Freed Gitmo Detainee: 'We Were Subjected to Meticulous, Daily Torture

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/20-5



Ibrahim Idris smiles after his release from Guantanamo Bay upon his arrival at the airport in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, December 19, 2013.

Freed Gitmo Detainee: 'We Were Subjected to Meticulous, Daily Torture
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Published on Friday, December 20, 2013 by Common Dreams

Upon his return to Sudan after 11 years of incarceration at the hands of the U.S. military in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a frail 52-year-old Ibrahim Idris declared at a Thursday press conference in Khartoum that detainess at the prison "have been subjected to meticulous, daily torture with punishment," with 'double' the abuse for those who participated in the hunger strike.

“We were helpless…on an isolated island, surrounded by weapons,” he stated, his voice described as soft and weak in numerous media reports.

Idris returned to Sudan on Thursday with fellow detainee and 51-year-old Sudanese citizen Noor Othman Mohammed—who was reportedly unable to attend the press conference because he was receiving medical treatment in a hospital.

Idris, who suffers from mental and physical illness, spent much of his incarceration in a psychiatric facility, held without ever being charged with a crime. His release to Sudan came years after he was cleared for transfer, in a prison where over half of the inmates have already been approved for release.



unhappycamper comment: Closing Gitmo could save us $454 million dollars a year. 164 detainees / $454 million dollars a year = $2.768 million dollars per prisoner per year.

[another_liberal]

1. What, give up our war trophies!

If we release the "Evil Doers" now held in Gitmo, what will we have to show for our "War on Terror?" The whole decade-long, national exercise of loss, waste and general mindless excess will have been for no real purpose whatsoever!

Whoopsie, I went ahead and said it, didn't I?

[bemildred]

2. Fake meticulousness is about what I would expect from the Pentagon.

The pretense of order and discipline as a mask for lawlessness and waste.

[CrispyQ]

9. +1

Well said.

[democrank]

3. I can`t even think of the word....

Shameful, sickening.

We can bray all we want about how great and civilized we are, but like anything else....watch what we do, not what we say.

[RVN VET]

8. What do you mean "we"?

I doubt seriously if you or I or anyone in this room have ever been guilty of braying about the wonders of American civilization.

As a white man, I can honestly say that my forebears stole this land from the indigenous folks whom we tried very hard to eliminate from the face of the Earth, set up a republic that sanctioned the buying and selling of human beings, built up its industrial strength on the backs of underpaid workers who were cast off like garbage if they were injured on the job or got to old to do it anymore, set about to destroy democratic governments it didn't agree with, killed (and continues to kill) innocent civilians in far off lands in undeclared wars -- and now this, torture. What else is new?

This is a Country where a huge and powerful faction of rich institutions, greedy tycoons, and dumb ass teabaggers wants to take food away from its own children and block millions of its own citizens from voting, from health care, from education. The same faction that prevented this "great and glorious Nation" from doing a damned thing to prevent future massacres of little children and others at the gun wielding hands of maniacs, that reacted to the slaughter of innocence by making it easier to purchase weapons of mass destruction to use against the innocent.

Torture is not a surprise. The smugness with which so many Americans (yeah, you, Cheney, and all of Fox nation, that means you all) talk about it is sad, but not a surprise. The National Character includes a thick vein of sadism and callous cruelty.

[cantbeserious]

4. And All The While This Goes On - The Elites Have Us Squabbling Over Palin And Duck Dynasty

eom

[zeemike]

5. Yep...distraction.

It always seems to work in a compromised media...and the war criminals walk free.

[Enthusiast]

6. We're number one!

[ybbor]

7. Yay America!

Now the whole world will love us even more!

[progressoid]

10. Freedumb ain't free!!1!