> men locked up and the release of the five did not necessarily prove their
> innocence.
>
> He added: "The Americans as far as they were concerned had good reason for
> detaining them."
>
> Asked whether they were innocent, he replied: "I can't answer that question,
> nobody can."
>
> ----
>
> A TALE TO SHAME THE FREE WORLD
>
> YESTERDAY saw another appalling reminder of the curse of terrorism.
>
> The terrible toll in human life and suffering in Madrid unites people around
> the world.
>
> No wonder there is hatred for the fanatics who inflict such pain and misery.
>
> Which is why some people are critical of the men who have just returned to
> this country from the camp at Guantanamo Bay.
>
> They assumed the five were linked to terrorists in Afghanistan because we
> knew nothing about them or what happened to them. Until now.
>
> Today the Mirror tells the story of Jamal al-Harith who has spent the past
> two years incarcerated in the hell of Camp Delta.
>
> He had gone on a visit to Pakistan - as he says, like thousands of other
> Britons - but a truck he hired to get him out drove into Afghanistan.
>
> That led to his capture by the brutal Taliban. He was lucky to survive.
>
> When he was freed, it was only to be seized by the Americans and sent to
> Cuba. Which is when a greater torment began.
>
> What Jamal reveals about the treatment of prisoners at Camp Delta will shock
> everyone who believes in the rule of law.
>
> They were abused, beaten, threatened, tortured and humiliated.
>
> Naked prostitutes were paraded in front of the most religious men. They were
> mockingly told they had no rights.
>
> Jamal suffered as much as anyone even though, as he says, he had never
> received as much as a parking ticket before his incarceration.
>
> Both President Bush and his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld,
> contemptuously dismissed everyone at Guantanamo as a dangerous terrorist.
>
> That was a blatant lie and shames the United States - the leader of the free
> world and supposed upholder of justice and decency.
>
> Jamal al-Harith has exposed the disgrace of what has gone on at Camp Delta -
> and is still going on to hundreds who remain there.
>
> His story should make the international community insist that the Americans
> stop their shameful behaviour.
>
> And not just for the sake of justice. For there is a connection between the
> prisoners there and the broken and bleeding bodies in Madrid.
>
> Just as the free world must unite against terrorism, so it must stand
> together to uphold civilisation and the rule of law.
>
> We will not beat the terrorists by the scandalous and debasing treatment of
> the Guantanamo prisoners.
>
> All that does is convince the perverted minds of the fanatics that they are
> right.
>
> ---
>
> The Mirror newspaper - London, UK