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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=2><b><i>In My Time<br>
</i></b> <br>
<b>By Tom Manning, US Political Prisoner<br>
</b> <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 KBR/Halliburton charged the U.S.
tax payers for those cells.<br>
<br>
In the early sixties I was a Seabee in the U.S. Navy, stationed at
Quonset Pointl/Davisville, Rhode Island, with Mobile Construction
Battalion One [MCB #1].<br><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>
<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>
<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 (9th) hut.<br>
<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>
<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><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>
<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><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>
<br>
Automatically my mind goes into replay mode.<br>
<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>
<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. <br>
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>
<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 three orthoscopic surgeries.<br>
<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>
<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>
<br>
Dragged and slung around by leg irons, into walls and up and down
stairs.<br>
<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 comers.<br>
<br>
Tear gassed in my cell at least six times.<br>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<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>
<br>
But then, I would rather die on my feet than linger on my knees.<br>
<br>
The Struggle Continues!<br>
<br>
Tom Manning #10373-016<br>
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