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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: Hicks Tells of Torture and Abuse at Guantanamo Hicks tells of torture and abuse at Guantanamo Tom Allard, Sydney March 2, 2007 AFTER arriving in Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks says he was shown a photo of a battered fellow Australian, Mamdouh Habib, and told he would be sent to Egypt for similar, brutal treatment if he did not co-operate with US interrogators. The claim of abuse is one of many made by accused terror suspect Hicks in a document to be presented in May to a British court as he seeks UK citizenship. The document aims to chronicle claims of mistreatment and torture by US guards and interrogators, both allegedly experienced and seen by Hicks. While the US has repeatedly denied mistreating prisoners, Hicks claims his captors' strategy was to create a climate of fear that he says forced him to "say anything" to interrogators. In what reads as a disturbing portrayal of his first few months in US custody, Hicks says interrogators showed him a photo of a badly beaten Mr Habib, the Sydney man arrested in Pakistan after the September 11 attacks. According to the account, Hicks was told that if he did not co-operate he would be "sent to Egypt" as well. Mr Habib has said the CIA took him to Egypt, where he said he was electrocuted, subjected to simulated drowning, attacked by dogs and repeatedly beaten. Mr Habib, 50, was released in 2005, and never charged. US prosecutors have drafted charges against Hicks of attempted murder and providing material support for terrorism. Hicks has reportedly claimed he was forced to go to the Taliban front line — an explanation that US prosecutors dispute. Hicks is believed to have been first arrested by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in November 2001, and handed over to the US. In the documents towards his citizenship bid, he says a first interrogation by five black-clad Americans was accompanied by smacks on the back of his head as he was told he was a liar. His second is said to have involved soldiers sitting outside with guns trained on him while his interrogator shook him violently and waved a pistol in his face. The documents say Hicks, hooded and shackled, was shuttled to US naval ships and among his fellow prisoners was John Walker Lindh, the young American who fought with the Taliban. According to the account, as other prisoners were taken for interrogation, their screams clearly audible, Hicks said he heard a US guard tell Lindh "this will not happen to you because you are an American". Lindh was not sent to Guantanamo Bay or required to face a military commission trial. Hicks says that, at first, he was spared the beatings meted out to others. Several days after he was shifted to the USS Bataan, that all changed. The documents say that, thrown into a helicopter, he and a group of other blindfolded detainees were whisked to an undisclosed "hangar-like" location where they were forced to kneel for 10 hours while verbally and physically assaulted. Hicks said he was repeatedly hit on the back of a head with a rifle, slapped on the head, spat on, kicked, stepped on by troops and punched in the temple. It is alleged that three days later, the experience was repeated. Soon after, Hicks went to Guantanamo Bay. First, however, he said there was an interrogation in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Hicks claims that stripped, shaved and covered in a mysterious liquid applied by sponge, he was photographed before a piece of plastic was forced into his rectum "for no apparent reason". A US soldier allegedly taunted him, saying the device was "extra ribbed" for his pleasure. David Hicks said his introduction to Guantanamo was one of silent, disorientated dread. Allegedly injected with drugs, hooded, tightly bound and wearing goggles and ear muffs and orange overalls, he said he was thrown into one of the small, open-air cages of Camp X-Ray. For weeks, Hicks said he and other detainees were forbidden to talk permitted to lay in only two positions — lying prone and looking up or sitting looking straight down. No other movement was permitted other than at meal times, he says, and any deviation from the edict, or muttered conversations, were met with savage beatings by the guards. Hicks claims there were constant interruptions from guards every hour, supposedly to check detainees still had their toothbrushes but, in effect, to deprive the captives of sleep. If inmates covered their face to block out the hot sun or powerful floodlights at night, they allegedly were woken by guards kicking and screaming. It was at this time that Hicks had his first experience of Guantanamo Bay's notorious "Initial Reaction Force" or IRF, squads of half a dozen men in body armour who rushed recalcitrant detainees and beat them. In the account, Hicks tells of a one-legged prisoner in a nearby cell set upon by guards and dogs. Hicks says he was ordered to face the other way. When he was permitted to turn around, there was, he says, blood in the cell. According to Hicks, the bashings were handed out regularly by IRF, giving prisoners the new lexicon of being "IRFed" or receiving an "IRFing". The attacks happened if rules were broken or a guard's directive not followed quickly. Hicks said, given few inmates spoke English, this was a common occurrence. The psychological intimidation was no less subtle, Hicks said. There was the isolation, the lack of exercise (he was permitted 15 minutes per week) and the alleged refusal to allow Hicks access to a lawyer, consular official or his family. Hicks said inmates were often accosted while praying and Qu'rans thrown in the toilet. They were often told they would never leave Guantanamo. Hicks said that, for interrogations, he was moved from cell to cell and injected with an unknown substance that "made my head feel strange". When he needed an operation for a double hernia, he was mauled by guards, strapped in four point restraints and aggressively treated by medical staff. Hicks said he was treated better than many prisoners at Guantanamo, but the "IRFings" continued around him and he would sometimes hear excruciatingly loud music played in nearby interrogation cells. The interrogations ground to a virtual halt by July 2003. He then spent 8 months in virtual isolation. It was only then that he had contact, for the first time, with an Australian consular official, a 10 minute meeting. He had still not gained access to a lawyer. It is clear that during his interrogations, Hicks made admissions to his captors. The US has repeatedly denied that it has mistreated prisoners in its custody. Two investigations into earlier claims of mistreatment by Hicks dismissed them for lack of corroborating evidence. However, there has been testimony from former detainees and US agencies to the contrary. The document is being presented to the British court because Hicks' lawyers say that any statements he made were coerced and should not be admissible. Hicks, who's mother is British, was granted citizenship for several hours before it was rescinded because he was considered a security risk. He is now appealing. David Hicks lawyer Michael Mori is speaking in Melbourne this morning.
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#1. To: bluedogtxn (#0)
"Game over man."
The glass is too tall or too wide.
He should have stayed out of Afghanistan. I'll put it this way: during World War II what person in his right mind would have traveled to Germany, France or Poland?
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
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