First-person account of CIA torture survivor

Posted by Cory Doctorow, December 14, 2007 10:30 PM | permalink

Today's Salon features a long first-person account of Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, who was kidnapped to a CIA "black site" torture camp. It's strong and scary stuff, and the people responsible deserve to be hauled into court, shown up for the criminals they are, and stuck in a cell for the rest of their lives. The traitors in government who sanctioned this program should join them. Torture is a cancer. Extrajudicial imprisonment is a cancer. These things rot democracy. They rot nations.

The CIA held Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah in several different cells when he was incarcerated its network of secret prisons known as "black sites." But the small cells were all pretty similar, maybe 7 feet wide and 10 feet long. He was sometimes naked, and sometimes handcuffed for weeks at a time. In one cell his ankle was chained to a bolt in the floor. There was a small toilet. In another cell there was just a bucket. Video cameras recorded his every move. The lights always stayed on -- there was no day or night. A speaker blasted him with continuous white noise, or rap music, 24 hours a day. The guards wore black masks and black clothes. They would not utter a word as they extracted Bashmilah from his cell for interrogation -- one of his few interactions with other human beings during his entire 19 months of imprisonment. Nobody told him where he was, or if he would ever be freed.
It was enough to drive anyone crazy. Bashmilah finally tried to slash his wrists with a small piece of metal, smearing the words "I am innocent" in blood on the walls of his cell. But the CIA patched him up.
So Bashmilah stopped eating. But after his weight dropped to 90 pounds, he was dragged into an interrogation room, where they rammed a tube down his nose and into his stomach. Liquid was pumped in. The CIA would not let him die.

Link

Any evidence other than the testimony?
But they're right. These questionings should stop. Next time, just shoot them where you find them.

The justice system is apparently incompatible with their "war on terror."

We don't need no habeas corpus, we have TERRORISM to scare you with!

we're fighting fire with fire...

Originally Posted by The Other Guy

we're fighting fire with fire...

If you are saying, "What's good for the goose,...." Just remember that the International Court of Justice is successfully prosecuting War criminals for engaging in acts of this nature. What makes us any different?

I feel that the whole extraordinary rendition and Camp Delta fiasco has already ruined our legitimacy in the eyes of the world.

Why didn't we torture Japanese prisoners in WWII?

I'm not saying it's a good thing, I'm just observing.

This topic is prone to inflamation and I think we should use care in our posts.

I would also caution us against drawing conclusions from one post. I have a HUGE problem with blogs as they tend to be highly speculative, off the wall conclusions, or even outright lies. Do some outisde research and determine the merits of this story for yourself. I have some reservations about the credibility of "Solon" and "boingboing.net" and Cory Doctorow.

This from the linked website

Cory Doctorow


Website: http://craphound.com
Bio: Science fiction writer, blogger, activist, short-attention-span-having guy with -- oh, shiny!


As far as CIA interrogation techniques in general, I would say that the VERY little amount written in this account make it hard to draw a conclusion. I mean, they chained him, ok. They played loud noise of some type, ok. Lights on, ok. Sounds similar to a prison system, only noise there comes from other inmates. I mean, your body will sleep when it must regardless of how much noise or light there is. If it is a matter of comfort, sure there was zero, but nothing there would cause him to die.

I would say information gathering techniques are dirty. I do not like them, but I do not like war either. But sometimes things must be done. That does not mean I condone mutilation or torture in that more traditional sense, but I do understand that we must gather that information in order to end wars and, in the end, the need of intel gathering. I understand that our treatment of POWs and enemy combatants alike is what separates us from them and we should never resort to less than moral treatment standards. I see a vast difference between even the described account and rusty, dull bladed beheadings and the other atrocities taken by the other side. I dont think moral lines were crossed in this scenario and in reality there are fates far worse than staying awake longer than you thought possible and always hearing white noise.

This debate is also prone to "dumbing down" by those who do not like what is fast becoming known to the outside world. There have been any number of first person interviews since some of these people have been freed, and the one consistent thing is that they all seem to tell the same story and describe the same abuses. Your argument is specious at best.

Chr!st, even the US Government is arguing about the legitimacy of using such methods of interrogation as water boarding.

Who are the criminals here???

Like I said, let's just shoot them where we find them. No more prisoners.

You might also book yourself in with "Chemical Ali" and his mates when they have their final day.

We are supposed to be the "good guys"