[News] Guantanamo Prisoner Denies Interrogator Statements

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Guantanamo Prisoner Denies Interrogator Statements

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
October 6, 2004 4:36 p.m.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP)--A Yemeni prisoner
accused of being Osama bin Laden's errand boy appeared
before a review hearing Wednesday, rejecting statements
made by an interrogator and saying he had been mistreated
by U.S. troops in Guantanamo and Afghanistan.

The bearded and shackled prisoner with bloodshot eyes has
been held at the outpost for nearly three years and is
accused of training at an al-Qaida terrorist camp in
Afghanistan in 1995. He was also accused of running errands
for bin Laden and fighting for the terror network.

The man, who journalists are prohibited from naming, said
he was studying until 1996 in Yemen, married in 2000 and
moved to Pakistan and Afghanistan to teach the Quran. He
denied being a member of al-Qaida or having connections
with Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime. He also said he
never fought against U.S. or coalition forces, and never
received any weapons training.

"I stayed in Afghanistan for about a year," the 25-year-old
said through an Arabic translator and before a three-member
panel charged with deciding whether some 550 prisoners are
being properly held as enemy combatants, a classification
with fewer legal protections than prisoners of war.

"I don't understand how a person in a year can become such
an important person, a guard or someone who runs errands.
You know more about the Taliban than me."

There have been more than 135 cases that have gone before
the tribunals since they began July 30, a little more than
a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo
prisoners have a right to challenge their detentions in
federal courts. Only one man has been freed.

The review hearings are separate from the military
commissions meant to try charged prisoners, but both
proceedings have come under attack by lawyers and human
rights groups.

One of the criticisms over the review hearings is that the
prisoners are only allowed to hear the unclassified
evidence against them. Another criticism is that some of
the information came from murky sources, or through
interrogations.

One allegation the prisoner took issue with was a statement
from an interrogator that the prisoner wrote a letter
stating his intention to become a religious martyr, which
was allegedly found in the car of bin Laden's driver and
guard.

"I never wrote such a letter and I would like to know what
interrogator provided this information," said the prisoner,
shackled to the floor of a trailer that was previously used
as an interrogation chamber.

Another accusation was that he spent time with bin Laden
and was often seen by his side.

"What is a long time? Who saw me with bin Laden?" he asked
the tribunal president, who shrugged. The identities of the
panel members aren't disclosed. "Are you trying to make me
an enemy combatant?" the man asked.

The man said he was studying at an religious institute in
Yemen until 1996, when he was 17-years-old. After he
married, he moved to Afghanistan so he could teach in Khost
but his wife stayed at a house in the former
Taliban-controlled city of Kandahar.

When the war began he said he decided to go back to Yemen,
but he first tried to get to Khost to say goodbye to his
students and pick up books and other belongings. The road,
however, was blocked because of the fighting so he made his
way to Pakistan where he was captured.

After more than a week in a Pakistani jail, he was put in
U.S. custody in Kandahar.

"We were tortured in Kandahar," he said, not elaborating.
"As soon as we were brought to Cuba , and up until now,
we're still being pressured and mentally coerced. I had
heard the United States was a friend of human rights, a
friend of justice, but since we've been imprisoned, we've
seen the exact opposite of that. We've found no justice
here."

Visibly frustrated over the source of allegations against
him, the man said, "This is the first time I've been in a
court like this."

Although the hearings are open to the media, most go
uncovered because there are more proceedings taking place -
seven were scheduled for Wednesday - and journalists are
not allowed to stay on the base for extended periods of
time.

Unclassified portions of the government's allegations are
provided to media who don't attend hearings but the
prisoner's testimony - which often contradicts many of the
government's allegations - isn't provided.

Another Yemini detainee, accused by the military of being
an al-Qaida associate, was the second to go before the
review panel Wednesday. The 21-year-old has been at
Guantanamo more than two years.

He allegedly traveled to Pakistan in 2001 and was captured
at Crescent Mill Guest House in Faisalabad, Pakistan. A
senior al-Qaida lieutenant looked at a photograph of the
detainee and said he might have possibly seen him in
Afghanistan, the military said.

The detainee didn't get an opportunity to answer the
charges because the three-member panel postponed the
session while they reviewed a new 150-page document of
evidence. The detainee, wearing a white skull cap and khaki
prison garb, remained shackled to the floor during the
adjournment.

He is one of 60 detainees who have filed lawsuits in
federal courts challenging their detention.

The panels have ordered only one prisoner released, to
Pakistan. More than 64 men have been ordered held as enemy
combatants while the other cases are pending.

All cases of the some 550 prisoners are to be reviewed by
the end of the year.

On Tuesday, six cases went before the tribunals, including
two men who boycotted the proceedings, a Saudi who said he
received training to fight in Chechnya and a 30-year-old
who claims he was forced to join the Taliban in Tajikistan.
The other cases were still pending.

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