Warren Peace
8th August 2005, 19:03
Al Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=9400)
“They made cuts in my penis- There was blood all over”
8/8/2005 5:30:00 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.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/pics/9400.jpg
"I didn't have the energy or will to say anything," Benyam wrote
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
“They made cuts in my penis- There was blood all over”
8/8/2005 5:30:00 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.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/pics/9400.jpg
"I didn't have the energy or will to say anything," Benyam wrote
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