Guantánamo Suicide Was Severely Mentally Ill, And Was A Case of Mistaken Identity
22.5.11
There is cruelty. There is stupidity. And far too often, when it comes to the activities of the US government in the “War on Terror,” there is both.
In my previous article, The Only Way Out of Guantánamo Is In a Coffin, I wrote about the death at Guantánamo — reportedly as a result of committing suicide — of an Afghan prisoner identified by the US military as Inayatullah, who was the penultimate prisoner to be brought to the prison in Cuba, arriving in September 2007.
Noting that the US military had recycled information from a press release issued when he arrived at Guantánamo, describing him as “an admitted planner for Al-Qaeda terrorist operations,” but dropping a claim that he had “admitted that he was the Al-Qaeda Emir of Zahedan, Iran,” I suggested that he had never, in fact, been appraised adequately since his arrival, as no tribunal had been held to assess him as an “enemy combatant,” and noted, moreover, that his file was one of 14 missing from the classified military assessments of 765 prisoners, which were recently released by WikiLeaks.
In addition, I lamented that it was “unlikely that the evident truth about Obama’s Guantánamo — that the only way out is by dying — will shift public option either at home or abroad,” and also noted that, “whatever Inayatullah’s alleged crimes, it was inappropriate that, because of President Obama’s embrace of his predecessor’s detention policies, he died neither as a convicted criminal serving a prison sentence for activities related to terrorism, nor as a prisoner of war protected by the Geneva Conventions.”
As is now known, however, the unlamented death of a man held in such a disturbingly aberrant manner only scratched the surface of the horrors surrounding his death.
As his attorney, Paul Rashkind, a federal defender in Miami, told the Associated Press on Thursday, he had tried to kill himself twice at Guantánamo, and was severely mentally ill, with what the AP described as “a long-term mental illness that predated his time in custody.” Rashkind said, “This was a young man who suffered significant psychosis, a paralyzing psychosis beginning many years ago, long before he got to Gitmo.”
In an interview with the Miami Herald, Rashkind explained that his client’s psychological problems were “so severe” that he had “arranged to bring a civilian psychiatrist to the base to work with him” — although this had not happened by the time of his death. “I have no doubt it was a suicide,” Rashkind also said, adding, “This is really a sad mental health case … starting from childhood.”
In his discussion with the AP, Rashkind also explained that he was “not permitted to provide details” about either of his client’s two previous suicide attempts, “except to say both were serious,” although he did explicitly state, “He was close to death the first time.” The Miami Herald also noted that “[l]egal sources familiar with the case” had explained that he “had spent long stretches in the psychiatric ward at Guantánamo,” although Rashkind was at pains to point out that the authorities in Guantánamo “treated him pretty humanely, I’d have to say,”
Disturbingly, however, Rashkind also claimed that, as well as failing to recognise that his client’s mental health issues had made suicide a strong possibility, the US authorities had seized the wrong man.
His real name, according to Rashkind, was Hajji Nassim, and as the Miami Herald put it, “he had never been known as Inayatullah anywhere but in Guantánamo, had never had a role in al-Qaeda and ran a cellphone shop in Iran near the Afghan border.” In addition, as the AP described it, he had “finished school up to the fifth grade [and] was married,” and “there was no evidence to support the allegations against him.”
As Rashkind described it, “I will tell you as far as I’m concerned he never did a violent act, he never planned a violent act. He was not a terrorist. His mental health issues made it difficult to address why he was there.”
Adding that he was “still trying to contact family members in Iran and Pakistan to notify them of the death,” Rashkind told the AP that he was not at liberty to discuss the case openly because “some evidence is classified and because of US government secrecy rules.” He did, however, explain that he visited Nassim “every three months, along with a Pashtun translator,” and that he had last spoken to him by phone just two weeks before his death to discuss his ongoing habeas corpus petition.
After telling the AP that he had also planned to visit him again in June, after a hearing in the District Court in Washington D.C. regarding his habeas petition, Rashkind also said, “I can tell you he was fine at that time. In his conversations he seemed like he was doing well and he was looking forward to our visit that was coming up.”
Speaking to the Miami Herald, Rashkind called the case “an outlier” in Guantánamo’s history, “partly because Nassim was brought there so late in the camps’ history and partly because of his mental health issues.” According to Rashkind, he had, literally, fallen between the cracks, and was “never designated for trial, indefinite detention or release.”
His closing words echo what, to me, is the particular sadness and injustice I feel whenever anyone dies in Guantánamo, that cruel aberration created by the Bush administration, whose continued existence — and Obama’s failure to close it — mocks any attempt America might make to present itself to the world as a force for good, and an upholder of justice.
“I don’t think he belonged there at all,” Rashkind said, adding, “To me, this is a human tragedy.”
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed (and I can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Digg and YouTube). Also see my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, updated in July 2010, details about the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed by Polly Nash and Andy Worthington, on tour in the UK throughout 2011, and available on DVD here — or here for the US), my definitive Guantánamo habeas list and the chronological list of all my articles, and, if you appreciate my work, feel free to make a donation.
Who's still at Guantánamo?
75 Responses
Andy Worthington says...
On Facebook, Robin Laurain wrote:
How I wish there was something that can be done to close this hell hole. I am not voting for Obama. That seems such a small contribution.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 12:15 am
Andy Worthington says...
Stuart Wyatt wrote:
Thanks for reporting about this Andy. RIP Hajji Nassim.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 12:16 am
Andy Worthington says...
Zeke Smith wrote:
Rest in peace Hajji Nassim.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 12:16 am
Andy Worthington says...
Harsha Prabhu wrote:
RIP Hajji Nassim!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 12:17 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thank you, my friends, for your interest in this very sad story, which, with this information from the attorney for the dead man, has become another savage indictment of the cruelty of those in power who have failed to close Guantanamo or have worked to keep it open.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 12:18 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mui J. Steph wrote:
Andy, have they managed to find his family members? I read at least one article that suggests they were having difficulty. Were any other family members seized/kidnapped by our military? (Kidnapped by our military is hard to say but it’s the truth I think.)
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:20 am
Andy Worthington says...
Harsha Prabhu wrote:
Obama’s presidency will be judged by his criminal negligence in not closing down Gitmo and his continuing bankrolling of the fascist Israeli state – not to mention his lack of balls in confronting the robber barons of Wall St. In other words, Obama is a crying shame!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:20 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mui J. Steph wrote:
They’re all good ol’ boy robber barons. After 400 years (including pre colonial) don’t think much has changed, except cosmetically.
Good ol’boys = rednecks.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:21 am
Andy Worthington says...
Marilyn Lamb wrote:
This was done to an innocent man so that we could have the illusion of more safety.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:22 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mui J. Steph wrote:
Nasty redneck “justice” has always meant lynching the wrong men and women.
Correction: lynching *innocent* men and women.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:23 am
Andy Worthington says...
Harsha Prabhu wrote:
Bush stole the election by stacking the judiciary and farking the voting system and by starting genocidal wars; Obama by pretending to be the (dark) man on the (white) horse, come to save the people. He ended by dashing all our hopes and continuing with some of the worst excesses of the Bush decade (incl Gitmo and the continuing wars), by stabbing us all in the back. Whose crime was greater?
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:23 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mui J. Steph wrote:
I don’t know. If there’s a lesson in there, I think it’s don’t trust politicians. They play demagogue and actually they’re just empty suits filling some seat that stays the same in terms of policy.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:24 am
Andy Worthington says...
Harsha Prabhu wrote:
Is true. Fark the old man on the white horse paradigm. We are all inspired by the people’s movements in the Middle East and now in Spain. And we pray that the people will remain strong and undivided and not fall pray to disunity – religious and sectarian.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:25 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mui J. Steph wrote:
Undivided is important.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:25 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Mui, Harsha and Marilyn. Very good to hear from you all.
I haven’t heard anything more about the family, Mui. As mentioned, Paul Rashkind was trying to track them down. I’ve tried to contact him, but haven’t heard anything back yet. Will let you know if I hear anything.
Sleep well! It’s 2.30 here, and time for bed …
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:29 am
Andy Worthington says...
Harsha Prabhu wrote:
Go Andy!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:37 am
Andy Worthington says...
Elly Malka Faden wrote:
and you supported Bush when Guantanamo was open under his regime
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:38 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mui J. Steph wrote:
I sincerely doubt anyone in this thread supported Bush at any time. I always hated the guy. He’s redneck No.1
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:38 am
Andy Worthington says...
Elly Malka Faden wrote:
woops, I didn’t see the whole thread. Why would Robin state “Obama is keeping Guantanamo open, therefore, I won’t vote for him?” Seems very shortsighted
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:39 am
Andy Worthington says...
Gordon Soderberg wrote:
The fact that he got elected on the promises to close Gitmo and bring the troops heme is every reason not to vote for him. To do otherwise is not only short sighted, it demeans the act of voting or having elections altogether. Why vote if your going to be lied to? Why run if you can’t be honest? Why defend what is not really a democracy?
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:40 am
Andy Worthington says...
George Kenneth Berger wrote:
Terrible story, Andy. I am digging and sharing this now. I really must wonder what kind and quality of mental health assessment and reassessments Hajji Nassim received, with regard to his mental health. Not just in the ward, where he apparently was treated humanely (how does the lawyer know this for sure? Could it have been a ‘Potemkin Village’? Theresienstadt was one too, for a while), but during his entire imprisonment. It is possible, though, that Hajji Nassim at first, or perhaps never while at Guantanamo, revealed his past psychiatric problem. In a number of societies that is not done, due to customs about personal honour and justified fear of later stigmatisation at home and at work.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:41 am
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Neal wrote:
Sociopaths lack souls. Only dominance and money matter to them.
BOYCOTT 4 JUSTICE – No Shopping on the 9th of any month. Google and join this initiative to use our collective Consumer Power to close torture camps operating in our names with our money that we need at home.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:42 am
Andy Worthington says...
Fee MercuryMoon wrote:
Sadly it is a case of “which puppet would you like to vote for?” Obama was given so many ‘conditions’ before he could get the votes needed for him to even stand as a candidate that whatever he SAID he would DO, and what he could ACTUALLY DO were always two different things. Obama was bought and paid for 🙁
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:42 am
Andy Worthington says...
Morning all, and glad to see such engagement in this thread.
I think Elly’s point about Robin saying she won’t vote for Obama, which Gordon and Fee addressed, rather hits at the heart of the problem we seem to be facing in all our supposedly democractic countries — namely, that both major parties lack vision and don’t represent the people’s best interests, and the validity of the entire system is now supported by the very small number of voters who swing from one side to the other, and who, in addition, are the only people that politicians actually care about.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:51 am
Andy Worthington says...
George, my understanding, from the comments made by Nassim’s lawyer, Paul Rashkind, is that it would have been impossible for him to hide his mental health problems, as he had previously tried to commit suicide on two occasions, and the first was obviously a rather harrowing event.
It also seems to me, reading between the lines, that Nassim’s problems must have been evident in his interrogations, and that it was probably false confessions that he made under duress prior to his arrival in Cuba that led to him being wrongly analyzed (and regarded as someone he wasn’t) and sent to Guantanamo in the first place.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:52 am
Andy Worthington says...
Ciudadano Kane Kane wrote:
shared!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
George Kenneth Berger wrote:
Thanks Andy. Your reading between the lines makes the treatment, in my eyes, probably worse than I had thought. Deliberate harmful manipulation of any person’s already serious mental condition is something I just do not have words that are strong, technically accurate, and adequate enough to use, here or anywhere else.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mui J. Steph wrote:
And there are and have been other mentally ill persons in Gitmo. The Yemeni Latif is one. Plus waterboarding causes brain damage, in spite of what Dick Cheney and family say.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, George. I think it’s important for people to realize quite what kind of people we’re dealing with in the command structure at Guantanamo — people who, in 2003, alarmed at the number of suicide attempts, reclassified them as “manipulative, self-injurious behaviour.”
And thanks, Mui, for the reminder about Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, whom I have written about on numerous occasions. Here when he won his habeas petition:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/08/02/judge-orders-release-from-guantanamo-of-mentally-ill-yemeni-2nd-judge-approves-detention-of-minor-taliban-recruit/
Here at Christmas:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/12/25/christmas-at-guantanamo/
And here in articles focusing on his letters from Guantanamo:
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/01/01/guantanamo-is-a-piece-of-hell-that-kills-everything-a-bleak-new-year-message-from-yemeni-prisoner-adnan-farhan-abdul-latif/
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/02/10/a-cry-for-help-from-guantanamo-adnan-latif-asks-who-is-going-to-rescue-me-from-the-injustice-and-the-torture-i-am-enduring/
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2011/02/20/another-desperate-letter-from-guantanamo-by-adnan-latif-with-all-my-pains-i-say-goodbye-to-you/
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Shepard wrote:
Shared. Thank you very much, Andy.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Andy Worthington says...
George Kenneth Berger wrote:
Andy. For once I’ll drop my staidness and say this sucks. Sure: alarmed for fear of exposure by bad publicity. And that quoted phrase is perhaps psychological terminology for ‘it was his own fault; he was a scheming malingerer who lost self-control.’ As if these people did not have justified gripes, to put it mildly.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Mary, and yes, George, I believe this is all alarming enough for loud complaints to be appropriate!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Naim AbdurRafi wrote:
Okay. I take back my earlier comment indicting his alleged suicide. Mentally ill? This means that those who did not care for him and actually tormented him will pay the Hellfire. Allah is the Knower.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Tamzin Jans wrote:
There is a ‘trigger-happy’ ‘ass-kicking’ system in the US that permits support of imprisoning people without the presumption of innocence as a first right. “They” are “terrorists”, so people (via the media circus) are ready to believe that those who are in Gitmo must be there because they did something wrong. Thank goodness for people like Andy who show us the truth of this travesty of “justice” à la Americaine. What difference does it make to the imprisoned if it is Bush or Obama who is the President? They depend on a system of justice that doesn’t exist in the US.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Edwards wrote:
Do not like at all…very distressing.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Neal wrote:
Horrible, but not surprising. 1.25 million mentally ill Americans are imprisoned, acute patients in torturous solitary. They murder some like my brother;
http://WrongfulDeathOfLarryNeal.com/
More murdered imprisoned mentally ill Americans are reported at ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL (Google it). The USDOJ helped Memphis Shelby Co. Jail cover up my handicapped brother’s murder under Secret Arrest in 2003, and I am censored and terrorized for asking for justice for Larry and many other victims. The same INjustice system that is inhumane and murderous within America also tortured and killed Guantanamo detainees. This man’s suicide is sad and shows criminal neglect, but it is usual and ordinary inside U.S.A.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Tamzin Jans wrote:
Mary Neal, I am really sorry to hear yet another story of what seems like so many stories of injustice in America. What a shame! Shame on this nation for how it treats other humans
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Naim, Tamzin, Mary (Edwards) and Mary (Neal).
So yes, Naim, it gets no better with the more detailed explanation — they KNEW he was the wrong person, and KNEW that he might well commit suicide, and yet they did nothing.
Tamzin, thanks for the very supportive words, and Mary, thanks for mentioning your brother and reminding readers of the terrible plight of America’s domestic prisoners, trapped by the same violent crazies responsible for Guantanamo.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Tamzin Jans wrote:
Andy, thank YOU for being you.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Sharon Askew wrote:
”Manipulative, self-injurious behaviour”, sorry but I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. What does it mean? To me, it sounds like a term used to implement that the person suffering mental illness of this description, have only themselves to blame, therefore no fault lay with the prison or the conditions to which the prisoner has been subjected to, or reflects any possibility, under this description, the prisoner could in fact be innocent.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Paolo Fiora wrote:
they don’t really care who people are as long as they have someone available to torture and to beat the s*** out of
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks again, Tamzin, and thanks also, Sharon and Paolo.
And Sharon, that’s exactly right — they manipulated the approach to suicide attempts so that the victims came to be regarded as the aggressors, “manipulating” their captors. It’s almost unspeakably cynical, but typical for Guantanamo, where, of course, no one has ever been innocent. In the Combatant Status Review Tribunals that began in August 2004, for example, completely innocent men seized by mistake were, for a very brief period, described as “not enemy combatants,” until that terminology was changed to “no longer enemy combatants,” and in the recent documents released by WikiLeaks, even innocents were described as “low risk” prisoners rather than what they were, which was, of course, no risk at all.
These are the kinds of manipulative actions that are, and have been engaged in by brutal dictatorships, both in reality, and in dystopian novels, so what does that say about the US government?
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 6:55 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Edwards wrote:
We have to name and shame over and over again these “robber barons of Wall St” in whose name Guantanamo exists and those torturers and murderers. Now they are hiding themselves! We must uncover them.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Edwards wrote:
I appreciate, Andy, how much you have done to shine your bright light into these dark places and thereby reveal to the world what is going on but still, those directly responsible are getting away with these murders of innocent people, which in reality what this suicide was…a manipulated murder!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Yes indeed, Mary. Thanks for the supportive words — and for the call to resist manipulation and injustice by those in power!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Mary Neal wrote:
Andy, the advanced interrogation experts (torturers) reportedly received 80 hrs. training in waterboarding and other torture methods before being set loose on Guantanamo inmates. My brother LARRY NEAL may have perished while being used to train the USDOJ torturers in 2003. For almost 8 yrs we have requested records and the gov REFUSES to disclose why this acute mental patient was Secretly Arrested for 18 days and how he died. Google “WERE BLACK MENTAL PATIENTS USED FOR WATERBOARDING TRAINING?”
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Mary. Horrific, of course, but extremely important.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Sharon Askew wrote:
Thomas Jefferson used this phrase “Empire of Liberty” in 1780, while the American revolution was still being fought. His goal was an empire dedicated to liberty that could stop the growth of the British Empire, which he hated and feared:
“We shall divert through our own Country a branch of commerce which the European States have thought worthy of the most important struggles and sacrifices, and in the event of peace [ending the American Revolution]…we shall form to the American union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the British Province of Canada and add to the Empire of liberty an extensive and fertile Country thereby converting dangerous Enemies into valuable friends.” – Jefferson to George Rogers Clark, 25 December 1780
IE, anyone who disagrees with America will be ousted one way or another, under the guise of “democracy” to implement imperialism. The knee jerk reaction to 9/11 (whether an inside job or outside) and the refusal to first reflect, contemplate and question “why” confirms that the US government are in denial that they too, are dictators, who dictate to the rest of the world, not only with the use of torture, but also with bombs.
The fate that befalls any country who vote democratically for the wrong side is instantly not a democratic choice in the eyes of the US, yet they are quick to accept a despot to secure their interests and take out or class others as dictators if they do not.
But it can not last for the US, as it did not for the British or Roman Empire etc etc….
Gone off on a bit of a rant now, sorry 🙂
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Andy Worthington says...
No problem, Sharon. Great rant!
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Sharon Askew wrote:
What they can not do, is deny Guantanamo Bay, thanks to all your hard work and I’m sure, moments of despair, Andy.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Gene Hernandez wrote:
sad
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Well, thank you, again, Sharon, and thanks also, Gene, for the most succinct assessment of the situation.
...on May 23rd, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Connie says...
http://oneheartforpeace.blogspot.com/2011/05/spotlight-on-human-rights-irelandus-may.html
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:04 am
Andy Worthington says...
Linda Le Bon wrote:
So cruel and inhuman – then reflecting on the crap obama was spouting in Ireland today about how the yanks lead the world and fight for truth and humanity – all rhetoric – didnt expect anything less – but seeing sth like this hurts – the chap was even mentally ill – how incredibly incredibly cruel !!
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:20 am
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Linda. And such is the state of politics now that no one would even think of interrupting Obama’s hollow PR talk with anything like an awkward question — even if you could find a mainstream journalist able to formulate an awkward question. Politicians have become like actors — you have to be nice to them or they won’t keep you on their list of favored media outlets.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:24 am
Andy Worthington says...
Linda Le Bon wrote:
well at least the IRA had him on his toes and kept him in a little perspex box !! 😉 how come irish dissidents/terrorists arent sent to guantanamo ??? because they are white ? there are many issues with the whole war of terror – but seems that racism is pretty central too when you make certain analysis – great they have a black guy doing the talking for them now – and although i think yes he may provide a good role model for young black kids – it makes you think would we ever say that madeline albright, clinton or benazir were good examples for young girls ?? not me in the same way – the ethics that the black liberation movements across america stood for are eroded by a black president who speaks with white mans forked tongue.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:33 am
Andy Worthington says...
I suppose if you’re not white you have to sell out for power. Racism does indeed play such a big part in everything. The US engenders hate in Muslim countries through its foreign policy, and then, when attacked, draws on a “clash of civilizations” narrative that dates back centuries …
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:42 am
Andy Worthington says...
Linda Le Bon wrote:
tricky thing is though – in many cases – regardless of huntingtons ‘prognosis’ 😉 the muslims are now beginning to see themselves as ‘terrorists’ who deserve to be killed like animals – a chap from Parachinar (in pakistan – but not part of waziristan) had passed comments on my wall that left me falling off my perch !! to the extent that he said that the people in waziristan were mostly terrorists – that 99 percent of the suicide bombers were kids and that the people (women and children) who were blown up by the US drones deserved to be killed for harboring terrorists !!! a turkish guy started to argue with him – so he accused the Turkish chap of being a wahabi and said he should be blown up !! I was very dissapointed and thought well if this is what people close to the region think no wonder the yanks get away with it – absolute brainwashing- very problematic to mind. He later erased all of his comments – which was bizarre too!! 🙁
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:54 am
Andy Worthington says...
That’s interesting, Linda, although I wouldn’t underestimate the struggle between different schools of thought — and in certain places, including much of Pakistan, the influence of Wahhabism, via Saudi money. It may be less self-hatred and much more to do with severe ideological differences.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:58 am
Andy Worthington says...
Elly Malka Faden wrote:
my gosh – where were all of you presidential haters when Bush was in office? Obama is a gazillion times more transparent, dignified, rational, and intelligent than him. Well, I guess social networking wasn’t around then, but I don’t think we will ever be able to have another buffoon in office – we are running them out, like Palin and Trump. I just wish that liberals, posting on this board would remember how insidious Bush was at getting Blackwater all of those contracts and giving up on getting bin Laden. At least Obama is making an effort.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 10:46 am
Andy Worthington says...
Elly, thanks. It’s probably too late on this thread for that to cause a discussion, although I’d expect people to argue, as I do, that Obama is largely a pawn of the vested interests — Wall Street, the military-industrial complex. The problem, as I see it, is that with both Republicans and Democrats largely indistinguishable when it comes to favoring corporate interests at the expense of the people, there’s little room for maneuver: not voting for the Dems helps republicans, voting for the Dems is scarcely better, and no third party exists that has a chance of winning. The rot is with the entire political system, and what we need, I suspect, is a Tahrir Square.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 10:46 am
Kabuli says...
“This was a young man who suffered significant psychosis, a paralyzing psychosis beginning many years ago, long before he got to Gitmo.”
According to a rough psychological assessment made around 2003, about 70% of the Afghan population was in need of psychological help after more than 20 years of war they had been through: the PTSD that is so much lamented when it concerns our soldiers, but completely ignored when it concerns their victims …
Of course they never received that psychological help, as Afghanistan simply does not have the number of psychologists to perform this mammoth task. In fact, it hardly has any at all.
May he rest in peace, this umptiest innocent human being mangled by our governments’ paranoia, greed and boundless stupidity.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Kabuli says...
Dear Mary Neal you have my sincere sympathy, not only for the terrible fate of your brother, but also for the life-long torture of not knowing what really happened which has been inflicted on you and your loved ones.
‘ […] they manipulated the approach to suicide attempts so that the victims came to be regarded as the aggressors, […] It’s almost unspeakably cynical, but typical for Guantanamo.”
Not only for Guantanamo Andy. Civilian victims of the US army (and most other NATO countries in their wake) in Afghanistan are also systematically accused of being themselves responsible for having been murdered: they came too close to a military convoy -on a congested public road-, they happened to be home when having their house raided in the middle of the night, they happened to have the same name as someone on the US hit list, so they could only blame themselves for being shot or having their house ransacked or bombed and their loved ones killed …
Being ‘presumed guilty’ and criminal nonsense such as ‘preemptive self-defence’ have become the rule and too many of the wrong computer games have shaped minds to believe that shooting random people in cold blood is the normal thing to do for the military.
A supposedly university educated military woman who is writing Petraeus’ biography (!), wrote on her blog that ‘[…] the locals were pissed that we bombed their mud huts […]’, after the US army had bombed into oblivion a village in Kandahar province with (judging from the picture) solid rural houses surrounded by (presumably) pomegranate orchards.
But what else can we expect, as she belongs to a society in which INTEGRITY has been reduced to being the ‘Value of the Week’ (sic) on an interchangeable signboard stuck on a billboard at the staff entrance to Camp Delta, as could be seen on a Guantanamo picture on one of the links from your blog.
Wonder what the other ‘Values’ are with a one-week-expiry-date:
ETHICS, MORALITY, JUSTICE, HONOUR, FAIRNESS, EMPATHY, COMPASSION, BROTHERHOOD, HUMANITY …?
...on May 24th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Kabuli. I’m very glad that you’re able to access the comments section of my website, as I know historically you’ve had problems. Your insight from the ground in Afghanistan is very important, and your compassion is always welcome.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Kabuli. Wonderful to hear from you, as always, and thanks for the insights. Petraeus’ biographer shows a mindset that has not changed at all from the 19th century. it’s what has always upset me about the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq — the extent to which they reveal the colonial mindset of far too many citizens of Western nations, who, it seems, are incapable of empathizing with the anger felt by those whose countries are occupied, because they think that everything they do is an improvement on these people’s otherwise wretched lives. Closely related to this — and also showing an inability to empathize — is the shocking self-absorption of Westerners who are incapable of considering that people of occupied countries might feel exactly as Westerners would if their countries were occupied by foreign powers.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Sylvia P. Coley wrote:
Thank you, Andy for this information. Look forward to your comments everyday. So sad!
...on May 24th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Thanks, Sylvia. Always good to hear from you.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Elly Malka Faden wrote:
Wow, Tahrir Square in the U.S. How will that happen, now that youtube has been forced to remove some content? Who will rise up? I envision more of a dust-bowl scenario, or some saint who comes forward with LOTS of work!
...on May 24th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Andy Worthington says...
I guess we never know what MIGHT happen, Elly. 100,000 protestors in Madison, Wisconsin sounded inconceivable until it happened …
...on May 24th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Malcolm Bush wrote:
From what I can gather They’ve tortured or sent for torture, various people later to find they had got someone completely different.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Yes indeed, Malcolm. On far too many occasions, I believe, although we’ve never heard anything from official US sources about the many dozens of unknown prisoners who passed through the CIA’s secret prisons, many of whom were obviously not who the CIA thought they were.
...on May 24th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Andy Worthington says...
Lance Ciepiela wrote:
Bush Jr = “he broke the law”, President Obama, ALL the laws on the books violated by this sleaze, a liar, a chief of torture, so terribly, so horribly, so totally, President Obama, but “we’re a nation of law” as you say, President Obama, proceed and prosecute George W. Bush for war crimes torture..read more
http://tinyurl.com/6yhg2lp
...on May 24th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
liberata says...
I’m in awe of the dedicated, selfless attorneys who do work so hard trying to secure basic human rights for the detainees. They work at their own expense and are often maligned for it ( à la Liz Cheney’s video bashing the “al Qaeda Seven”), not to mention all the barriers the military puts in their way.
Thank God for attorneys like Paul Rashkind, Candace Gorman, and others!
...on June 3rd, 2011 at 1:59 am
Andy Worthington says...
Yes, indeed. Good to hear from you.
...on June 3rd, 2011 at 9:50 am
Write to the Forgotten Prisoners in Guantánamo [Summer 2011 - July 24th Deadline] « aseerun says...
[…] “Ramadhan and Eid spent tortured,” and a fresh appeal for people to write to the remaining 171 prisoners in Guantanamo — that’s just ten less than a year ago, and two of those ten left in coffins, having died at the prison. […]
...on June 28th, 2011 at 6:13 am