On this week's
This American Life, detainees from Guantanamo Bay spoke about their captivity, their interrogation . . . and their innocence.
Their tales are chilling, and come straight from their own mouths. It is a horrifying look at what is being done to innocent people in our name.
The show is titled
Habeus Schmabeus, and includes interviews with two Guantanamo detainees from Pakistan, who shared their horrifying experiences while in American custody. Xeni Jardin shared this partial transcript at boingboing:
[The other detainees who'd been through interrogation] told me they had put electric shocks on them, and one was certain he was going to be raped, they took off his pants. I was thinking what am I gonna do?
They took me at night there was two or three interrogators. They wanted me to say I was a terrorist. I told them, "No, I am not." And then, they started pushing me and everything.
They brought a cigarette the interrogator was smoking. He blew the smoke on my face and then he came very close, very very close to my face, and he brought the cigarette between my eyes, and he said, "I swear to got I'm gonna put this out on your forehead if you don't tell me what I wanna hear."
I thought about it. I felt like... this is a jungle. And only the strong live in it. But still there are small creatures who can live, not by facing lions and big animals, but by maybe hiding, or changing their colors as the trees.
So I just told them, "Whatever you want to hear from me, I'm gonna tell you." I said, "What do you want me to say?" And he said, "Tell me you're a terrorist."
"Are you gonna let me go sleep?" Because a way of torture was not letting you sleep, keeping me awake all the time.
So I said "Okay, whatever you want. I'm a terrorist, and go tell your bosses." And they left me.
The entire show is available in
streaming Real (buffering . . . buffering . . . buffering) Audio, or from
Audible.com
(Link via boingboing)