My husband, Dan, was a Vietnam vet who survived torture, so when the OLC memos were released a week ago Thursday, all I could think of were Dan and those precious human beings. I began a series, a daily series, to give voice to the detainees, the renditioned, and the disappeared.
Here is Dan's story:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Today I will continue the story of the "Tipton Three", Rhuhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, and Shafiq Rasul, three young men born in England of Middle Eastern descent who had gone to school in the United Kingdom. They were arrested in Afghanistan on November 28, 2001. Thus began a horrific 18 hour journey, in a container with 200 other prisoners, only 20 of whom survived to arrive at Sherbegan Prison.
Please read my last two diaries,
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
to understand what they had been through before this diary begins.
Here are more excerpts of their combined statement:
Shafiq say:
"I don't know what was said but the next thing he called the ERF team. While the ERF team was coming he took the female officer to one side. I heard him say 'when you go in that cell you're going to f-ing kick him'. She seemed apprehensive. He kept shouting at her to make her say back to him what he had said. It was very odd. There were usually five people on an ERF team. On this occasion there were eight of them. When Jumah saw them coming he realised something was wrong and was lying on the floor with his head in his hands. If you're on the floor with your hands on your head, then you would hope that all they would do would be to come in and put the chains on you. That is what they're supposed to do. The first man is meant to go in with a shield. On this occasion the man with the shield threw the shield away, took his helmet off, when the door was unlocked ran in and did a knee drop onto Jumah's back just between his shoulder blades with his full weight. He must have been about 240 pounds in weight. His name was Smith. He was a Sergeant E5. Once he had done that the others came in and were punching and kicking Jumah. While they were doing that the female officer then came in and was kicking his stomach. Jumah had an operation and had metal rods in his stomach clamped together in the operation. The officer Smith was the MP Sergeant who was punching him. He grabbed his head with one hand and with the other hand punched him repeatedly in the face. His nose was broken. He pushed his face and smashed it into the concrete floor. All of this should be on video. There was blood everywhere. When they took him out they hosed the cell down and the water ran red with blood. We all saw it."
Shafiq says:
I was taken into a room and short shackled. This was the first time this had happened to me. It was extremely uncomfortable. Short shackling means that the hands and feet are shackled together forcing you to stay in an uncomfortable position for long hours. Then they turned the air conditioning on to extremely high so I started getting very cold. I was left in this position on my own in the room for about 6 or 7 hours, nobody came to see me. I wanted to use the toilet and called for the guards but nobody came for me. Being held in the short shackled position was extremely painful but if you tried to move the shackles would cut into your ankles and wrists. By the time that I was eventually released to be taken back to my cell I could hardly walk as my legs had gone completely numb. I also had severe back pains.
Shafiq says:
She suggested to me that the three men sitting down that had previously been pointed out in the photograph were me, Asif and Rhuhel.
I said it wasn't me but she kept pressing that I should admit it. She was very adamant. She said to me "I've put detainees here in isolation for 12 months and eventually they've broken. You might as well admit it now so that you don't have to stay in isolation". Every time I tried to answer a question she insisted I was lying. She kept going on and on at me, pressuring me, telling me that I was lying, telling me that I should admit it. Eventually I just gave in and said "okay, it's me". The reason I did this was because of the previous five or six weeks of being held in isolation and being taken to interrogation for hours on end, short shackled and being treated in that way. I was going out of my mind and didn't know what was going on. I was desperate for it to end and therefore eventually I just gave in and admitted to being in the video.
I was the only one out of the three of us to see the video. I could not bear another day of isolation let alone the prospect of another year and can only imagine how terrifying it must be for FerozAbbasi or Moazzam Begg being in detention and isolation for so long.
As soon as I broke down and admitted that it was me she just got up and left the room and then I was taken back to my cell.
After that I remained in isolation for another five or six weeks.
I had hope to finish the story of Asif, Rhuhel, and Shafiq today, but it was not to be. I will finish their story tomorrow
Please stand up and tell your President, your Senators, and your Congressional Representatives: NOT IN MY NAME, and that there must be JUSTICE and ACCOUNTABILITY.
Hugs,
Standing for justice and accountability,
For Dan,
Heather
I am in the beginning of bringing together the people and organizations necessary to organize a March for Accountability. I think we need to show those in Washington how many will not stand for anything less than justice and accountability. If you are interested, please email me at the address in my profile.
I am also in the middle of planning speaking dates for me in Seattle and Olympia and Portland, Oregon, if anyone knows of groups in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or points in between, I could make it a west coast tour. I'm willing to go anywhere in North America to speak on this issue, as long as I can work out affording plane or train tickets, so please feel to email me with potential groups that might like to hear Dan's story and about this issue. Thanks to rb and to zett, I will have a wonderful announcement tomorrow.
On Friday, I shared the first part of the story of Murat Kurnaz
http://www.dailykos.com/...
On Saturday, I shared the second part of the story of Murat Kurnaz
http://www.dailykos.com/...
On Sunday, I shared the story of Omar Khadr
http://www.dailykos.com/...
On Monday, I shared the story of Yousef al-Khalid, 9, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, 7, the young sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
http://www.dailykos.com/...
On Wednesday, I shared the story of Binyam Mohamed
http://www.dailykos.com/...