A BRITISH captive freed from Guantanamo Bay today tells
the world of its full horror - and reveals how
prostitutes were taken into the camp to degrade Muslim
inmates.
Jamal al-Harith, 37, who arrived home three days ago
after two years of confinement, is the first detainee to
lift the lid on the US regime in Cuba's Camp X-Ray and
Camp Delta.
The father-of-three, from Manchester, told how he was
assaulted with fists, feet and batons after refusing a
mystery injection.
FREEDOM: Jamal yesterday... but he will
never forget camp horror
He said detainees were shackled for up to 15 hours at a
time in hand and leg cuffs with metal links which cut
into the skin.
Their "cells" were wire cages with concrete floors and
open to the elements - giving no privacy or protection
from the rats, snakes and scorpions loose around the
American base.
He claims punishment beatings were handed out by guards
known as the Extreme Reaction Force. They waded into
inmates in full riot-gear, raining blows on them.
Prisoners
faced psychological torture and mind-games in attempts
to make them confess to acts they had never committed.
Even petty breaches of rules brought severe punishment.
Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations
of limbs were more drastic than required, claimed Jamal.
A diet of foul water and food up to 10 years out-of-date
left inmates malnourished.
But Jamal's most shocking disclosure centred on the use
of vice girls to torment the most religiously devout
detainees.
Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before
would be forced to watch as the hookers touched their
own naked bodies.
The
men would return distraught. One said an American girl
had smeared menstrual blood across his face in an act of
humiliation.
Jamal said: "I knew of this happening about 10 times. It
always seemed to be those who were very young or known
to be particularly religious who would be taken away.
"I would joke with the other British lads, 'Bring them
to us - we'll have them'. It made us laugh. But the
Americans obviously knew we wouldn't be shocked by
seeing Western women, so they didn't bother.
"It was a profoundly disturbing experience for these
men. They would refuse to speak about what had happened.
It would take perhaps four weeks for them to tell a
friend - and we would shout it out around the whole
block."
Jamal added: "The whole point of Guantanamo was to get
to you psychologically. The beatings were not as nearly
as bad as the psychological torture - bruises heal after
a week - but the other stuff stays with you."
HE was talking from a secret location after being
reunited with his family. The website designer, a
convert to Islam, had gone to Pakistan in October 2001,
a few weeks after September 11, to study Muslim culture.
He accidentally strayed into Afghanistan - believing he
was being driven to Turkey - and was arrested as a spy,
perhaps because of his British passport. He was held in
Kandahar, Afghanistan, and fell into US hands.
Now Jamal bears the scars of Guantanamo. He stoops into
a hunch as he walks because the shackles that bound him
were too short.
As a punishment, inmates would be confined so tightly
they would be forced to lie in a ball for hours. During
lengthy interrogation, they would be tethered to a metal
ring on the floor.
Jamal said: "Sometimes you would be chained up on the
floor with your hands and feet actually bound together.
One of my friends told me he was kept like that for 15
hours once.
"Recreation meant your legs were untied and you walked
up and down a strip of gravel. In Camp X-Ray you only
got five minutes but in Delta you walked for around 15
minutes."
Jamal said victims of the Extreme Reaction Force were
paraded in front of cells. "It was a horrible sight and
it was a frequent sight."
He said one unit used force-feeding to end a hunger
strike by 70 per cent of the 600 inmates. The strike
started after a guard deliberately kicked a copy of the
Koran.
Rice and beans was the usual diet and the water was
"filthy". Jamal added: "In Camp X-Ray it was yellow and
in Delta it was black - the colour of Coca-Cola.
"We had it piped through with a tap in each 'cage' but
they would often turn the water off as punishment.
"They would shut off the water before prayers so we
couldn't wash ourselves according to our religion.
"The food was terrible as well, up to 10 years
out-of-date. They would open a hatch and shove it
through a section at a time.
"We had porridge and something they called 'like-milk',
which was disgusting and 'like-tea' and a piece of
fruit. The fruit had been frozen and pounded with
chemicals. An apple might look red but there was waxy
white stuff all over it and inside it would be black and
brown.
"They would play tricks on people by denying them things
- you might be the only person on your block who didn't
get any bread. I prided myself on never asking them for
anything. I would not beg." Jamal said they were told
they had no rights. "They actually said that - 'You have
no rights here'. After a while, we stopped asking for
human rights - we wanted animal rights. In Camp X-Ray my
cage was right next to a kennel housing an Alsatian dog.
"He had a wooden house with air conditioning and green
grass to exercise on. I said to the guards, 'I want his
rights' and they replied, 'That dog is member of the US
army'.
"You would be punished for anything - for having six
packets of salt in your cell rather than five, for
hanging your towel through the cage if it wasn't wet,
even for having your spoon and things lined up in the
wrong order."
Being forced to use a bucket as a toilet in view of
other inmates and guards was particularly embarrassing.
Jamal said: "I never got used to it - we would all put
our towels and clothes around us.
"But the Military Police up in the tower would see us
and would shout to each other.
"We were only allowed a shower once a week at the
beginning and none at all in solitary confinement.
"This was very tough because you are supposed to be
clean when you pray.
"Gradually the number of showers rose to three a week.
They were always cold.
"You would be chained by two MPs while you were still in
the cage before being taken off for what they called 'rec
and shower'.
"You could sometimes see the guards tampering with the
shower heads to make water squirt all over the inmate's
clothes if he had put them up to protect his privacy."
Inmates were issued with "comfort items" - known as CIs
- like shampoo, towels, a washcloth and boxer shorts.
CIs would be removed as a punishment.
Jamal defiantly refused "treats", such as watching a
James Bond film in a room dubbed The Love Shack by
inmates.
He added: "Some people were given pizzas, ice-cream and
McDonald's, but they didn't offer them to me. I guess
they knew bribery would work with some and not with
others."
To pass the time, inmates would chat to each other,
pray, read the Koran and sing Islamic songs. In Camp
X-Ray, they were given Mills and Boon-style romance
novels in Arabic, which they refused to read.
Describing medical treatment, Jamal said he knew of 11
men who had legs amputated and two who lost toes and
fingers. He was told that the Americans had removed far
more tissue than was necessary.
HE added: "The man in the cell next to me had frostbite
in two fingers and two toes. He also had it in his big
toe, but they didn't treat that for a year by which time
they had to cut off much more than was needed.
"All the men who had lost limbs complained they would
chop them off high up and not bother to try to save as
much as possible."
Jamal added that he didn't have close friends in
Guantanamo, saying: "When I did meet the other Brits, we
would reminisce about home - particularly the food.
"We were all obsessed with Scottish Highland Shortbread
- we wanted some so much.
"One of the Brits told me he was asked why he was a
Muslim, because he ought to be praying to the Queen."
Jamal, who is divorced with daughters aged three and
eight and a son of five, is convinced his refusal to
succumb to mind-games gave him the will to come through.
He said: "It was very, very hard at times, but I tried
to think about nothing but survival.
"I kept my thoughts from home as much as possible
because it would drive me crazy.
"About a year into my time, I had a dream. A voice said,
'You will here for two years'.
"In my dream I said, 'Two years! You're joking'. But
when I woke up, I was calmer because at least that meant
I would be getting out one day.
"I was sent to Guantanamo on February 11, 2002 and left
on March 9, 2004, so I was there for just over two
years, just like the voice in the dream said."
|