Crying Torture
Call it a case of defining torture down. The Department of Defense Tuesday released a partial transcript from an April Combatant Status Review Tribunal for an accused enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Posted immediately on TheSmokingGun.com, the transcript reflects what can be described as an expansive view of torture on the part of the prisoner.
Majid Khan, who claims that al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is his uncle, lists in a statement read by his legal counsel “some facts how they are mentally torturing us.”
Among them:
» “They them self [sic] use the best kind of stuff but give us cheap branded, unscented deodorant soap. … Also, same goes for shampoo, toothpaste, and deodorant, etc.”
» “The camp gives us only 12 to 14 pages of newsletter once [per] week. Most of the stuff is crap; only a few pages are worth [reading].”
» The balls in the main recreation facility “have little air in them; they hardly bounce.”
» There are no “mind stimulations, no solitary games, no DVD players, no entertainment.”
» Seemingly dismayed by all of this, an entry he made in what appears to be a journal on Feb. 22, reads: “I chewed my artery again. Medic cleaned my wound.”
