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Unbelievable but true
- Human Rights abuses at Guantanamo U.S. NAVAL BASE
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- Army "block guards" were making their daily
walk through the stifling heat of the cellblocks inside the barbed
wired camp here in late May.
But after a guard discovered a dangerously sharp object hidden
in the empty cell of a detainee, a violent confrontation ensued,
illustrating military officials' contention that criticisms from
human rights groups only tell part of the story.
Before the cuffs could go on though, things went wrong and the
detainee forced his hands up under the first guard's plexiglass face
mask and began digging for the eyeball.
"He tried to insert one finger into my eye socket, then he
transitioned into a fishhook maneuver," the guard said. "He got his
finger into my mouth and was trying to rip my cheek off." After
another moment, the detainee's hands were forced down and into the
cuffs.
Esterella Digital_____________________
According to two Army prison guards, one 22 years old and the
other 28, the prisoner was temporarily in another part of the prison
for a bath when the jagged, rectangular piece of metal, three to four
inches long was found and removed.
But the two guards, who spoke in a rare interview with The
Washington Times on the condition of anonymity, said an altercation
then followed in which the detainee tried to gouge out one of the
guards' eyes.
After first allowing the detainee to return from his shower to
the cell, a five-man team of guards then began a carefully
choreographed "cell extraction" to move him to another cell, where he
would not be able to do further damage.
"He was extremely aggressive from the moment we went in," said
the 28-year-old guard, whose job it was to "push the detainee back"
as another guard quickly handcuffed the prisoner.
Before the cuffs could go on though, things went wrong and the
detainee forced his hands up under the first guard's plexiglass face
mask and began digging for the eyeball.
"He tried to insert one finger into my eye socket, then he
transitioned into a fishhook maneuver," the guard said. "He got his
finger into my mouth and was trying to rip my cheek off." After
another moment, the detainee's hands were forced down and into the
cuffs.
The entire incident was videotaped, as are all cell-extraction
procedures under the tight protocol with which military officials
have been running the Guantanamo prison amid scrutiny and harsh
criticism from human rights advocates.
Senior officials here, several of whom take ongoing criticism
of their performance at the prison personally, eagerly described the
incident as an example of "the other side of the story" about
Guantanamo, which they say deserves a closer look.
"It's an extreme slap in the face to me frankly that the
American public is being led to believe that we're abusing, or
mistreating detainees," said Col. Michael Bumgarner, the senior
officer working inside the prison camp, which holds 585 enemy
combatants held on suspicion of working for the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Human rights groups aggressively criticize the camp, where
most of the detainees have been held more than three years without
ever being told the "classified" charges against them. Most recently,
Amnesty International described Guantanamo as "the gulag of our
time."
A classified report by the International Committee of the Red
Cross, a neutral organization with access to military prisons
worldwide, has described abusive interrogation techniques used on the
detainees. In March, the Massachusetts-based group Physicians for
Human Rights, cited "systematic psychological torture" of detainees.
Last week, the Pentagon also acknowledged several incidents of
Koran mishandling, although most were inadvertent and all were
punished.
The military is spending about $2.8 million to construct a
psychiatric ward for mentally ill detainees.
Buildings being constructed according to state-of-the-art
standards for federal prisons will replace the existing outdoor camp.
One with 100 beds opened last year, and construction on another with
220 beds is expected to start soon.
The psychiatric facility is needed because about 4 percent of
the detainees are on psychotropic medications for illnesses ranging
from schizophrenia to manic depression, said Navy Capt. Steve
Edmonson, the head doctor for detainees.
"We have an ethical responsibility to provide treatment they
need regardless of what they've done or what they're accused of," he
said, denying the new psychiatric ward was a response to criticism by
human rights groups.
Military officials said about the late-May incident that,
aside from deep scratches and bruises, neither the detainee nor any
of the prison guards were seriously injured. The sharp object turned
out to be a chunk of steel broken from the wire-mesh wall dividing
cells in the camp.
Officials refused to give more details about the detainee,
such as where he is from or why he is being held. Col. Bumgarner
claimed that the detainee was "a guy who's trained in terrorism
combat."
Command Sgt. Maj. Anthony Mendez, the senior enlisted man
inside the camp, said the majority of the time guards and detainees
get along, and that it is "a small amount" of detainees who are
consistently aggressive.
One of the two guards who spoke anonymously with The Times
said it was "a daily event" for he and others to have insults and
threats hurled at them by a small group of angry detainees.
Col. Bumgarner said some detainees taunt guards by referring
to the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist attacks in Iraq.
" 'Zarqawi kill you' -- that's their favorite line," he said.
So you see, Human rights abuses do take place at Guantanamo, as the guards on duty are about the only humans around there. The unlawful combatants, are beasts - literally, and the only just punishment
for these beasts is throwing them to the sharks in Guantanamo Bay. And we're not kidding here!
Story Credits: Guy Taylor writing in the The Washington Times
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