“They made cuts in my ****”

[Skillganon]

“They made cuts in my ****”
8/9/2005 11:00:00 PM GMT




These are extracts from the diary of Benyam Mohamed, a 27-year-old Ethiopian man whom the U.S. sent to several countries to be tortured.

Benyam’s attorney revealed that interrogators in jails through which his client passed before reaching Guantanamo Bay, Cuba abused him sexually and psychologically.

Clive Stafford Smith, a British human rights lawyer who represents 40 Guantanamo Bay prisoners said that Benyam was tortured in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan and that he was flown between those countries by American operatives.

Benyam was arrested at Karachi airport on April 10 2002 by the United States.

In July 2001, Benyam left his home in London and went to Afghanistan, and later left to Pakistan. In his diary he describes how he was flown by a U.S. government plane to a prison in Morocco.

"They cut off my clothes with some kind of doctor's scalpel. I was naked.

"I tried to put on a brave face. But maybe I was going to be raped. Maybe they'd electrocute me. Maybe castrate me", he wrote.

"They took the scalpel to my right chest. It was only a small cut. Maybe an inch. At first I just screamed ... I was just shocked, I wasn't expecting ... Then they cut my left chest. This time I didn't want to scream because I knew it was coming".

"One of them took my penis in his hand and began to make cuts. He did it once, and they stood still for maybe a minute, watching my reaction. I was in agony. They must have done this 20 to 30 times, in maybe two hours. There was blood all over. "I told you I was going to teach you who's the man," [one] eventually said", Benyam continues.

"One of them said it would be better just to cut it off, as I would only breed "terrorists". I asked for a doctor".

Then two doctors came to see Benyam.

"Dr. No1 said "You're all right, aren't you? But I'm going to say a prayer for you."

"Doctor No 2 gave me an Alka-Seltzer for the pain. I told him about my penis. "I need to see it. How did this happen?" I told him. He looked like it was just another patient. "Put this cream on it two times a day."

"One time I asked a guard: "What's the point of this? I've got nothing I can say to them. I've told them everything I possibly could."

"As far as I know, it's just to degrade you. So when you leave here, you'll have these scars and you'll never forget. So you'll always fear doing anything but what the U.S. wants," one of the prison guards told Benyam.
"The following January, a U.S. airplane "picked me up", and a female MP took pictures", Benyam said. "She was one of the few Americans who ever showed me any sympathy."

"They treated me and took more photos when I was in Kabul. Someone told me this was "to show Washington it's healing".

"In Morocco, there were even worse things. About once a week or even once every two weeks I would be taken for interrogation, where they would tell me what to say. They said if you say this story as we read it, you will just go to court as a witness and all this torture will stop. I eventually repeated what was read out to me".

"When I got to Morocco they said some big people in Al Qaeda were talking about me. They talked about Jose Padilla and they said I was going to testify against him and big people. They named Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, Abu Zubaidah and Ibn Sheikh Al Libby [all senior Al Qaeda leaders who are now in U.S. custody]. What they wanted changed from Morocco to when later I was in the Dark Prison [a detention centre in Kabul with windowless cells and American staff], to Bagram and again in Guantanamo Bay".

"They told me that I must plead guilty. I'd have to say I was an Al Qaeda operations man, an ideas man. I kept insisting that I had only been in Afghanistan a short while. "We don't care," was all they'd say".

"On August 6, I thought I was going to be transferred out of there [the prison]. They came in and cuffed my hands behind my back".

"But then three men came in with black masks. It seemed to go on for hours. I was in so much pain I'd fall to my knees. They'd pull me back up and hit me again. They'd kick me in my thighs as I got up. I vomited within the first few punches".

"I didn't have the energy or will to say anything."

"During September-October 2002, I was taken in a car to another place."

"They cuffed me and put earphones on my head. They played hip-hop and rock music, very loud. I remember they played Meat Loaf and Aerosmith over and over. A couple of days later they did the same thing. "

Benyam said he spent 18 months in Morocco.

"For 18 months, there was not one night when I could sleep well. Sometimes I would go 48 hours without sleep. At night, they would bang the metal doors, bang the flap on the door, or just come right in".

"They weren't really interrogations, more like training me what to say." The interrogator told me what was going on. "We're going to change your brain," he said.

"In all the 18 months I was there, I never went outside. I never saw the sun, not even once."

Excerpts of Benyam’s diary were first published last Tuesday in London's Guardian newspaper.

Source: Guardian Unlimited


Ref: http://www.islamonline.com/cgi-bin/n...ervice_id=9400

[amirah_87]

As salaamu Alaykum,

Laa Ilaaha Ilallaah!!!

[chacha_jalebi]

theres nothin you can say to these type of posts, like you can say sabr and stuff, but its realy hard for them to have sabr, inshallah Allah (swt) will help them, and finish these people who have created so much problems for us muslims

[MTAFFI]

MOD - do not quote long articles

i am not saying that this article is made up, but if he was in captivity like that how did he know what months it was and times, also why would the US ever let this guy go knowing that he would tell this story to everyone, it just seems kinda silly

[Woodrow]

Although this is an old story, it is pertinent to the time. Us Americans do need to be reminded of our share in contributing to the unrest. Only when we all learn that people can behave like savages, will we learn not to repeat acts such as this.

[Helena]

erm dunno wot to say...... .....

Ya Allah...jus have sabr inshalah....allah(swt) will guide us....and protect us from the evil of shaytaan......sabr is the key inshalah.....

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Audhubillah Audhubillah !!! Audhubillah !!

[Helena]

Audhubillah Audhubillah !!! Audhubillah !!

new word?...

dnt u mean na'udhubillah?

[Umar001]

i am not saying that this article is made up, but if he was in captivity like that how did he know what months it was and times, also why would the US ever let this guy go knowing that he would tell this story to everyone, it just seems kinda silly

He could know because he'd construct the time evenly, after his release or so maybe he sat down and wrote it all out, also he could have over heard stuff about the dates, plus, if he was ever in lesser captivity he could have had access to stuff, also the sympathetic officer could have had a conversation with him.

Furthermore, why would they let him go? erm, its not like everyone believes this story I bet alot of people don't for that same simple reason, and if the US is pressured to do something after a while they might have to do it. Maybe he was asked for by the British goverment or maybe other people campaigned on his behalf, for the US to say we are keeping him till he dies will only make them look even worse.

[Kittygyal]

new word?...

dnt u mean na'udhubillah?

Assalamualikum warhmathullahi warbarakathuhu
no! it's not a "new" word it's old, you know when you do something you say "Authubillahi- minashy twa nirajeem"
do me a favour remember me in your Du3'ah!
walikumassalam warhmathullahi warbarakathuhu

[Pk_#2]

:'(

May Allah (swt) help the ummah

AsalamuALaykum

[Skillganon]

The article is bit old, but it just that I never heard of it before.

[Pk_#2]

Nor me!

i got e-mails on similar detainees and that!

[Keltoi]

The story doesn't seem to make sense to me. To believe the entirety of the story you would have to believe these interrogators were slicing him up because they wanted to "degrade" him. While that is possible taking into account the Abu Ghraib prison debacle, I doubt these sorts of techniques would be used against someone thought to have valuable information. Waterboarding and more phsychological means of interrogation seem to be the method of choice for these guys. Khalid Sheik Muhammed broke down because they played Red Hot Chili Peppers in his room for days. The majority of professional interrogators see no point in pain inducing torture because the information is usually unreliable. So I would have to believe these people were cutting on a prisoner for fun, which is far beyond anything at Abu Ghraib. Unless more evidence is presented, I'm not convinced of the authenticity.

[Umar001]

Peace be upon those who follow guidance,

Hi Keltoi,

which is far beyond anything at Abu Ghraib.

And you know that how?

[Keltoi]

Peace be upon those who follow guidance,

Hi Keltoi,



And you know that how?

Far beyond anything disclosed about what went on at Abu Ghraib, and there was a large investigation by the media and congressional committees. Degrading photographs and barking dogs seems awful enough, but when you compare that to slicing up a man's genitalia, that is quite a difference.

[aamirsaab]

eugh, that story made me cringe. It's sickening that this kind of crap is still going on, though with my knowledge of certain psychological experimentations, it shouldn't come as anything new. Sad really. Oh dang, now I'm depressed.

i am not saying that this article is made up, but if he was in captivity like that how did he know what months it was and times,

You'd be surprised what the mind can remember under unlikely circumstances. I could get into the psychology of the dude, but I won't as it could lead to backbiting, and let's face it, the dude has suffered enough.

also why would the US ever let this guy go knowing that he would tell this story to everyone, it just seems kinda silly

It's not the first time a detainee has been let "free" and told their story to the world.

As for why he was let out, well, I'm more curious as to why he was put in.

p.s; the dude describes extreme forms of psychological torture:"...We're going to change your brain," he said. - brainwashing techniques. The very fact that he was being continually told to confess (falsely) is proof of not only false confessions but brainwashing.

"In all the 18 months I was there, I never went outside. I never saw the sun, not even once." - isolation can cause severe mental deficiency.

To summarise: gitmo is a torture camp, those with IQ's of above 63 would know that.

[MTAFFI]

eugh, that story made me cringe. It's sickening that this kind of crap is still going on, though with my knowledge of certain psychological experimentations, it shouldn't come as anything new. Sad really. Oh dang, now I'm depressed.

You'd be surprised what the mind can remember under unlikely circumstances. I could get into the psychology of the dude, but I won't as it could lead to backbiting, and let's face it, the dude has suffered enough.


It's not the first time a detainee has been let "free" and told their story to the world.

As for why he was let out, well, I'm more curious as to why he was put in.

p.s; the dude describes extreme forms of psychological torture:"...We're going to change your brain," he said. - brainwashing techniques. The very fact that he was being continually told to confess (falsely) is proof of not only false confessions but brainwashing.

"In all the 18 months I was there, I never went outside. I never saw the sun, not even once." - isolation can cause severe mental deficiency.

To summarise: gitmo is a torture camp, those with IQ's of above 63 would know that.

I agree, it is just incredible to me that these kind of things actually go on in the world today. I like to think of humanity in general as fairly advanced and definitly above these sorts of barbaric, torturous, primitive things. I guess it really shows just how "advanced" the human race really is, since we still carry out these types of acts.

[MTAFFI]

i will also say though, it still seems a little extreme, personally i think (and hope) that some of this is fabricated or exaggerated.

[Umar001]

Hi,

Far beyond anything disclosed about what went on at Abu Ghraib, and there was a large investigation by the media and congressional committees. Degrading photographs and barking dogs seems awful enough, but when you compare that to slicing up a man's genitalia, that is quite a difference.

Oh, okey dokes.