Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Claims Torture

German National Held For Four Years To Testify Before Congress

(CBS/AP)  A man who was held for years at the Guantanamo Bay prison will testify on Capitol Hill today.

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.

[wardoglrs]

Get A rope?. :]

[wardoglrs]

In the name of patriotism, we have participated in a planned deception to create a state of permanent war. In the name of profit, America has been sacrificed on the altar of the god of war, to create a global empire based on the mass-marketing of death.

%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

[neo267-2009]

So what? And who says he''s "innocent" - except the news media once again trying to smear their own country? What about the ones who have been released from Guantanemo have gone back and murdered soldiers and civilians? The news media never talks about them. More sick liberal hypocrisy.

[komoncents]

Over 900 times the Bush white house co-conspirators lied about ficticious weapons of mass destruction - Donald Rumsfield even presented satellite photo locations of said repositories. Hardy har har! Trusting anything these hucksters spew forth smacks of pure lunacy. Some even refuse to believe their own eyes when they see the twin-towers falling in an obvious controlled demolition. Not to worry - I''ve got a bridge I can sell you! Step right up suckeeeeeers.

[twood001]

How in the world are we going to talk to someone else about thier brutal acts when we have not cleaned up our own? We are supposed to be a world leader. This guy was 19 when he was captured. Why wouldn''t he want to partake in terrorizing America after wgat has been done to him. Guantanamo must be shut down now!!! We are a nation of laws. Bush and his cronies should be tried for war crimes and impeached!!

[twood001]

Torture has no place in a Democracy. Period!! To hold someone for years without formal charges is illegal. Shame on the US for as=cting like terrorists to defeat terrorists. We have sold our soul.

[dsr57]

the US put Japanese soldiers to death after WWII for waterboarding ... the US is guilty of torture.

Posted by PKelly79
-----------------------------------------------------

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?

[babooph]

After the whole outside world & all with any brains in the States fully knew, the propaganda system finally admits White house torture behavior-euch.

[babooph]

After the whole outside world & all with any brains in the States fully knew, the propaganda system finally admits White house torture behavior-euch.

[dlkcoil01]

Hey, I noticed that the media is obsessed with Guantanamo Bay and Bush bashing, whatever happened to talking about the real issues and presenting things that really matter like%u2026%u201Dwhy is the media and government so quiet regarding to the where about of Osama Bin Laden?%u201D %u201CWhy hasn%u2019t he been captured yet?%u201D

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.