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<h1><b>IN MY TIME </b></h1><font size=3>By Tom Manning,
Political Prisoner, USA, May 10, 2004<br>
I became aware through newspaper photographs
that the prison cells built by KBR/Halliburton at Guantanamo Bay [Gitmo]
do not have plumbing. That surprised me, considering the price that
KBY/Halliburton charged the U.S. tax payers for those cells.<br>
In the early sixties I was a Seabee in the U.S.
Navy, stationed at Quonset Point/Davisville, Rhode Island, with Mobile
Construction Battalion One [MCB #1]<br>
We were deployed for sea duty, to Gitmo, to
build emergency housing for ten thousand Cuban refugees that America
anticipated would flee Cuba for the confines of Gitmo, in 1958, when
Fidel liberated this Island nation. It took nine months to
complete, and was named “Tin City.”<br>
We dredged hundreds of tons of living coral from
the ocean in proximity to the base, and deposited it in a lagoon that was
enlarged to accommodate the project. The coral was crushed and
leveled to form a floor surrounded by cliff-like excavated walls on three
sides, with one side remaining open toward the sea.<br>
Then the housing was built, of Quonset huts,
which are corrugated tin barrel-like dwellings in groups, or pods, of
nine huts; eight sleeping huts with no plumbing surrounding a ninth hut
that was supplied with fresh water and sewage. I worked on the
plumbing, from digging the supply and waste ditches, then leveling them,
to laying in the supply and waste pipes and septic tanks and leach
fields. I was on the crews that installed twelve toilets, twelve
wash basins and twelve head shower rooms, in each central
(9<sup>th</sup>) hut.<br>
During our time in Cuba, we had to adapt to the
blistering heat by working tropical hours; working from 5 in the morning,
until 2 in the afternoon, with a half hour lunch and two 15 minute
breaks. We further, voluntarily opted to forgo the lunch and 2
breaks so that we could get off the job site by 1 PM, due to the mid-day
heat.<br>
Given this personal knowledge of the area, and
recognizing the surrounding terrain in the current news photos as the old
Seabee/Kittery Beach area, my initial thought was that it would be
terrible to be confined in a metal cage there, without adequate
water.<br>
Add to that, being at the mercy of young, poorly
trained military personnel, for what water you do get, and what toilet
access you get.<br>
I have been held in cells during my time in U.S.
prisons [24 years, 6 months, at this writing] without water or toilet a
number of times. I have been subjected to the whims of whatever
guards happened to be working the block on any given shift. I know
that having a guard that consistently acts in a proper manner is the
exception, not the rule.<br>
While thinking about how to write about these
thoughts and observations, concerning water, the pictures from Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq, have come out. And the information and pictures
continue to come.<br>
Automatically my mind goes into replay
mode. <br>
During my time in U.S. prisons my right knee has
been permanently damaged by being stomped on during a cell beating by
five guards [Walpole State Prison, Ten Block DSU, 1969] The leg was
up on a bunk while I was on my back on the floor with several guards
“monkey piling” me, another guard stomped the knee, hyper-extending it,
causing me to pass out from the pain. After that, I only had 15%
flex of the knee, until I had it surgically corrected, when I got out of
prison in 1971.<br>
Shortly after being captured in 1985, I was body
slammed onto a concrete floor while cuffed to a waist-chain, with
black-boxed handcuffs and leg irons. That resulted in a fractured
hip that wasn’t repaired until 1999 with a total artificial left hip
replacement The Motrin I took for pain in the intervening years,
gave me ulcers and damaged my kidneys, which now function at less than
50% efficiency. I’ve often had to take iron pills to overcome
anemia, caused by internal bleeding, and am currently on calcium pills to
make up for the calcium my kidneys are spilling.<br>
My shoulders have both been severely damaged
during beatings, while I was cuffed behind my back, during forced blood
takings. This resulted in surgery on both shoulders. These
joint surgeries on the knee, hip and shoulders, is evidenced by twenty
one collective inches of surgical scars, not counting <u>three</u>
orthoscopic surgeries.<br>
I have been stun-gunned twelve times in one
night, resulting in temporary paralysis of my left side, like a
stroke. And then, on two other occasions I was also stun-gunned,
once each time.<br>
I have been photographed naked numerous times in
Federal prison, and also by NJ State police and the FBI; gratuitously
strip searched uncountable times.<br>
Dragged and slung around by leg irons, into
walls and up and down stairs. <br>
Strapped to a gurney with my head overhanging
the front, and then run through the prison; rammed into every door-frame
or door and corners.<br>
Tear gassed in my cell at least six times.<br>
Forced to exit my cell naked, with my fingers
laced on top of my head and told by a squad of six ninja-turtle suited
guards that if I lowered my arms it would be considered an act of
aggression and treated accordingly, while a German Shepherd dog was
barking so close to my genitals that I could feel his breath and spittle
striking me. Then forced to run down six flights of stairs, like
that, with a dog and handler at every landing, shepherding us
along. <br>
The group that I was in, was then herded into a
large visiting room where all 24 of us stayed, naked, from 2 AM, until 8
AM, while our cells were wrecked; our personal property destroyed.<br>
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been
left in cells for hours while black-box handcuffed and leg ironed;
spending as much as 17 and 20 hours in such restraints during transport
and waiting delays, with no water and no toilet access. I have numb
areas on my hands, wrists and ankles, from this treatment, and from being
kept in control unit prisons for years, locked down for 23 hours or more
a day; never less than this (6 years in NJ; 3 years at Marion; 3 years at
ADX, Florence; and 2 years in Walpole, MA in the 1960’s) for a total of
14 years of lock down.<br>
So pardon my being unpleasantly bemused at the
“shocked and amazed” reaction of the U.S. public to this most recent
“scandal.” I’ll be interested to see how long “the public’s”
attention can be focused on this one. And I invite every prisoner,
and ex-prisoner, who reads this to sit down and write out and send out
her/his own experiences of imprisonment and abuse. OR, tell of the
most memorable abuse you witnessed. <br>
Example: when I was newly arrived at Trenton
NJ’s control unit, I heard laughter and whimpering. I looked out of
my cell to see a very fat, young white prisoner stretched out on the
floor, his arms extended beyond his head, hands cuffed and legs
shackled. His shirt was pulled up, off his body, over his head and
onto his arms, his pants were down around his ankles, leaving him naked
from calves to forearms. Guards were standing on his restraints on
both ends, and a baton was protruding from his rectum. Nobody else
in the control unit cells was responding. I went nuts, screaming and
kicking my cell door. I believe that over my years in MCU, I helped
break through the apathy of the prisoners, and have heightened the
resistance to such treatment. Of course, the treatment was worsened,
accordingly.<br>
But then, I would rather die on my feet than
linger on my knees.<br>
The Struggle Continues!<br>
Tom Manning, Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas, USA <br>
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