Former GITMO Detainee Speaks Out! YES! I WAS TORTURED!
By CSPANJunkie Tuesday Jun 09, 2009 4:30am
June 08, 2009 ABC News:
For 7½ years, Lakhdar Boumediene was known simply by a number: "10005."
These were the digits assigned to him when he arrived at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, swept up in a post-Sept. 11 dragnet and accused of plotting to blow up the U.S. and British Embassies in Sarajevo.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Boumediene said the interrogators at Gitmo never once asked him about this alleged plot, which he denied playing any part it.
"I'm a normal man," said Boumediene, who at the time of his arrest worked for the Red Crescent, providing help to orphans and others in need. "I'm not a terrorist."
The 43-year-old Algerian is now back with his wife and two daughters, a free man in France after a Republican judge found the evidence against Boumediene lacking. He is best known from the landmark Supreme Court case last year, Boumediene v. Bush, which said detainees have the right to challenge their detention in court.
That decision was a stunning rebuke of the Bush administration's policies on terror suspects. It set up a ruling by District Court Judge Richard Leon, a former counsel to Republicans in Congress appointed to the bench by Bush, that there was no credible evidence to keep Boumediene detained.
After what Boumediene described as a 7½ year nightmare, he is now a free man. Boumediene: "I don't think. I'm sure" about torture.
Continue reading at ABC News....
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OUR house....you know...WE the People?
No, what we need to do, is prosecute every last bush administration asshole, top to bottom, for war crimes and treason...then and ONLY then will we be rid of the bushco stench.
..about prosecutions. His comments were, "What laws were broken?" and since the detainees never set foot in America, they don't qualify for equal protection under our laws (which he wasn't sure which ones were broken). Also, with the prosecutions of the last administration, every candidate in the future would be subject to the same scrutiny.
I pretty much stopped talking to this man. Anybody want to know what's wrong with America, I think it starts with the lawyers questioning legality of torture and detainment as well as these people not demanding more from our politicians for expeditious reasons. Teh Stupid.
sad thing is that Pres Obama wants to forget the Bush years ever happened, and look to the future, hoping if we pretend the Bush years never happened, they'll never happen again..
Unlike America, the world doesn't have short term amnesia..
learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Obama and Biden NEED to prosecute these criminals and send a message to future wannabe dictators.
It will repeat. All the framework is in place. It's on sabbatical now. Nothing more.
Sounds like a great idea!!!
Love your post!
Deleted? Really?
Were the digits tattooed on him?
no, but they thought about doing that for a while
They also thought about pinning a big golden crescent to his chest
On all three major channels this morning they had boosh/pickles stories. Only one of them was mildly anti. That had a brief interview with someone of about 50 people protesting outside his new Preston Hollow home, calling for his arrest for war crimes and treason. The rest were soft balls, something pickles should no plenty about.
The reason the CIA (and unfortunately the Obama administration) wants to withold releasing the "enhanced interrogation" materials (some of which they have already destroyed) is because illegal waterboarding was just the tip of the iceberg.
Perhaps if they American people knew the truth, they too would call for Bush-Cheney to be charged with war crimes.
..they'll congratulate W and Cheney for beating up the Muslims since it was Muslims who flew planes into buildings.
Yeah, its teh stupid again. Kind of like, you know, 20% of Americans still think the President is a Muslim.
In September of '07 a New York Times / CBS News poll found that 33% of (American) respondents said that Saddam Hussein was "personally" involved in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The right wingers love these kinds of results. Just keep the electorate as dumb as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH4-tOqLH94
What a fu*king heartbreaking story. All of it needless and inhumane. The bush administration tried to cover their asses with this man by first saying he was a bomb planner to saying he would join he fight in Afghanistan. In other words he was indeed just a number, one of many scooped up and hauled away.
I don't know if any of these people can sue Bush and all the others personally, but I hope they can and they do.
..you can sue a ham sandwich if you like.
...Al Qaeda could ever dream of. These bastards have(in our name) turned the tragedy of 9/11 into a fucking joke.
... and nothing demonstrates the success of al-Qaeda like Dick 'One Percent' Cheney and the rest of the war criminals in the Bush Administration.
I can appreciate that Obama doesn't have an easy path, but anything other than full disclosure and prosecution is simply playing into the fear game. We were afraid they would attack again, now we're afraid they'll attack because we went off the reservation.
I'm sort of on the fence on this. If releasing everything would pour gasoline on the fire, maybe we shouldn't go there right now. I don't know.
Catch 22...
I do not envy our Prez.
..if we release anything right now or in four years with a new President? (Do you think Obama will be President in four years if he doesn't appoint a Special Prosecutor? I don't!) We are delaying the inevitable. Prosecute the bastards now and we began to regain moral high ground; allow the wound to fester and gangrene sets in, the limb amputated and/or the patient dies. Take your pick.
You don't get well again until you admit you are SICK.
Release everything. Prosecute everybody. Make our apologies. Vow to never do it again. Actually not do it ever again for any reason at all. Problem solved. We show the Muslim world specifically and the rest of the world more generally that we're serious about not acting like a bunch of out of control schoolyard bullies and regain some of honor Bush shat on during his time in office. Otherwise we have 1.2 something billion Muslims sitting around wondering "Omg if they released those other pictures of people being tortured then would could possibly be so horrible that they won't release it".
Face it wingnuts, we're in the wrong here. Call it blame America, I don't give a shit. When someone's wrong I have no problem pointing it out to them no matter who they are. President or Pauper, Dictator or King.
The alternative is tantamount to saying that torture is ok in some circumstances, which leaves open a legal mindfield to turn our future into the "boot stamping on a human face...forever" that Orwell envisioned. If it's ok to torture people because you -think- they're terrorists, then it's ok to torture people because you -think- they're child molesters or rapists or people who might jaywalk at some point in their lives.
There's a slippery slope straight to hell and we, my pedigree chums, are on it. If we do not act swiftly, boldly and decisively and become the leaders by example that we imagine ourselves to be in our propaganda then we will -become- the leaders by example we most fear. Because if it's ok for George W. Obama to torture and justify it as 'national security' then it's ok for Kim Jong and Vlad and Victor to do it too. We'll be doing it just for kicks and to one-up our competitors just like we are with nukes. Pretty soon everybody in the world lives under the constant threat of torture just because they part their hair the wrong way and some petty bureaucrat or neighbor who could use $20k to pay off bills decided to turn them in.
Sorry that's not a society I want to live in.
Good points. We live in a country that celebrates the murder of an abortion provider yet claims to walk the moral high ground when it comes to terrorism.
Sick.
Seems to me they used 9/11 as an excuse to begin a festival of evil. Somebody wanted to do these things to human beings and they thought they had figured out a way to justify it. Either that or 9/11 scared them so fu*king much they decided to push aside decency and become equal to their enemy.
I think it's a little bit of both. Smarts to know a bunch of idiots with box cutters outsmarted the Cowboy-in-Chief and his gang of horse thieves.
But we see this with a lot of Christians nowadays. Point out that Christ taught 'turn the other cheek' and they'll object (rather fervently) that Christ Didn't Mean Sit There And Take It!
Cheney is saying now that Richard Clark missed the warnings about 9/11. He knows that's not true. He knows exactly that he and bush ignored the warnings because at the time he and bush were too busy trying to come up with a way to attack Iraq. They didn't want to be bothered with concerns about bin Laden.
They were also trying to bring back the Strategic Defense Initiative: SDI "Star Wars"), and were unilaterally abrogating treaties with the CID concerning ABM's, ALBM's, SLBM's and others to restart the program.
When people asked why, there's no other Superpower that threatens us like that, and would point out the likliest atacks would be terrorism.
So booshco took the whole terrorism view as being only antithetical to his wishes of a renewed SDI.
"... this station is now the ultimate power in the galaxy. I suggest we use it."
Was he talking about Fox News station?
Clarke is the absolute wrong guy for them to mess with. If the media even makes an attempt to go to him and ask, "This is what they're saying about you. What do you say in response?" Bushco will rue the day.
Clarke is articulate, he knows where at least some of the bodies are buried, and he has no love for Bush, Cheney and the cast of criminals they surrounded themselves with. He has nothing to lose at this point, either.
Given the media's love for a protracted "tit-for-tat" argument (such as Tweety's "Softball" or shows like "Crossfire"), this could very well happen. If Clarke is given a microphone, this could get fun. He won't mince words.
Lets start an emailing campaign to get him in a position where he blows.
Well, following your logic, isn't it fair to conclude that they must have understood that if such an attack were to happen, it could probably be used to give them exactly the excuse they needed to start such an attack on Iraq?
I find the willfull ignorance and self-denial around the events of 9/11 in many Americans to be incredible. It's funny how far out logically people are willing to jump to find more benign explanations, simply to avoid facing the most logical, but also more horrific conclusions. It's especially curious when I see it in people who know all too well the criminality and immorality of the Bush /Cheney admin.
Logic just can't seem to be applied to this subject in many circles striving to be "respectable" among some part of the establishment. It's really foolish. Vanity and conformity to a propagandized normality, personal ambitions and perhaps also a suppression of the guilt and shame hinders so many people from seeing clearly.
I don't have a problem with thinking shitstains like Bush and Cheney and their cabal of miscreants would immediately move to profit and push their agenda using 9/11 as a pretext.
I just don't think they're competent enough to keep something the size of the 9/11 catastrophe a secret without someone spilling the beans. It's been 8 years and so far nothing. Yeah there are inconsistencies but they're more rationally explained by confusion amongst people who had just been punched in the nose. But a conspiracy at the level it would take to pull off 9/11 I just can't swallow. 20 hijackers with boxcutters who were willing to die for their cause fits into my already existing paradigm.
they tortured was to get false confessions tying AQ T Iraq. They had planned to go into Iraq well before Bush took office.
They knew that if you torture someone you really will get them to say whatever you want them to say, so they did it. They didn't give a damn if Sadam was really involved in 9/11, they just wanted prisoners to say that he was and they didn't care what they had to do to get that result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ca_edg6RE
Google it some time. Our government's been planning this shit for years. 9/11 was just a pretext to it and was the best thing since sliced bread to them.
Funny thing is I'm not even a Truther.
Are we creating, Jean Valjeans or vengeful Counts of Monte Cristo? What would we do in their place?
The're doing a gay version of Dumas's story: The Count of Mounting With Crisco.
...please tell me that Crisco isn't Shortning... LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdcJsCwxxJE
... loves shortnin' shortnin' ....?
In Texas, we just call it grease.
Cooking with it will make you a little wider but no shorter.
Research has proven that when me get wider in one area, another area does grow shorter.
Charles Darwin went into that with a discussion in the Origin of the Species on different size teeth and jaws affecting shape of the skull, which in turn influence the shape of the spine, making the balance necessary for walking erect.
I suggest going to a nudie beach.
I heard you lose 1" of your member for every 10lbs overweight you go.
My source was morning talk radio years ago, before the internet, so you know its true.
rash limpball's has a vagina?
Actually, I was referring to Darwin's The Descent of Man.
Was his theory that a decent man was well descended?
I always thought it an odd title. I assumed he meant decent like you're a descendent of your granpa
But
It sounds like he's implying we're lower than apes.
The Ascent of Man was already taken by the Church.
Maybe he did worship Satan after all.
I thought that was Jesus
(And also his Ma)
But usually it's called the Assumption.
Good thing he didn't write a descriptive book called The Descent of Apes
I heard it's just terrible.
But the Japanese have found a way of putting those inches back.
New Japanese game show
time to go to the home depot to get some nicely sized paint brushes.
This is disgusting that Dickhead Cheney and Dumbya are still hiding the criminality of their sick administration. They tortured everyone they could get their hands on, but it didn't work. Hang them high!!
We need to keep torture prominently in the news until the war criminals are brought to justice. Justice delayed, justice denied.
... we need to understand that the enablers and apologists who keep bringing us the Dick & Liz show are equally guilty.
The Dick and Liz show is being replaced today on msnbc by the Joe Scarborough books sales show. Joe seems to be tossing his name and book in, in an attempt to vie for the voice of the party slot. He takes his party to task for some of the things they have done, while at the same time glorifying what appears to be he only good president the repubs feel they have ever had, Ronnie.
"We haven't had a new idea since 1980. Vote Republican!"
Even shorter. We haven't had an idea since 1980
Todays GOP...bringing 14th Century solutions for a 21st Century world!
Just always keep in mind the budget plan the republicans submitted this year. A couple of pages with no numbers on them. A budget without numbers is like a party without ideas.
"Vote Republican..or else"
"Vote GOP. Let the good times slow"
"Got Torture?"
Brought to you by the Taliban,
And now the new Taliban scentless roll-on!
of a president that couldn't keep his zipper up to the costs of invading Iraq.
... your side of the aisle is free of perverts:
Larry Craig
David Vitter
Mark Foley
... and those paragons of traditional marriage:
Newt Gingrich
John McCain
At least Bubba doesn't have to tap dance in the men's room.
And no interns went missing on Clinton's watch. Ask Scarborough's intern how that job turned out for her.
Ah yes, the deadly zipper! Gosh, what was the death toll resulting from that again?
a bj is nothing...I repeat NOTHING compared to treason.
We won't EVER let you and your ilk forget that it was your party that brought this country to a grinding halt. YOUR party that shredded the constitution. YOUR party that did more damage to MY country than AQ could ever have dreamed of doing.
YOUR party SUCKS!
Bunch of goddamn fascist assholes is what YOUR party is.
Have a nice day.
Funny thing is one of my ancestors who was a royally appointed governor was referred to as "being of that ilk." Apparently at one time it meant one of a group, but it appears hermeneutics has turned it into a pejorative.
So say it a few times, next time you're constipated.
This worthless troll and his even more pointless comments are the equivalent of some freak exposing himself at a playground strictly for cheap attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP8mbxZBl3k
came here for a battle of wits and he/she came totally unarmed.
Tue, 06/09/2009 - 06:45 — proudrepublican
Keeping our economy humming along with his hummer.
What ever makes your cobra spit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TceFKz2DZ9M
that's way too easy.
Think of the hundreds of potential snowflake children that died.
Then you really need to think carefully before coming here and insulting me, dig?
I mean, I might be unbalanced ...
Would you please delete my prior response? I wouldn't want our little pants-wetting republican friend to think I'd actually threatened him ...
Ignore user!
I think he or she is just playing with us, kind of Colbert style.
... Colbert is funny.
I found much of what he or she said to be so ridiculous that it was funny to me. Maybe I'm just easy.
You want my phone number?
I already have your number, ysb. ;)
be nice to proudrepublican.
Remember, we're progressives...it's our duty to be sensitive to endangered species.
a republican troll have to be proud of?
Your pathetic fascist party is cannibalizing itself.
You repugs have absolutely devolved onto a regional party of anti-intellectual morons.
And your party will not be taking back anything except more asswhuppins.
Dick Cheney.
I bet more than a few of the trolls that frequent this site are former bushco people, and current rightwing tv/radio hosts.
Despite getting their asses handed to them REPEATEDLY on this site, they keep coming back.
It's really quite fun.
Tue, 06/09/2009 - 06:46 — Shadowgm
I mean, I might be unbalanced ...
_______________________________________________
I've regained my sobriety
And my boredom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oeIOtI483k&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AL7npkSXZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBXb_6-2zOw&fe...
'we don't torture".
Dick Cheney to appear in 5..4..3
This is our nations shame and it our nations stain - I curse those fiends for doing this, may the boo$h cabal rot in hell, and meet the same fate as Musolini - twisting in the wind, hung from a lightpost - all of them.
How do reach out to the people who have been harmed and appologize? How do we do that????
I am disgusted beyond words and comprehension.
This Torture/ Murder/ Treason cries out for Nuremburg 2.0 now because we will never , as the good Germans of today, will never acknowledge the depths of depravity some sunk to.
From the top to the guy who mopped up the blood and all in between must be tried and if found guilty locked away for life after being stripped of their wealth, freedom and CITIZENSHIP. These creeps are no Americans.
The Bush cabal wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11 and it wasn't because Saddam was an evil bastard; hell he was America's evil bastard. They used the event of 9/11 to put their plan in place and when it didn't work out as planned had to get information to back up their claims and torture was the way to go. As has been proven lately, water board someone long enough and they will tell you exactly what you want to hear. What is really disgusting (ok, along with the many other things)in this case is many of those they tortured were innocent. Some at Gitmo may actually had something to do with 9/11 or other potential attacks but the most were brought in on hearsay or other flimsy evidence. Even know that the government has locked up the bunch for 7/8 years for their own political reasons.
The terrorist accomplished their tasks more than they could have imagined. The correct response would have been let those charged with the safety of America to do their jobs and to make sure they had all the means to do so, but to change little else.
Bushco saw an opportunity for themselves and their corporate masters and went for it; of course if they were not such mofo incompetents, maybe things would have been different. Of course I am not sure if that would have been better or worse.
The German people were adult enough to come to grips and face what had been done in their name. They did not purge the fascist Nazi stain by pretending it did not happen, nor that "it was someone else" They did not close their eyes and plug their ears, like little children - If we as a nation are ever to regain our soul, we must have trust in and make use of our legal system, and unfortunately, relive Nuremberg - however this time it is "American's" (and I use the term loosely) in the dock and not Germans (And I use that term loosely as well). It would do us well to re-read the transcripts of the closing statement made by the Chief Justice of those proceedings. We as a nation must grow up, and face what was done, and vow never ever to let it happen again. In that way we will regain (over time) our national honor, and perhaps, I hope, some day regain the high ground. To ignore or forget history is to repeat it.
a bunch of those nazis never faced trial and were absorbed into our country as free citizens. i guess our country likes to have a dark side.
Paperclip :-(
the u.s. needs more people like you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prLCYeKMNPU
one that won't term the 7 1/2 years as a mistake made by the u.s. government when it was patently intentional.
Going by the U.S. legal code definition of torture, I believe that snatching someone off the street and holding them in a prison with no charges, no recourse to the law for years on end, and and very believable expectation that they could remain locked up for their rest of their lives is torture in and of itself, regardless of what else may have been done.
is that legal?
It's okay now; Batman did it in The Dark Knight.
I've lost count of how many times Jack Bauer has saved this country from total annihilation.
Why do Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne and James Bond all have the same initials?
Hold the initials up to a mirror and the answer will be revealed.
actually...remember, one season is only 24 hours in that world...so what, maybe only 3 or 4 times he actually saved the world?
And besides...Batman would whup his butt.
Batman has nervous breakdowns on the set.
Jack Bauer is steady, calm and always carries an angry frown.
Game. Set. Match.
Them's all nasty lies!
Bauer's a mommas boy compared to teh Batman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KHXm3ZFLr4&fe...
No more thumb jokes.
Here's a big toe joke.
http://homework4dummies.com/2009/05/29/cooles...
The initial snatch would have been kidnapping, but the U.S. code makes clear provisions for mental suffering as a form a torture, and holding someone with no charges, no recourse to the law, for all they know for the rest of their lives is a form of torture.
sorry that i live in a country that allows this. sorry that i haven't done anyting about it. i am sorry.
and so are you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eilpAtXrACU
if he's opposed to torutre and murder when it's his side doing it?
and besides, we are supposed to be a country of law, a republic.
are we supposed to be terrorizing civilians?
a terrorist. How do we know? Because he told us so. They're only terrorists until they get caught.
...and President Blood Sipper told you so.
He looks more like a slurper to me.
Yeah...he's gotta wear drool cups 24/7
Well how do you think this happened:
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/4010100...
Uncle dickie?
"(W)ho at the time of his arrest worked for the Red Crescent (Islamic version of the Red Cross...)"
And if he was a known terrorist, why did booshco release him without charges?
You ever thought about being an Oregon donor?
to catch one to ask.
zing!!!
You know, with the German POW's, we gave them ciggarettes and some fine booze.
But since the Muslims don't do that stuff, the next logical step was to beat the living crap out of them for the rest of eternity, you see.
Right wingers seem to really beleive that the reason that muslims don't like to be beaten is beacause they hate our freedoms..
Were you when it was our side doing the torutre?
that you're not a terrorist... I mean we have only your word that you aren't.
Notice the fact that the white Christian terrorists operating inside the US-and abroad are not being subjected to torture.
Imagine if the Christian terrorists targeting planned parenhood facilities inside the US were not white and Christian, but were rather Muslim and had brown skin. The right wing would be calling for them to be tortured.
(But the right in fact DEFENDS terrorist acts carried out by Christian terrorists)
I'm convinced those who are trying to justify the use of torture on people captured in Iraq and afganastan are basing their views on religous bigotry (The Christian hatred of Muslims) and racism (hatred on non caucasians). am I wrong???? The right can dehumanize those we've killed with ease.
The Crusades part deux, but this time with an oily twist...
We can no longer be called the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I am so ashamed of what has been done in our name.
I am so sorry this man and others like him have been treated so badly.
Does bush/chenny have no shame?
Can they be that evil?
Can America be so stupid?
republicanism is a mental illness!
I don't know what their goal is. Can somebody tell me? It just seams like an attempt to aggregate every criticism of his administration.
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