The WHOLE FUCKING NYTIMES STORY (You force people to register, you get your story lifted, fuckheads) wrote:LONDON (Reuters) - A British detainee at Guantanamo Bay said in a letter revealed Friday he was tortured and abused during detention, in what is believed to be the first such claim to come from inside the prison.
The accusations from Moazzam Begg, detained in Pakistan more than two years ago, add to series of abuse claims about the U.S. prison in Cuba, particularly from former British detainees.
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``It's exactly what we thought from the testimony of others who have come back from Guantanamo Bay -- exactly what we thought was happening,'' Begg's lawyer Gareth Peirce said.
Peirce said the letter was given to her earlier this week by Begg's American lawyer who had been to Guantanamo to see him. Although it came past the usual U.S. military censors, it was the first unclassified communication from him, she said.
In the letter dated July 12 of this year, Begg protested his innocence of any crime and demanded to know the reason for his detention in Bagram, Afghanistan for a year.
He said he was denied natural light and fresh food, had been held in solitary confinement, and was forced to sign and initial documents presented to him by U.S. officials.
He also said he was physically abused, stripped and paraded in front of cameras held by U.S. personnel.
``During several interviews, particularly though unexclusively in Afghanistan, I was subjected to pernicious threats of torture, actual vindictive torture and death threats, among other coercively employed interrogation techniques,'' he said in an extract of the letter read by BBC radio.
``Neither was the presence of legal counsel ever produced or made available.''
Begg also said he had partially witnessed the deaths of two detainees at the hands of U.S. military personnel.
Peirce said this helped to explain why Begg had not been seen by any other detainees at the prison. ``It suggests that he's been a witness to at least one murder which undoubtedly was in Bagram Air Base and would explain why he is now subjected to the extraordinary isolation that he is,'' she said.
The U.S. military, whose interrogation techniques have come under fire amid revelations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad, has denied the allegations.
More than 600 people have been held at Guantanamo without charge or access to lawyers, some for more than two years.
Britain's Foreign Office said in response to Begg's letter that its officials had visited Guantanamo Bay to check on the British detainees' welfare.
``Mr. Begg has never alleged to us that he has been systematically abused at Guantanamo in the way that has been suggested,'' a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. ``He has said that he was mistreated at Bagram and that's something that we have raised with the American authorities, who are investigating.''
Washington says the four remaining British detainees at Guantanamo pose a security threat.
Five other Britons were released in March and freed within a day by British police without any charges.
Tell me AGAIN why Shrub is better than So Damn Insane, or Osama Bin Lalaland, or Kim-Jong Ill-in-the-Head. I just do not see any difference whatsoever at this point...
Y'know, I actually like the way any one president can only do two-consecutive terms. Ordinarily, it's fucking stupid, but it seems to help the US get rid of these idiots who would otherwise be in forever it would appear.
Admiral Valdemar wrote:Y'know, I actually like the way any one president can only do two-consecutive terms. Ordinarily, it's fucking stupid, but it seems to help the US get rid of these idiots who would otherwise be in forever it would appear.
Yeah, and you don't know how much I wished Canada had a 2-term limit when we had Mssr. Cretin for prime minister. I'm quite sure you're really wishing Britain had a term limit now, because if it did, Tony Blair would be gone for certain this election. As it stands, he'll probably win, given the sad state of the opposition...
The M2HB: The Greatest Machinegun Ever Made.
HAB: Crew-Served Weapons Specialist
"Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope." --P.J. O'Rourke
"A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." --J.S. Mill
Now don't get me wrong, in the US the limit seems right because frankly, I don't know how the average US voter takes a piss without needing a political spin on what they're doing. In the UK we see the two-term limit as, how you say, a bummer.
Blair may not be the best premier we've had, but he isn't the worst and despite his misgivings, the public hasn't had any real other choice that would do better than him right now. Hague? That young sycophant of conservatism was annoying to his own party. IDS? Didn't really have a clue. Howard? Maybe, but people think he's inherently evil. The Lib Dems and UKIP are protest votes, they couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.
So at the moment, Blair doing a third term may not be too bad, so long as he learns from mistakes. I'm hoping Alan Milburn will replace him, not Brown though.
Admiral Valdemar wrote:
So at the moment, Blair doing a third term may not be too bad, so long as he learns from mistakes. I'm hoping Alan Milburn will replace him, not Brown though.
I'd rather Prescott.
For me, other than Iraq Blair hasn't done anything really bad. I'd much rather see him than any of the alternatives.
Admiral Valdemar wrote:
So at the moment, Blair doing a third term may not be too bad, so long as he learns from mistakes. I'm hoping Alan Milburn will replace him, not Brown though.
That certainly seems to be the plan at the moment, I personally could see John Reid appearing as a middle of the party choice which I wouldn't mind (who doesn't want to see a Scottish Catholic former Stalinist running the country ).
Ma Deuce wrote:
Yeah, and you don't know how much I wished Canada had a 2-term limit when we had Mssr. Cretin for prime minister. I'm quite sure you're really wishing Britain had a term limit now, because if it did, Tony Blair would be gone for certain this election. As it stands, he'll probably win, given the sad state of the opposition...
Apart from the odd ill advised military adventure Blair is rather good and I would take a third term in a heartbeat.
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