Former Gitmo detainee: "interrogators told me they knew I was innocent"

[sabra]

http://www.france24.com/en/20090610-former-guantanamo-detainee-lakdhar-boumediene-interview

Former Gitmo detainee Boumediene describes prison ordeal

Former Guantanamo inmate Lakdhar Boumediene told FRANCE 24 in an exclusive interview about his seven-year ordeal in the US prison camp, where his protestations of innocence were met with escalating brutality from interrogators.

Former Guantanamo inmate Lakdhar Boumediene told FRANCE 24 in an exclusive interview that “interrogators told me they knew I was innocent,” but wanted him to testify against other detainees.

“I told them I can tell you about my life, but not that of others,” he said. “They were asking me to testify against my best friends.”

Boumediene’s ordeal ended last month when he was released in France after more than seven years in the US anti-terror prison camp, including more than two years spent on hunger strike.

...

“I thought of my family every day for seven years. That was my strength,” he said. The 42-year-old is the father of two little girls.

...

He was picked up shortly after the September 11 attacks on suspicion of plotting to blow up the US and British embassies in Sarajevo.

The Bosnian charges against him were quickly dropped and he and five others were ordered released, but under pressure from the administration of former US President George W. Bush, he was turned over to the US military and flown to Guantanamo Bay prison. He says he thought that it would not be long before US authorities realized they had made an error and released him.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[OneGrassRoot]

2. This is a good example of the two different worldviews....

the Faux/Limbaugh crowd versus most who engage here.

Even though DUers are at odds in many ways, about many things, most probably recognize that some, if not many, of those detained are indeed innocent. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We read the above and cringe at the reality that no doubt some detainees held for years are innocent.

It's this -- along with the many other reasons, not the least of which is its illegality -- that lead us to be against torture. We recognize that innocents were tortured.

But the citizens Faux/Cheney/Palin/Limbaugh are pandering to really couldn't give a shit. At all.

To them, the life of a brown-skinned person is...trivial. Combine that with the word "muslim" and they KNOW they're all guilty. What is done to them doesn't matter.

I have been surrounded for years by people who sincerely repeat the mantra "We should just make a parking lot out of the Middle East. Blow them all up."

Anyone who isn't either Caucasian or Christian has no value as a human being to them. They laugh at the waterboarding discussions.

I don't think many here realize how very, very different the worldview really is. They may be in the minority, but they're a dangerous minority, in my opinion. We know they don't value life unless it's in the womb; that makes them very dangerous.

Edit: I'd like to add that while they think nothing of waterboarding and the other "enhanced interrogation techniques" that have been discussed on TV thus far, I still ask them, "Would you sodomize a 15-year-old innocent family member to save your country from a ticking time bomb?"

(They like to use the ticking time bomb and "saving" their country in their justification of torture, don'tcha know)

I get blank stares when I ask that question. That's one thing I haven't been able to get any of them to chest thump about and say they'd do it to save their family or their country.

[truedelphi]

3. The poor man detained in Kabul, who had every bone in his body broken,

Was also believed to be innocent (At least after the first twenty four hours of torture or so.)

But orders were given to torture -- and those orders were obeyed until he died.

And his only crime was driving a cab somewhat near an Embassy that blew up in Kabul.

Like Mike Malloy is fond of saying, "Have I mentioned today how much I hate these people?"