NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, Oct. 6, 2007

Freed Gitmo Detainee Tells Of Desecration

Mauritanian Man Confined For 5 Years Describes "Screams Caused By Torture"

  • Mohamed Lemine Ould Sidi Mohamed, who spent nearly five years incarcerated at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, in his family home in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Oct. 3, 2007. Mohamed was returned to Mauritania on Sept. 26 after being cleared for release by a U.S. military review panel; Mauritanian authorities released him Tuesday.

    Mohamed Lemine Ould Sidi Mohamed, who spent nearly five years incarcerated at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, in his family home in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Oct. 3, 2007. Mohamed was returned to Mauritania on Sept. 26 after being cleared for release by a U.S. military review panel; Mauritanian authorities released him Tuesday.  (AP Photo/Ahmed Mohamed)

  • Interactive Gitmo Tribunals

    Detainees on trial, photos and a history of the naval base.

(CBS/AP)  A Mauritanian man who spent nearly five years incarcerated at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay on Friday accused American soldiers of desecrating the Quran by urinating and stepping on it.

Though never tortured himself, Mohamed Lemine Ould Sidi Mohamed compared his detention to torture, telling The Associated Press in an interview: "Humiliating words against religion and against Muslims were a kind of currency they used every day."

U.S. authorities handed Mohamed to Mauritania last week, and he was briefly detained here. He was released Tuesday by Mauritanian officials.

During his incarceration by the Americans, Mohamed said he witnessed the abuse of the Muslim holy book.

"The soldiers urinated on the holy Quran to humiliate us. They stepped on the holy book and told us we are a nation that does not understand civilization," Mohamed said in Mauritania's desert capital, Nouakchott.

Afterward, he and other inmates he claimed witnessed similar incidents went on a hunger strike, and U.S. officials force-fed him, he said.

The inmates decided thereafter not to take Qurans into their cells to protect the book, relying instead on memorized passages, he said.

Following media reports that sparked protests around the world, a U.S. inquiry in 2005 found nine incidents in which Guantanamo civilian and military personnel had mishandled the Quran. They also found 15 cases of abuse of the book by detainees.

In January FBI agents documented more than two dozen incidents of possible mistreatment, including one detainee whose head was allegedly wrapped in duct tape for chanting the Quran. The reports describe a female guard who detainees said handled their genitals and wiped menstrual blood on their face. Another interrogator reportedly bragged to an FBI agent about dressing as a Catholic priest and “baptizing” a prisoner.

Officials say guards are trained not to show disrespect to the Quran and are careful not to do so.

"We respect and support the detainees' right to worship," a Guantanamo spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, said Friday, adding that the military provides the men there with prayer rugs and prayer along with Qurans in multiple languages.

"Allegations from detainees is common behavior and in keeping with tactics taught to al Qaeda members through their training guide," he said.

In Mauritania, Mohamed said he did not know why he was arrested and said he had never had any connection to al Qaeda. He was returned to Mauritania on Sept. 26 after being cleared for release by a U.S. military review panel.

Mohamed said earlier this week that he had been attending an Islamic school in Pakistan when he was arrested by Pakistani police in 2002 and handed over to U.S. authorities.

"I spent five years in Guantanamo, but I don't know anyone in al Qaeda and I have no relations with those people," Mohamed said.

Mohamed said he was not abused himself at Guantanamo, but he believed others were. "Each time people were interrogated, we heard the screams caused by torture," he said.

Mauritanian police spokesman Mohamed Abdallahi said earlier in the week that police were questioning Mohamed about his life in Pakistan and his activities in that country in order to determine whether to file charges.

Two other Mauritanians remain in custody in Guantanamo. They are Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a technology engineer who was living in Germany when he was taken into custody in November, 2001 and Ahmed Ould Abdelaziz, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002.

Meanwhile, it was announced this week that 55 Saudi Arabians who were released recently from Guantanamo will receive about $2,600 each to celebrate the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a Saudi newspaper reported Saturday.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz has granted the ex-Guantanamo prisoners temporarily release from detention centers in Saudi Arabia to spend time with their families during the holiday later this month, the Okaz newspaper reported.

The former Guantanamo detainees will return to police custody after the holiday in mid-October and will be referred to Saudi courts at end of this month for upcoming trials, the paper said.

U.S. authorities transferred 16 Saudis from Guantanamo Bay back to Saudi Arabia in September, the latest transfer of prisoners from the U.S. detention facility. Fewer than 40 Saudi detainees remain in detention.

The detention of Saudis at the U.S. Naval Base in southeast Cuba has been a source of tension with Riyadh, a close U.S. ally. Three Saudis have committed suicide inside the prison camp since it opened in 2002, according to the U.S. military.

Of the 759 people who have been held at Guantanamo, 136 have been Saudis, the second-largest group behind Afghan nationals, according to Defense Department documents released to the AP.

About 340 detainees remain in Guantanamo on suspicion of links to terrorism, al Qaeda or the Taliban. Most have been held for years without being charged.

More Charges From Tribunal Officers That Guantanamo Trials Are Flawed

A second Army officer who sat on the "enemy combatant" tribunals at Guantanamo has come forward to criticize the panels, saying in court papers that the proceedings favored the government and commanders reversed some decisions.

The criticism, in an affidavit filed Friday by attorneys for a Sudanese detainee, echo some charges made in June by Army Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, the first insider to publicly fault the proceedings.

At issue are the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which the military held for 558 detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in 2004 and 2005, with handcuffed detainees appearing before panels made up of three officers.

Detainees had a military "personal representative" instead of a defense attorney, and all but 38 were determined to be "enemy combatants" who could be held indefinitely without charges.

In the new affidavit, an Army officer whose name is redacted from a version provided to The Associated Press, says panels relied on insufficient evidence.

He also said in six cases the panels unanimously declared the detainee was not an enemy combatant - but commanders ordered new hearings and the finding was reversed without sufficient new evidence.

Continued



© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Add a Comment See all 28 Comments
by speakinup October 9, 2007 9:02 PM EDT
"I don''t think I went far enough in expressing my disgust for the slime that''''s infecting the White House right now......... Posted by SgtRDS

Another intelligent, thought-provoking liberal shares his intelect with us. No wonder they can''t win an election, they shoot themselves in the foot every time. Good luck with this sort of following - Hillary.
Reply to this comment
by boatquack October 9, 2007 2:55 PM EDT
SgtRDS at 0342 your medication obviously needs to be increased. Get help, sounds like you are confessing your own tortured thoughts.
Reply to this comment
by speakinup October 7, 2007 10:04 PM EDT
So, this person gets out after 5 years. Do you think he''s going to compliment us for the facilities, or spread lies ? DUH!!!!
Reply to this comment
by speakinup October 7, 2007 9:55 PM EDT
"Bush is deservidly being constantly ridiculed.- SgtRDS

Considering it is coming from dip-shists like you, Harry and Nacy Peelousy - who would give a rats azz ?
Reply to this comment
by speakinup October 7, 2007 9:52 PM EDT
j-whitman - buzzz-buzzz-buzzz Land on the dogcrap and eat it up.
Reply to this comment
by j-whitman October 7, 2007 7:59 PM EDT
AJMarine1 -- The President of Iraq wants 100,000 of our troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008 ----- Bush has failed our nation
Reply to this comment
by j-whitman October 7, 2007 7:57 PM EDT
AJMarine1,,,, If you aren''t paying attention, Bush is arming Sunni War Lords & making them wealthy beyond thier greatest prayers --- They are the next Suddam Husseins & pledge they will not only attack thie occupiers, they will insure the defeat of a centralized democratic government.

Remember the Gaurd unit that had the Jon Carry banner trying to Swift Boat him for his comments on education ??? --- They are among the longest deployed & retured home to find they fall 1 day short of qualifieng for extended educational benifits ----- Bush screwed them hard.
Reply to this comment
by sgtrds October 7, 2007 4:52 PM EDT
You''''re getting alittle cared away there aren''''t you Sgt.??

Posted by AJMarine1 at 08:19 AM : Oct 07, 2007

I don''t think I went far enough in expressing my disgust for the slime that''s infecting the White House right now.........
Reply to this comment
by rick_vt October 7, 2007 3:34 PM EDT
"Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" - using techniques that we as Americans aren''t privy to know exactly what they are because we''re not classified to know, where-as there are international agreed upon standards of treatment that are accepted by all civilized nations except ours that nobody is critical of.

Why, if we are treating these people so well, aren''t international overseers allowed to inspect? Why aren''t American non-military overseers allowed to inspect either?

If things are so good and fair in prisoner treatment by us, why is so much hidden to all and only discovered when some idiot leaks photos?
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by ajmarine1 October 7, 2007 11:21 AM EDT
I meant "carried."
Reply to this comment
by ajmarine1 October 7, 2007 11:19 AM EDT
Posted by SgtRDS at 03:42 AM : Oct 07, 2007,

You''re getting alittle cared away there aren''t you Sgt.??
Reply to this comment
by sgtrds October 7, 2007 6:42 AM EDT
Bush and Cheney support torture so much, in spite of the fact that every reputable study shows it actually does not work, that the only conclusion one can reach is that they both get some sort of sick sexual pleasure out of the idea of naked young Arabic men being strapped to tables while masked evil torturers whip them, burn them and crush their testicles, for nothing more then the ecstasy of the torturers themselves. Bush and Cheney are clearly homosexual S and M freaks, which I''m sure will come as no surprise to Cheney''s lesbian wife, Bush''s robotic stepford wife or his bought and paid for chocolate mistress slave, Condi Rice. The bunch of them are twisted perverts and nothing else, but they''re torturing us in the process as they act out their sick world domination fantasies.
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by sgtrds October 7, 2007 6:32 AM EDT
sandycat2

Bush is deservidly being constantly ridiculed. It''s no accident. He invites ridicule because when it comes to foreign policy, or indeed just being a functional human being, Bush is a laughingstock on the world stage. People do not call him an as*s out of political anger, but rather because that is what he is. He is not fighting terror. He is being manipulated by evil things, such as the war devil on earth Cheney, into slaughtering 100''s of thousands of human beings because he is mentally ill enough to actually think he is on a mission from god and because they will make money from it. Cheney is a money grubbing piece of shi*t war profiteer, while Bush is a deluded mad man. Both of them, if there is a god (and I don''t believe there is anymore) will die torturous deaths soon.
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by ubrew12 October 7, 2007 5:30 AM EDT
America needs to focus on the REAL terrorists, not on Al-Qaeda wannabee''s and Iraqi''s.

The REAL terrorists are those capable of creating WMD and with some reason to sell or give them to non-state terrorist actors, and the non-state terrorist actors themselves.

Al-Qaeda is a non-state terrorist actor and frankly, given 9-11, should be obliterated (ie, GO into the area between Pakistan and Afghanistan and despite local protest, weed out these people and kill them).

State actors that can provide WMD to terrorist organizations are Iran, N Korea, and, possibly, Russia. Pressure must be kept on these countries to ensure they don''t give in to the $$$ possibility of selling WMD to non-state actors for revenge purposes.

Frankly, I understand why a country like Iran would want Nuclear power for electricity, and Nukes for military, but I would want a clear understanding from the Iranians that selling these to non-state actors like Al-Qaeda would never even be considered.

The difference between state actors and non-state actors is that state-actors actually own land and people that could be conquered (like Iran), which makes them MUCH more vulnerable to international pressure. Non-state actors, like Al-Qaeda, own only an idea, and are free to act out whatever gruesome fantasy meets their ''vision''.
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by brianbwb-2009 October 7, 2007 5:21 AM EDT
Posted by sandycat2,

Your posts are based on the mistaken presumption that Bush is "fighting terrorists", when in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. 9/11 was committed, if you believe the Government''s own statements, almost completely by Saudis, not Iraqis, or Afghanis, but the house of Saud, and the Bin Laden family are friends of Bush''s family.

Bush is trying to illegally take control of middle eastern oil resources, period. anyone resisting the occupation of their land by Bush is called a terrorist, just like the terrorists Reagan funded in Nicaragua were called "freedom fighters".

The KKK, Aryan Nations, Michigan Militia, and other American ultra right wing groups, also fit the technical definition of terrorist organizations, their actions in the past, present, and the positions taken in their literature are all exactly like the terrorist groups Bush claims to be fighting, in fact there has been contact, cooperation, and financial exchanges between the neo Nazis and the anti Israeli middle eastern groups.

Where is Bush on this? Deafeningly silent...
Reply to this comment
by brianbwb-2009 October 7, 2007 5:06 AM EDT
Posted by SgtRDS,

I confess my weakness by stating that your idea is sorely tempting.

But if we do that, then we are no better than they are, So I suggest we settle for Impeachment, trial, and when found guilty, the sanction prescribed by law for each of their crimes.

In the cases where guilt is determined for capital crimes, the punishment should be broadcast, so that future "despot wannabes" will think carefully before acting out their agendas, and so the world can see that we actually do respect the rule of law.
Reply to this comment
by sandycat2 October 7, 2007 3:13 AM EDT
You are free to say the current administration is inept if you want to. Many have said worse. However, no matter what Bush does about fighting terrorists, he is constantly being ridiculed and reviled for those very things he does to try to keep the US from being hit with another 9/11. It will be interesting to see how well the new president handles all this stuff when he or she takes office. Very interesting indeed.
Reply to this comment
by sgtrds October 7, 2007 2:48 AM EDT
The chimp in charge says we don''t torture. So he gets the legal definition of torture changed to make things that every civilized nation in the world considers to be torture re-defined as "enhanced interrogation techniques", instead of the torture that it is. Torture should be defined as anything more then what Bush and Cheney would be able to tolerate. I say lets slap the hell out of them and water board them for awhile and then ask them if it''s torture or not. It would only be fair since they''re the most dangerous terrorists in the world today already.
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by incog-nito October 7, 2007 2:45 AM EDT
sandycat2: Then the current U.S. administration must be incredibly inept to release known Al Qaeda operatives so that they come back to fight us another day, instead of bringing them to justice for the victims of 9/11.

Thanks for your very helpful answer.
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by sandycat2 October 7, 2007 2:38 AM EDT
Most of these Gitmo inmates are Al Qaeda in varying degrees, but had nothing directly to do with 9/11 attack itself except for Khalid Sheik Muhammod. The reason the rest of them are in Gitmo are because they were caught on a battlefield fighting our soldiers without uniforms. We can''t put them in a POW camp cause they aren''t POWs. They don''t wear a uniform or fight for a country. We have to put these people someplace while we are fighting a war against them. We can''t release people like Sheik Muhammed cause they would be back creating another 9/11. We have seen that some have returned to fighting us once they were released. They want to kill us. We shouldn''t release them at all.
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