Hicks "sexually" Abused!
By jennybianca
@jennybianca (12912)
Australia
March 19, 2007 9:58pm CST
Some of you may remember I posted a discussion about an alleged Terrorist from my home city of Adlaide, being caught in Afganistan by the US troops. He has been Guantanamo Bay for 5 years, and has only just been charged with aiding & abbetting terrorism.
As a follow up, I thought I would copy this story from the Adelaide Advertiser, 20 March. If it is correct, then I think humanity has a lot to answer for.
"March 20, 2007 11:37am
DAVID Hicks was allegedly stripped naked, thrown to the ground, had his body hair shaved off and a plastic object inserted in his rectum, documents show.
According to the New York Times, Hicks details abuse he experienced before arriving at Guantanamo Bay in an affidavit supporting his request for British citizenship.
In the statement, filed in December, Hicks said the abuse began during interrogations in Afghanistan, where he was captured in late 2001 and continued while he was shuttled between American naval ships, aircraft, unknown buildings and Kandahar.
Hicks said he was interrogated by five Americans dressed in black combat gear.
“When the US interrogators showed up my treatment changed,” Hicks said. “The US interrogators would question me, and after my responses I would be slapped in the back of the head and told I was lying.”
Hicks said he was taken aboard the U.S.S. Peleliu, where he heard other detainees “screaming in pain” when being interrogated.
While Hicks claims he was not abused at Guantanamo, he does claim that he was given mysterious injections that “would make my head feel strange.” He also says he witnessed other detainees being beaten and set upon by dogs."
2 people like this
5 responses
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
21 Mar 07
In documents recovered in Afganistan and Iraq there were handbooks for terrorist. Some of the things included was to talk to the media or try to get your story out and to claim you were mistreated or abused. When you look at what some people in power are defining torture as being yelling at you or questioning you in sessions that last more than six to eight hours at a time. Many of the incidents that have been reported and printed in the news papers have been proven to be out right lies. The report of a guard flushing the Koran down the toilet was acturally an inmate doing it. There were reports of conditins being so bad that inmates were committing suside, when one such case was acturally done to try to trap some guards and attack them.
I do not condone the use of physical torture - electric shock to the gentials, cutting off fingers, burning or sexually abusing prisoners - I do think that hard interrgoationsis necessary. Playing on their fears or making them unconfortable are acceptical. An example given by a POW from the Viet Nam War was keeping you in a cold damp cell andthen bringing you into a warm room and giving you a cup of tea. You wanted the experience to lastso you gave them something to make you time out of the cell longer.
While some of the detainees have been released and returned home they might be saying these things to prove to their group that they were tough. Knowing that such charges would result in bad press for you enemy and time and effort spent defending and invesgating the charges and not focusing on the real enemy it makes sense to level false charges. During any war the more difficult you can be a a POW the more troops you pull away from the front lines to control you. Are the reports the truth or just another way of waging war on your enemy and the media is more than willing to help you.
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
21 Mar 07
You have made some good points here and presented a lot of evidence.
As a matter of fact, my cousins husband, in the Army, is being sent to Afghanistan very shortly.
1 person likes this
@66jerseygirl (3877)
• United States
21 Mar 07
I don't listen to nothing a prisoner says unless he has proof.They are prisoners and of course they are are gonna say they are being abused whether they are or not. It really infuriates me when people are so quick to believe these terrorists without proof to back it up.If they did have proof then I would sympathize but not until.
People in this country&around the world are so quick to put down our troops for guatonomo but I want something known. I read about two reporters that went undercover at Guatonomo and what I read really angered me at these people mouthing off about these "poor prisoners".American troops have had their wrists twisted back and broken when trying to give them food,they are constantly being bombarded with urine bombs,threatening their families,attacked with homemade knives,bitten and tons of other stuff. It's horrible but no one ever reports about that.
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
21 Mar 07
The problem is, how is the prisoner going to prove abuse? I guess, he/she is in no positioon to provide such proof.
I realise the media doesn't always get things right, but unfortunately abuse from the military does not occur. At least from the British. Remember the huge fuss last year, when it was proven that certain members of the British Military had abused prisoners.
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@66jerseygirl (3877)
• United States
21 Mar 07
There are doctors down there that are monitored by the red cross . If he was really abused,they would know. I didn't mean to sound heavy handed ,it 's just very frustrating having people take what these terrorists say at face value.If he is truly being abused they will find out .
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@webeishere (36313)
• United States
21 Mar 07
I also find a lot of the reported abuse to be quite exaggerated by the prisoners. I feel that if this had been going on for 6 years there would have been more reports of the same individuals claims. I do not condone abuse of any sort especially by those in charge in any aspect be it prison,military or the government. There needs to be an outside source responsible for checking into said offense and a report made to the public in general also.
HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
22 Mar 07
I beleive that the US Military has done an outstanding job of invesgating such reported abuse. It was the military that had the invesgation into Abugra Prison and had releived many of the people involved before the storybroke in the media, during sweeps week. Several months before the US Army mentioned at a press confrence that they were invesgating abuse allegations and that the commander of the prison had been releived of command pending the out come of the invesgation. The reporters were more concerned with the body count and not finding WMD's.
As far as trusting Human Rights Groups to report the truth I don't. They tend to report the stories that will get them the most press coverage. I have never seen Aminesty International report on persicutions of Chrisitan in Musilum countries. I did not see any reports from AI on the United Nations Peace Keeping forces in Africa and the rape and abductions of girls as young as 10 and 12 years old. When they invesgating and reporting these with the same level of intensity that they look into charges that an American prisoner is a political prisoner and not a criminal who was convicd of rape and murder.
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@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
21 Mar 07
Perhaps Amnesty International would be the best non-profit & voluntary organisation to check these reports. There seems to be on way of knowing with all these media reprts, just what the truth is!
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@prisidio (35)
• Canada
20 Mar 07
I'm always skeptical about some of the claims by many of these prisoners. A part of me feels no sort of moral outrage towards the abuse of prisoners simply because of what these people were aiding and associated with. But that's the emotional side of myself speaking. Rationally, I'd hope the US government is abiding by international human rights law when it comes to the treatment of prisoners, but if they are not, then yes international condemnation is justified.
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