First-person account of CIA torture survivor

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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.
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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.
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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!
 
The Other Guy said:
we're fighting fire with fire...
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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?
 
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???
 
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"
 
Sometimes I wonder if such a thing exists.
It's like the world is just full of bad guys and you have to choose between the ones that are less bad than the others.
 
If there is no such thing, it's only because we have lowered our standards to theirs.

It has never worked in the past, and it certainly won't work in the present.

It all comes back to the simple fact that two wrongs don't make a right.
 
Spike

There have been many first hand accounts of CIA/ US Gov torture, sure. But does that mean it is true? These people will do anything it takes to destroy the United States. They ignite bombs among civilians, of whom are not even US citizens in order to dissolve our fortitude in the war. I believe that they would not hesitate to produce many "first hand accounts" of US torture in order to divide our unity even further.

I do not mean to say that I discredit all claims right off the bat, but surely blindly lending support to a claim that has no basis, one that could not stand up in court, makes no sense. There are hundreds of first hand accounts of UFOs and Elvis being alive too...

I guess that makes me both a skeptic and naive. Fine. I believe that there is still a difference between the good and the bad. I believe the good will do what it can do morally to win this war and that the bad will go to any end, use any means including propoganda to win.

Perhaps my naivete is tied to my age. But I hope that through the years I am never proved wrong.
 
The Other Guy said:
However we lose the ability to tell other nations to stop torture because we are doing it ourselves.
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And of course those that aren't torturing yet, may start doing so. Especially if the prisoners happen to be American.

If we take the gloves off, so will others.

Besides, Torture is a extremely inefficient method of extracting information. Any expert will tell you that the information gleaned from torture is of little value as the person being torture will confess to anything to stop his suffering.

A much more efficient way to get information is to 'flip' prisoners. Its very time consuming, but its also very effective. In WWII the bombings of Japan were organized by Japanese (Captured soldiers) turncoats who relayed target information to the B-29s. There is a famous picture of a Japanese turncoat in a Bomber talking on the radio to other bombers.

If we can flip Japanese soldiers with 800 year brainwashing in Bushido then we can certainly flip some goat herder from the Sinai. The Israelis have been doing it for years.
 
They don't always flip them by putting them in a five star hotel and giving them hot tea every morning.
The old fashioned bribe does work in some cases, other cases you need to blackmail, threaten, etc.
There are people who will not switch sides for ten million dollars.
Basically put, flipping isn't always done in very nice ways.
The expert advice on the inefficiencies of torture do hold merit but it's a very PR response. It's been done for thousands of years and they continue to do it because it brings about results.
Just because the guy talks the torture doesn't end there. If the information is no good, the guy will suffer even worse.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Who knows, flipping could be achieved by even worse means. i.e. kidnap their kids and expect full cooperation or have their kid sent back in five separate boxes.
 
Spartacus said:
Spike

There have been many first hand accounts of CIA/ US Gov torture, sure. But does that mean it is true? These people will do anything it takes to destroy the United States. They ignite bombs among civilians, of whom are not even US citizens in order to dissolve our fortitude in the war. I believe that they would not hesitate to produce many "first hand accounts" of US torture in order to divide our unity even further.

I do not mean to say that I discredit all claims right off the bat, but surely blindly lending support to a claim that has no basis, one that could not stand up in court, makes no sense. There are hundreds of first hand accounts of UFOs and Elvis being alive too...

I guess that makes me both a skeptic and naive. Fine. I believe that there is still a difference between the good and the bad. I believe the good will do what it can do morally to win this war and that the bad will go to any end, use any means including propoganda to win.

Perhaps my naivete is tied to my age. But I hope that through the years I am never proved wrong.
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Some good posts here, but as a starting principle regarding the current situation and what is at stake, I have to agree with Spartacus. Take it from there, but that is where we have to come from, or our sworn enemies will take the trousers off us.

And Spartacus, different age group here, seen it all ; same conclusion as yourself.
 
I just had an idea.
Let's do nothing. No operations abroad, no operations abroad, nothing. Let illegal aliens from terrorist countries in without checking for any documentation (while lawful visitors or migrants from non-terrorist countries get screened and sent back for not having enough money in their wallet on that particular day... do you know that I nearly got sent back in London Heathrow because my stay in London was deemed "too short"??), do not investigate any bombing, do not interdict any illegal cargo that may be used for terrorist purposes, allow speeches in public that call for a Jihad against all non-Muslims...
No more bikinis, no more MTV, no more TV in fact, no radio, no more bars, no more alcohol, no more discos... we will follow Sharia law down to the numbers unconditionally.
Let's do that and see where we stand a year from now.
 
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