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</font><h1><b>AP: Papers Show Inmates Defy Gitmo
Troops</b></h1><font size=3>By BEN FOX<br>
Associated Press Writer<br><br>
July 2, 2005, 9:01 AM CDT<br><br>
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Military authorities have previously disclosed
some incidents of guard retaliation at Guantanamo Bay, which resulted in
mostly minor disciplinary proceedings. What emerges from 278 pages of
documents obtained by The Associated Press is the degree of defiance by
the terrorism suspects at Guantanamo. <br><br>
The prisoners banged on their cells to protest the heat. They doused
guards with whatever liquid was handy -- from spit to urine. Sometimes
they struck their jailers, one swinging a steel chair at a military
police officer. <br><br>
And the American MPs at times retaliated with force -- punches, pepper
spray and a splash of cleaning fluid in the face, according to the newly
released documents that detail military investigations and eyewitness
accounts of alleged abuse. <br><br>
Some prisoners at the U.S. base in eastern Cuba have gone on the attack,
as in April 2003 when a detainee got out of his cell during a search for
contraband food and knocked out a guard's tooth with a punch to the mouth
and bit him before he was subdued by MPs. One soldier delivered two blows
to the inmate's head with a handheld radio, the documents show. <br><br>
"Several guards were trying to hold down the detainee who was
putting up heavy resistance," recounted a translator who saw the
incident. "The detainee was covered in blood as were some of the
guards." <br><br>
The soldier who struck the inmate, and was dropped in rank to private
first class as a result, described it as a close call. "The detainee
was fighting as if he really wanted to hurt us. ... We all saved each
other's lives in my opinion," he wrote. <br><br>
The documents, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed
by AP, are far from a comprehensive look at Guantanamo and do not provide
full details about each incident. <br><br>
Names and some other identifying details have been blacked out by
military censors. Handwriting at times isn't legible and pages appear to
be missing or out of sequence. In some cases, it is not possible to
decipher who did what to whom. Disciplinary measures against the troops
were either relatively minor or unclear in some reports. <br><br>
The internal investigative reports do, however, provide a snapshot of
life behind the wire at Guantanamo, depicting a tense, hostile and
sometimes chaotic place. <br><br>
In one of the more serious incidents described in the documents,
detainees told guards that an MP threw the cleaning liquid Pine-Sol in
the eyes of a prisoner in the middle of one night in January 2004. In a
written statement, another soldier said he came in immediately afterward
to find what smelled like cleaning liquid dripping from the cell.
<br><br>
"The detainee could be seen rubbing his eyes intensely and moaning
in pain," he said. <br><br>
Documents show that the guard, from the 661st Military Police Company,
did not admit throwing the cleaning fluid when questioned about it that
night but did say the detainee had spit on him, and may have thrown
urine. <br><br>
A medic on the cell block flushed the detainee's eyes with water, a
witness said. <br><br>
A Department of Defense investigative memo written six months later
concluded the soldier had mistreated detainees twice -- the second
offense involved cursing at inmates -- and that his superiors failed to
report either episode. <br><br>
Investigators recommended disciplinary action against the soldier and a
probe into why the incident wasn't reported up the chain of command, but
the outcome is unclear from the papers. <br><br>
In a statement to investigators, one service member said he hadn't seen
the Pine-Sol incident but noted that U.S. personnel have been taught to
use restraint with detainees: "The training we have received here at
Guantanamo Bay has always stressed ... that no matter what happens on the
block do not retaliate .... it will just get you into trouble."
<br><br>
Still, tensions between prisoners and guards have been high since the
first suspects arrived in early 2002, hooded and shackled, mostly from
the battlefields of Afghanistan. <br><br>
The detainees' defiance discussed in the documents ranged from mild --
prisoners getting matching haircuts in a show of solidarity or refusing
orders to stop practicing martial arts in the exercise yard -- to hostile
acts like spitting or throwing unknown liquids at the MPs. One soldier
used pepper spray on prisoners because, he said in a report to superiors,
he feared that the unknown liquids hurled could pose a health danger.
<br><br>
One soldier told military investigators he punched a detainee's face
because the man spit at him and hit him as he tried to put him in
restraints at the prison hospital in October 2004. <br><br>
"My instincts took over after the hitting and spitting," said
the soldier. Documents show authorities recommended that the punishment
include reduction in rank to E-4, loss of a month's pay and extra duty
for 45 days, though the outcome is unclear. <br><br>
In the prison camp's early days, inmates showed their anger over the heat
and the practice of leaving lights on in their cells at night by banging
on the bars throughout one guard shift in September 2002, the documents
say. One detainee who was believed to be leading the protest threw what
an MP said smelled like water from the toilet on him. The MP tried to
spray water from a hose in response, but the detainee blocked it with a
mat. <br><br>
The guard who tried to spray the detainee was charged with assault, given
a reduction in rank to private first class, which was suspended, and
reassigned to other duties at Guantanamo. <br><br>
In another case, an inmate threw a partially full urine bottle at an MP
in May 2002, apparently because he believed the soldier had intentionally
kicked his hospital bed. When the soldier threw the urinal back, the
detainee grabbed a steel chair and swung it at guards before they subdued
him. <br><br>
A military witness defended the MP, writing: "I believe (name
deleted) to be a good and honest soldier ... and just influenced by
negative elements among us." The documents don't make clear what
punishment, if any, the MP got. <br><br>
Military officials at Guantanamo did not respond this week to questions
about relations between guards and detainees at the camp, which has held
some 700 prisoners from 45 countries since it opened. There are about 540
detainees there now. <br><br>
* __ <br><br>
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is based on information contained in 278 pages
of U.S. military documents dealing with investigations of alleged abuse
of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The Associated Press obtained the
documents under a Freedom of Information lawsuit. <br><br>
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press <br>
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