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Gitmo Detainee: I Was Tortured

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 8, 2009 11:33 AM CDT

(Newser) – In 2002, Lakhdar Boumediene was a relief worker who cared for orphans. “I’m a normal man,” he says. So when the US shackled him and flew him to Guantanamo Bay, he thought he’d be freed soon. “They have CIA, FBI. Maybe one week, two weeks, they know I am innocent,” he says. Now, 7½ years and two landmark court victories later, the Algerian has finally been released. He sat down with ABC News to discuss his ordeal.

Asked if he thinks he was tortured, Boumediene replied, “I don’t think. I know.” He says he was kept awake for 16 days straight, shackled and pulled to stretch his body, dragged bloody behind running guards. When he went on a hunger strike, he says, the guards would play “games” with him, shoving his IV needle up his nose. “You think that’s not torture?” he asked, showing the scars his shackles left. “What can you call this?”

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (2)]

Lakhdar Boumediene tells Jack Tapper that he thought the US would free him in this screenshot.

Asked if he thinks he was tortured, Lakhdar Boumediene replies, "I don't think. I know," in this screenshot from ABC News.

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If I tell my interrogator, I am from Al Qaeda, they will tell me, 'Oh you are a good man.' But if I refuse? I tell them I'm innocent, never was I terrorist, never never, they tell me. 'You are not cooperating, I have to punch you.' - Lakhdar Boumediene

The first month, okay, no problem, the building, the 11 of September, the people, they are scared, but not 7 years. They can know whose innocent. - Lakhdar Boumediene, saying he understands America's post-9/11 fears, but can't forgive President Bush

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 27 comments

fancygapva

Jun 9, 2009 12:35 PM CDT

Let me get this right, godawgs and Pale Rider, a person from the Middle-east or Southeast Asia who is a darker shade than Pale can't be believed and is guilty, period. And whose constitution are we using to make that determination, Iraq's or Afghanistan's? I'm fairly sure that if this guy isn't who he says he is he wouldn't be OUT of gitmo. The Git-maniacs in charge don't tend to believe everything that the POW's...oops, sorry, "illegal combatants" say there and I'm sure that they would rather NOT let someone go free who would tell tales out of school if they could help it or if they could do it with good conscience. If torturers and their bosses have consciences, that is. You know, in Old Salem, before we had a Constitution they used something like waterboarding to determine who was a witch. They dunked them under water on a board and if they died then they weren't witches. If they lived, then they were witches and they burned them. Don't you think we MIGHT be better than that? Don't you believe we've learned anything?

godawgs

Jun 8, 2009 11:08 AM CDT

Mintclassic I don't have my mind up on what happened. My biggest complaint is that the suspect is given the benefit of the doubt while the accused is not even represented. EIT or whatever we are going to call them were carried out at Gitmo. The Armed forces have admitted to water boarding three people. This person was not one of them, but for him to come out and say he was tortured and just be believed is not a good thing for our men and women in uniform.

Jungun

Jun 8, 2009 10:46 AM CDT

This indeed is a sad chapter in America's history and one that will be difficult to right. I don't suppose we'll know the full story (from both sides) of what exactly has been going on in GB for a longtime, if ever. But even if only what the previous administration freely admits has been going on is true and this man is lying then the damage is already great. However the sad repitition of history and the well documented events of Abu Ghraib and the extraordinary rendition of suspects in Europe and the Mid East suggests there are likely to be many much greater stains on America. I just hope that with the new administration and the withdrawal of troops from Iraq we can begin to put this era behind us.

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