CAPITOL HILL, May 20, 2008
Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Claims Torture
German National Held For Four Years To Testify Before Congress
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Nightmare At Guantanamo Bay
An innocent man held as a terror detainee for years tells Scott Pelley, in his first U.S. television interview, how Americans tortured him in Afghanistan and then at Guantanamo Bay.
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Murat Kurnaz claims he was wrongfully imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay and tortured by U.S. troops. (CBS)
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Murat Kurnaz, who was born in Germany, was declared an enemy combatant and held at Guantanamo Bay for almost four years even though U.S. investigators couldn't tie him to al Qaeda.
Kurnaz was freed after Germany's chancellor made a personal plea to President Bush.
He told CBS' 60 Minutes he was tortured at Guantanamo.
According to Kurnaz, he was detained by Pakistani police at age 19 while traveling through the country and transferred to U.S. custody three months after 9/11. During his 60 Minutes interview, Kurnaz claimed that American troops held his head underwater during interrogations, shocked his body with electricity and suspended him by his arms from the ceiling of an aircraft hangar for five days while at a military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
After six weeks in Kandahar, Kurnaz said he was transferred to Guantanamo where he faced beatings from guards, sleep deprivation and periods of solitary confinement. All the while, according to his American lawyer Baher Azmy, both American and German intelligence officials had begun circulating reports indicating Kurnaz's innocence.
However, according to Azmy, Kurnaz was held for another three-and-a-half years as U.S. officials kept producing new charges against him. Kurnaz was freed in August 2006, only after a personal plea from the German chancellor to President Bush.
In a written statement to 60 Minutes, Defense Department officials called Kurnaz's claims "unsubstantiated" and "outlandish."
His appearance before a House panel comes as the Justice Department inspector general releases a long awaited report. It reportedly concludes that the FBI was sometimes slow to report its concerns about terror suspects being mistreated at Guantanamo and elsewhere.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
GO HOME!!
You are assuming that Obama will get in. Some recent polls indicate that the rift in the Democratic party my prevent either candidate from winning the presidency. Well good luck anyway.
Intelligence officials in U.S. and Germany noted his innocence so the Bushit torture brigade kept at it for another 3 and 1/2 years trying to prove themselves right after all, no matter the evidence.
And you want to find fault with the victim? Talk about your classic "Ugly American" !!
legalru, it must do your heart good to know that the US is now on the world torture list with Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, the Sudan, etc. Another sicko! God protect us from another 4 years of the same under McBush.
Posted by Extremophil at 02:50 PM : May 20, 2008
Exactly! He''s a liar. Will probably run for congress trying to get Nancy Pelosi''s seat.
So DOD officials, the Dept. of Justice inspector general, and Murat Kurnaz are all lying? No.
America tortures, and it makes me sick that FELLOW soldiers would that. Considering we soldiers can not break orders, I''m willing to bet the orders came from up top. + This disgusts and embarrasses me as both a soldier and an American.
What was his purpose for being over there at a time when things were underway to fight terrorism? Was his visitation legit or was he found in an area that was highly questionable? What are the details for him being there and why?
Besides torturing a suspect is a necessary form of evil that must be done when it comes to dealing with people who are basically animals. In a time of war, things must be done to defeat the enemy. Torture should be the last course of action and it should be done with due vigilance when its clear the person is withholding information that would save LIVES. Keep in mind we are fighting religious-political based fanatic organization that have no intent in giving up peacefully. The question that needs to be answered %u2013%u201CDoes the West (United States, England, and others) have the fortitude and courage to stick it out? One thing we know for sure is that the terrorist know the opposite to be true. They are banking on public opinion to get us to let are guard down again so that the whole process of 9-1-1 can be done again and again.
What has happened a Guantanamo Bay on the whole is benign to what we have seen occur in Iraq under Sadaam and what has been occurring to foreigners, women and children in many countries throughout the Middle East for years. Checkout Africa, there are more brutal things going on there this very day. Why is the media not providing a blitzkrieg bonanza regarding the travesties that takes place in those areas?
To pounce on the U.S. all the time, when we are primarily the only serious nation willing to stand up and fight to protect freedom is extremely destructive to our ability to defeat terrorist based societies and organizations. When are people going to realize this?
The nations standing for freedom are in a classic struggle with those nations committed to terrorism and overthrowing those societies that are not in support of them. Terrorist based nations and organizations are committed to fight to the end (even if it takes years, then they will do so); Free societies should be as well, else the next %u201CDARK AGE%u201D will occur. [Do we want this to happen?]
If we can find Hussein, then we should be able to find and capture Osama Bin Laden as well. It%u2019s almost like certain people, countries and organizations do not want to capture him at all.
Something rings of conspiracy here%u2026%u2026
How about this one for a topic: %u201COpen debate on the reason for gas prices being raised intentionally when there really is no oil crisis in the world.%u201D There%u2019s an agenda underway here and only a few know about it.
We better open our eyes as a society (I%u2019m talking about the average citizen), before its too late.
If we can find Hussein, then we should be able to find and capture Osama Bin Laden as well. It%u2019s almost like certain people, countries and organizations do not want to capture him at all.
Something rings of conspiracy here%u2026%u2026
How about this one for a topic: %u201COpen debate on the reason for gas prices being raised intentionally when there really is no oil crisis in the world.%u201D There%u2019s an agenda underway here and only a few know about it.
We better open our eyes as a society (I%u2019m talking about the average citizen), before its too late.
Posted by PKelly79
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DOn''t be ignorant your whole life....Do you have ANY IDEA what the Japanese have done during the wars they were a part of?
%u201CWe are opposed...by a ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the [war] with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match...%u201D %u2013John F Kennedy, 1961.
"Anyone who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither". Ben Franklin (paraphrased)
"I would rather die with the constitution clinched in my fist, then live with shackles on my feet" Greywolf
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by wardoglrs
May 23, 2008 8:18 PM EDT
- Get A rope?. :]
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