Non-existent details of Gitmo abuse

IHT, Mauritanian Guantanamo detainee details abuse, says Americans desecrated Quran

Though never tortured himself, Mohamed Lemine Ould Sidi Mohamed compared his detention to torture, telling The Associated Press in an interview: "Humiliating words against religion and against Muslims were a kind of currency they used every day."

When a writer uses a verb like "details" for a prisoner's description of his treatment, the reader expects to find some personal experience and details among the descriptions. But not this time. Mohammed squared (M2) is different.

"We respect and support the detainees' right to worship," a Guantanamo spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, said Friday, adding that the military provides the men there with prayer rugs and prayer along with Qurans in multiple languages.

"Allegations from detainees is common behavior and in keeping with tactics taught to al-Qaida members through their training guide," he said.

See the Manchester Document for an early example of this.

M2 doesn't know why he was arrested. "I's innocent I tells you. Innocent! Innocent!"

"I spent five years in Guantanamo, but I don't know anyone in al-Qaida and I have no relations with those people," Mohamed said.

He doesn't know anyone in Al Qaeda who was at the prison, but he knows what he believes.

Mohamed said he was not abused himself at Guantanamo, but he believed others were. "Each time people were interrogated, we heard the screams caused by torture," he said.

M2 wasn't tortured. People talked mean to him and stepped on a book that he thought was the Koran. But he's sure that people were tortured when they were interrogated, even though it didn't happen to him.

What is wrong with the media who published this non-story? Why is this even in the IHT? Who believes this stuff?



Technorati Tags: Mauritania, Torture, Gitmo, Guantanamo, Muddled Thinking, Media Bias