4um: Al-Jazeera man 'close to death' at Guantanamo Bay

Title: Al-Jazeera man 'close to death' at Guantanamo Bay
Source: The Independent UK
URL Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2956428.ece
Published: Sep 14, 2007
Author: By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Post Date: 2007-09-14 19:30:01 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 124
Comments: 9

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor

Published: 13 September 2007

An al-Jazeera journalist captured in Afghanistan six years ago and sent to Guantanamo Bay is close to becoming the fifth detainee at the US naval base to take his own life, according to a medical report written by a team of British and American psychiatrists

Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national, is 250 days into a hunger strike which he began in protest over his detention without charge or trial in January 2002. But British and American doctors, who have been given exclusive access to his interview notes, say there is very strong evidence that he has given up his fight for life, experiencing what doctors recognise as "passive suicide", a condition suffered by female victims of Darfur.

Dr Dan Creson, a US psychiatrist who has worked with the United Nations in Darfur, said Mr Haj was suffering from severe depression and may be deteriorating to the point of imminent death.

He said the detainee's condition was similar to that of Darfuri women in Sudan whose mind suddenly experiences an irreversible decline after enduring months of starvation and abuse. He said: "In the midst of rape, slow starvation, and abject humiliation, they did whatever they could to survive and save their children; then, suddenly, something happened in their psyche, and, without warning, they would just sit down with their small children beneath the first small area of available shade and with no apparent emotion wait for death."

In June this year a Saudi man became the fourth prisoner to take his own life at Guantanamo Bay. Guards found him dead in his cell. Two Saudis and a Yemeni prisoner were found hanged in an apparent suicide at Guantanamo in June last year. A senior US officer caused outrage at the time by describing the suicides of three men as an act of asymmetric warfare and a good PR move on the part of terrorist suspects.

Mr Haj, 38, was sent on assignment by al-Jazeera television station to cover the war in Afghanistan in October 2001. The following month, after the fall of Kabul, Mr Haj left Afghanistan for Pakistan with the rest of his crew.

In early December, the crew were given visas to return to Afghanistan. But when Mr Haj tried to re-enter Afghanistan with his colleagues, he was arrested by the Pakistani authorities – apparently at the request of the US military.

He was imprisoned, handed over to the US authorities in January 2002, taken to the US military compound in Bagram, Afghanisatan, then Kandahar, and finally to Guantanamo in June 2002.

His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, of the human rights charity Reprieve, said his client had endured months of brutal force-feeding and lost nearly a fifth of his body weight during the hunger strike.

Mr Stafford Smith said: "The US military is rightly afraid of a fifth prisoner dying in their custody. But they wrongly respond by treating prisoners worse. Blankets and clothes are removed in case they are used to commit suicide. The harshest methods of forced feeding are deployed – Sami has suffered the feeding tube being forced down into his lungs by mistake several times."

The warning about the condition of Mr Haj coincided with the release of Guantanamo transcripts which describe the hostility between guards and their prisoners. The transcripts includes details of guards interrupting detainees at prayer, detainees flinging body waste at guards and interrogators withholding medicine.

Dr Hugh Rickards, a British psychiatrist, warned in his report that the level of Mr Haj's mental suffering "appears so acute that it is my duty as a medical practitioner to put this in writing to ensure appropriate assessment and treatment".

Dr Mamoun Mobayed, a British psychiatrist based in Northern Ireland, and a third member of the team who has also been given access to written notes of recent interviews with the prisoner, said there was also concern about the mental health of Mr Haj's wife and seven-year-old son, who was just one when his father went on assignment to Afghanistan.

Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

As I sit on front of the computer I often think about the 335 prisoners at Guantanamo, almost none of which have ever been charged with any crime.

Here is the sad story of one of them, plus some insight into what prison is like (based on my own experience as a prison employee).

This post may seem depressing. I write in the hope that we think about these people once in a while.

In October 2001, he was sent to cover the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He exposed several U.S. massacres of Afghans. Therefore the Bush regime vowed revenge. ....."

in the US with no privilege of habeas corpus. We could all be arrested, imprisoned and tortured with no finding of guilt by a jury. That is why "the Great Writ" is said to be the cornerstone of democracy.

The story of Guantanamo is under-reported and is a black stain on the US. The MSM works hard to make sure we are all frightened and misinformed."

"Sami el Hajj and Tayseer 'Allouni are 2 important Jazeera journalists who were imprisoned for soley doing their jobs in Afghanistan. Tayseer is in a 'normal' jail at least..., but Sami is in Guantanamo and is being force fed through a tube from his nose to stomach because he decided to stop eating over 250 days ago. I think that what the US is doing to innocent people in Guantanamo will haunt the US for a very long time as I don't imagine that the families of these prisoners will ever forget what their loved ones were forced to endure by the "liberating" American forces. I saw a program some time ago that explained what physically happened to the prisoners on Guantanomo who went on hunger strikes and how they were tied down in order to be force fed. I personally could never forget this program and will never understand the cruelty involved in Bush's war on "terror". The way I see it is that the war on "terror" which is now being called "the war on fundamentalist Islam".., is a major cover-up for the activities of the real terrorists who are in Tel Aviv and Washington."

"..the bastards' destiny, for what they've done to life on God's Garden Earth, is an eternity of torture, infinitely worse than is possible for us to imagine; in SHEOL.

..with these things going on, surely the wrath of God is just around the corner, for we are witness."

It's late in the day. I hope for the sake of his child, he will have a change of heart, and fight to live.

..oh dear.. I cannot for the life of me have imagined such things would be happening and those who have put this in motion would be so emboldened..

"...Sami’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, is British, but works in the USA. He is with Reprieve, an international network of non-profit humanitarian organizations. He has filed 128 lawsuits on behalf of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and other U.S. prisoners around the world.

He says Sami has endured months of brutal force-feeding (tubes jammed down his nose and throat). On several occasions the force-feeding tubes have been rammed into Sami’s lungs by mistake, almost killing him.

Sami has been interrogated 130 times. During 125 of these sessions, Sami’s torturers have asked Sami if “al-Qaeda” owns the al-Jazeera network.

[[Al-Jazeera is mainly owned by Hamad bin Khalifa, the Emir of Qatar, who cooperates with Bush. However, Bush considered bombing Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters in April 2004, when U.S. Marines were laying waste to Fallujah, Iraq. The UK Daily Mirror exposed this on November 22, 2005. Earlier, the USA asked the Emir to disclose where al-Jazeera offices were located. When the Emir did so, the USA blew up al-Jazeera’s offices in Kabul (2001) and Baghdad (2003), killing correspondent Tareq Ayyoub.]]

Blankets and clothing have been removed to prevent Sami from using them to asphyxiate himself.

Sami is married, and has a seven-year old son who was a year old when Sami was imprisoned. He says the worst part of his nightmare is that he cannot see his wife and son.

Dr. Mamoun Mobayed is a British psychiatrist based in Northern Ireland. He visits prisoners at Guantanamo. He says Sami’s wife is suffering from severe depression.

If you were forming a terrorist group, would you call yourself, "The Toilet"?

In Arabic, "Ana raicha Al Qaeda" is colloquial for "I'm going to the toilet.” Many Arabic countries commonly use the word "Al-Qaeda" for the toilet bowl.

This name comes from the Arabic verb "Qa'ada," which means "to sit", pertinently, on the "Toilet Bowl".

In some Arabs' homes there are two kinds of toilets: "Al-Qaeda" (also called the "Hamam Franji" or foreign-style toilet), and "Hamam Arabi" or "Arab toilet" which is a hole in the ground.*

it's a living nightmare isn't it...America is not the America we grew up in. The evil that has taken over is other-worldly, if you know what I mean. I don't think it will go on forever. I'm praying God will preserve Sami, somehow.