[Ppnews] “Indefinite Detention Is The Worst Form Of Torture”: A Guantánamo Prisoner Speaks

[Political Prisoner News]

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“Indefinite Detention Is The Worst Form Of Torture”: A Guantánamo 
Prisoner Speaks – OpEd
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By Andy Worthington 
<http://www.eurasiareview.com/author/andy-worthington/> -- (April 9, 2013)

http://www.eurasiareview.com/09042013-indefinite-detention-is-the-worst-form-of-torture-a-guantanamo-prisoner-speaks-oped/

On March 28, 2013, lawyers for Musa’ab al-Madhwani 
<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/12/15/model-prisoner-at-guantanamo-tortured-in-the-dark-prison-loses-habeas-corpus-petition/>, 
a Yemeni prisoner at Guantánamo, and a victim of torture at a “black 
site” in Afghanistan in 2002, prior to his arrival at the prison, 
submitted an emergency motion 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/132924008/Statement-of-Musa-Ab-Al-Madhwani-in-Support-of-Emergency-Motion-for-Humanitarian-and-Life-saving-Relief> 
to US District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan, in which they reported what 
al-Madhwani, held for the last ten and a half years, had told them in a 
phone call on March 25.

At the time, the emergency motion attracted some media attention because 
of al-Madhwani’s claims that prisoners were being denied access to 
drinking water and subjected to freezing cold temperatures in an attempt 
to break the ongoing hunger strike at Guantánamo. The hunger strike, 
which I have been covering assiduously 
<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/category/hunger-strikes-in-guantanamo/>, 
began two months ago, but the US authorities only reluctantly began to 
acknowledge its existence around three weeks ago, and although their 
response to al-Madhwani’s claims 
<http://www.lawfareblog.com/2013/03/al-madhwani-emergency-motion-on-water-and-clothes/> 
was an attempt to brush them aside, there are no valid reasons for 
trusting the authorities instead of al-Madhwani.

Col. John Bogdan, who responded to al-Madhwani’s complaints, oversees 
the prisoners at Guantánamo, and has explicitly been blamed by them 
<http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/03/29/voices-from-the-hunger-strike-in-guantanamo/> 
for the deteriorating conditions of their detention, whereas al-Madhwani 
was described by Judge Hogan as a “model prisoner” over three years ago, 
when he denied his habeas corpus petition. Because of his perception 
that government allegations about a tenuous connection between 
al-Madhwani and al-Qaeda were correct (even though al-Madhwani continues 
to insist that no such connection existed), Judge Hogan said, as the 
/Washington Post/ 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/14/AR2009121402275.html?hpid=topnews> 
described it, that the government had met its burden in proving the 
accusations,” although “he did not think Madhwani was dangerous.”

As I explained at the time:

    Noting that he has been a “model prisoner” since his arrival at
    Guantánamo in October 2002, he explained, “There is nothing in the
    record now that he poses any greater threat than those detainees who
    have already been released.”

    Moreover, Judge Hogan refused to rely on any statements that
    al-Madhwani had made to interrogators at Guantánamo, ruling that
    they were “tainted by abusive interrogation techniques,” to which he
    was subjected in the weeks after his capture, before his arrival at
    Guantánamo, when he was sent to the “Dark Prison” near Kabul, a
    facility run by the CIA, which, in numerous accounts
    <http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/12/15/a-history-of-music-torture-in-the-war-on-terror/>
    by released prisoners
    <http://www.aclu.org/national-security/biography-plaintiff-bisher-al-rawi>,
    resembled nothing less than a medieval torture dungeon, with the
    addition of extremely loud music and noise 24 hours a day.

I’m posting below the text of the emergency motion, as I think it is an 
important contribution to the accounts of the hunger strike, and it does 
not appear to be available online in any form that is searchable, or 
from which text can be copied and pasted.

I hope that Musa’ab, whose case I have followed for many years, will one 
day — sooner rather than later — be freed from the disgraceful 
conditions in which he has been held for a third of his life, and be 
allowed to return home to his family in Yemen. As he explains, sadly, in 
his statement, “Both of my parents have died during the time that I have 
been in prison in Guantánamo Bay. They were waiting for me to come home 
and now they are gone. I am afraid that my entire family will be dead 
before I am released from this prison.”


      Statement of Musa’ab al-Madhwani in support of emergency motion
      for humanitarian and life-saving relief

1. My name is Musa’ab al-Madhwani.

2. I have been in prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba for ten and a half 
years and I hereby request and authorize my lawyers to report the 
following circumstances to the court, and to sign this statement on my 
behalf.

3. Before I was sent to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, I was detained at 
the Dark Prison and at Bagram Air Base where I was tortured and deprived 
of food and water.

4. Both of my parents have died during the time that I have been in 
prison in Guantánamo Bay. They were waiting for me to come home and now 
they are gone. I am afraid that my entire family will be dead before I 
am released from this prison.

5. I, and other men here at the prison, feel utterly hopeless. We are 
being detained indefinitely, without any criminal charges against us, 
and even the 86 men who have been cleared for realise remain here in the 
Guantánamo Bay prison.

6. I have not been informed whether the Review Task Force has 
conditionally approved me for release, or whether I have been designated 
for indefinite detention. Either way, I have no reason to believe that I 
will ever leave this prison alive. It feels like death would be a better 
fate than living in these conditions.

7. I am dying of grief and pain on a daily basis because of this 
indefinite detention.

8. Our efforts for justice through the American court system have 
failed, and President Obama has broken his promise to close this prison 
and end the torture.

9. Indefinite detention is the worst form of torture. I am an innocent 
man. I have never done anything against the United Sttaes, and I never 
would. But if anyone believes that I have done anything wrong, I beg 
them to charge me with a crime, try me, and sentence me. If not, release 
me. Even a death sentence is better than this. Instead of a swift 
execution, we are being subjected to a cruel, slow, and cold-blooded death.

10. I am especially disappointed because of America’s claims that it 
protects the human rights of people around the world. America cannot 
break this pledge.

11. At the beginning of this year, for no apparent reason, the 
conditions at the Guantánamo Bay prison became much worse than they have 
been for years. In many ways, the conditions have become almost as harsh 
as during the early years when I first arrived at Guantánamo.

12. This degradation of the conditions came as a total shock to us. We 
were very hopeful after the election that action would be taken to end 
the policy of indefinite detention, that justice would finally prevail, 
and that conditions would improve. We have been sorely disappointed.

13. As prisoners, we are totally powerless to improve our situation. 
Because all dignity has been taken away from us, the only means that we 
have to express the utter hopelessness of our situation is by 
participating in a hunger strike.

14. I do not wish to die. But I have no other way to express my 
hopelessness.

15. I have been on a hunger strike for an extended period, to protest 
the disrespect shown to the Qur’an by Guantánamo guards and the return 
of the harsh conditions that existed in the early years of the prison.

16. I have been afraid to tell even my attorneys the details of guards’ 
harsh treatment of me and other prisoners for fear of punishment. I am 
afraid that if I tell all of the details of the guards’ conduct, I will 
be put in even worse conditions.

17. The degraded conditions at the prison have become so extreme that 
virtually all of the detainees are participating in the hunger strike as 
a protest to the treatment being inflicted upon us.

18. I am consuming only water, and no food.

19. I have lost approximately 30 pounds since the beginning of the 
hunger strike. Before the hunger strike, I was told that I weighed 163 
pounds. I was most recently weighed last week and I was told that my 
weight was 130-135 pounds.

20. My clothes fit me much more loosely than they did before the hunger 
strike. I now use a rubber band to keep my pants from falling down.

21. In order to punish us for participating in the hunger strike, the 
guards have made conditions even more horrible.

22. For approximately 3 days, guards totally denied me and others within 
Echo Block access to drinkable water. It’s my understanding that another 
cell block was also denied access to drinkable water.

23. I spoke with my lawyers on the morning of Monday, March 25, 2013.

24. After I informed my lawyers that the guards have denied us drinkable 
water, /some/ guards began to provide bottled water to me and the other 
detainees in my block. But whether or not we are given drinkable water 
depends entirely on the guard.

25. There is no reason that the guards should withhold water from us.

26. An official here at the camp told us that because of the hunger 
strike, we have now lost all privileges. They have told us that the 
drinkable bottled water is a privilege, but drinkable water is necessary 
to maintain life.

27. When we request drinking water, the guards tell us that we already 
have water, and point to the taps that are at the back of the toilets in 
our cells.

28. We have always been told that the tap water at the Guantánamo Bay 
prison is not drinkable. Not once in the past several years has anyone 
ever told me to drink tap water, until the past week.

29. I have never seen a guard or interrogator drink the tap water here.

30. I believe that the tap water is not drinkable and will make me sick.

31. I have observed that the lack of drinkable water has already caused 
some prisoners kidney, urinary, and stomach problems.

32. Because the tap water is not suitable to drink, I now drink only the 
bare minimum amount of water, when bottled water is denied to me.

33. After drinking water from the tap, I felt nauseated.

34. I experience constant stomach cramps and pains.

35. Because I now drink almost no water, I urinate only 2-3 times a day 
and it is painful when I urinate.

36. I now only defecate approximately one time per week and it is very 
painful. I believe that because of the hunger strike I now have the 
beginnings of a hemorrhoid condition. I have never suffered this 
condition before.

37. I have experienced headaches throughout my time in Guantánamo Bay, 
but the frequency and severity of my headaches has increased since the 
beginning of the hunger strike. I now suffer headaches almost daily. 
While the headaches used to improve after a few hours, they now last the 
entire day. I cannot take any medication for these headaches because my 
stomach is empty.

38. My vision has become blurry and I am having difficulty breathing.

39. I am experiencing chest pain. I am afraid that I will have a heart 
attack.

40. My bones ache.

41. I am constantly exhausted but afraid to sleep. I force myself to sleep.

42. When I sleep, I experience nightmares on a daily basis. I am 
petrified. My anxiety and fear have become increasingly debilitating 
since be beginning of the year when the conditions here became so bad.

43. In addition to denying us drinking water, the guards have punished 
us and have tried to end the hunger strike by forcing us to live in 
frigid temperatures.

44. For the past approximately 12 days, prison authorities have 
maintained the air conditioning at extremely frigid temperatures, much 
colder than ever before.

45. We have informed the guards that we are freezing. They admit that it 
is very cold, but they have done nothing to increase the temperature.

46. The air conditioning is on so high that it causes a freezing draft 
in the area where we are allowed to congregate and to pray.

47. Since we are only provided with thin cotton clothing, and the shirt 
is short sleeved, we cannot tolerate this cold temperature. The cotton 
clothing provided to us is insufficient to keep me warm under these 
super-cooled conditions.

48. I, and the the men, are constantly cold and shivering.

49. I am aware that a delegation from the International Committee of the 
Red Cross knows about the guards’ denial of drinking water to me and 
other men. The International Committee of the Red Cross has no power to 
do anything to improve conditions here, and they will not even disclose 
publicly what they know about the terrible conditions we suffer.

50. We have been abandoned by President Obama and by the entire world. I 
believe that President Obama must be unaware of the unbelievably 
inhumane conditions at the Guantánamo Bay prison, for otherwise he would 
surely do something to stop this torture.

Respectfully submitted this 28th day of March, 2013.

Musa’ab al-Madhwani

Dictated to and signed on my behalf by my attorney, Mari Newman.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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