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TechnoratiEx-Terror Detainee Says US Tortured Him
A German resident held by the U.S. for almost five years tells 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that Americans tortured him in many ways - including hanging him from the ceiling for five days early in his captivity when he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan.Even after determining he was not a terrorist, Murat Kurnaz says the torture continued. Kurnaz tells his story for the first time on American television this Sunday, March 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Kurnaz, an ethnic Turk born and raised in Germany, went to Pakistan in late 2001 at age 19 to study Islam and wound up in Pakistani police custody. It was three months after 9/11, and Kurnaz says the U.S. was offering bounties for suspicious foreigners. Kurnaz says he was "sold" to the Americans for $3,000 and brought to Kandahar as terrorist suspect.
He claims American troops tortured him in Afghanistan by holding his head underwater, administering electric shocks to the soles of his feet, and hanging him suspended from the ceiling of an aircraft hangar and kept alive by doctors. "Every five or six hours they came and pulled me back down and the doctor came," he recalls. "He looked into my eyes. He checked my heart and when he said 'okay,' then they pulled me back up," he tells Pelley.
The U.S. Pentagon responding by e-mail says, "We treat all detainees humanely... and all credible claims are investigated thoroughly.... The abuses Mr. Kurnaz alleges are not only unsubstantiated and implausible, they are simply outlandish."
Kurnaz, who has told his story to European investigators, says "[It] doesn't matter whatever they will say. The truth will not change... this is the truth."
Kurnaz says he was questioned in Afghanistan about Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the Taliban. He answered truthfully, he says, and told them repeatedly to call the German government and verify who he was. But they continued to torture him, he says. "They used to beat me when my head was underwater...they beat me into my stomach....I had to inhale the water," he tells Pelley.
He says he was then brought to Guantanamo as one of the first "enemy combatants." His treatment there, he says, included repeated beatings at the hands of soldiers in riot gear, sleep-deprivation and solitary confinement. "It's dark inside, no lights and they can punish you in isolation... by coldness or...heat. They have special air conditioners. Very strong. They can turn it very cold or very hot."
After a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2004, Kurnaz was visited by an American lawyer, who successfully sued the U.S. government to release his classified file. That file contained information from the FBI, German Intelligence and even the U.S. military pointing to his innocence. But after a series of Kafkaesque military tribunals and review boards, he remained in Guantanamo until 2006.
Kurnaz' lawyer, Baher Azmy, says there may be many more cases like Kurnaz's at the offshore prison. "In Guantanamo, no detainee has ever been able to genuinely present evidence before a neutral judge and so as absurd as Murat Kurnaz's case is, I assure you, there are many, many dozens just as tenuous," Azmy tells Pelley.
© 2008 CBS News
12 Comments so far
Show AllA couple of things showed some attempt by CBS to put spin on this story- calling what happens at Gitmo a "secret system of justice" instead of a SECRET SYSTEM OF TORTURE, and calling the bogus charges "absurd" instead of DESPICABLE MALICIOUS LIES.
Sometimes I feel like renouncing my citizenship, and sometimes I feel like getting a gun and going after Bush, Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Feith, Perle, Bolton, and the whole steaming pile of neocons behind this unspeakably depraved "war on terrorism"/WAR FOR OIL.
I also saw the 60", and appreciated the hollow emptiness to the govt's lack of response to continuing the lock down torture for 3.5 years after they knew the actual truth of his background and citizenship.
Nice of the German Chancellor to ask loonitary unitard to let Murat Kurnaz go, and he was then freed.
Nice that the lawyer mentioned that this case is prototypical of potentially hundreds more.
Something seems to be working at CBS, did the dude behind the curtain fall asleep for awhile?
¿ Or has M$M just taken this story on as a way to terrorize us MORE with the reality of our penultimate moral decrepitude, deceit and duplicity ?
Namaste
I just watched 60 Minutes. Where did the US military find so many gangsters to pull this off. Soldiers and guards right up to senior officers and judges! The reporter, Scott Pelle, sounded like he still couldn't believe it. He looked a little scared a couple times too.
Obama better hire some good people and set this outrage straight.
Whereas I love this country and refuse to let it end like this. I hate what my country does in MY name in MY COUNTRYS name.
"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferings of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government"
Another example of the Third World type of government sponsored depravity that Dubya, Cheney, & Co. have lurched the USA into. One wonders how long will it take for the American public to realize their government has been hijacked by incompetent political hacks who would have a hard time holding down a job at a fast food joint.
I've said this before and here I go again. I must wonder how long Bush would let his twins be rendered and waterboarded until HE confessed that he was a pathological liar, psychotic, hypocrite, murderer and sadsitic SOB. Since waterboarding is NOT torture according to the whole crooked cabal, I imagine he would let it go on indefinitely.
skippyagogo41 wrote:
Hmmm, who to believe? The us gov't that has lied their country into war, suppressed science, promotes faith based health care and birth control and a pres who vetoed a law banning torture.
And others wrote similar opinions. At the risk of beating this to death, let me add my own comments, if only to make me feel a bit better for a few fleeting moments.
Don't forget the US's other accomplishments. Don't forget that it murdered its own president in broad daylight, got away with it, and then laughed about it. No, Oswald really didn't do it. Don't forget the Bay of Tonkin that got us into the Vietnam War. Recently released records officially show that the Bay of Tonkin was an entirely fabricated lie, a lie that cost us 50,000 American lives. And of course, don't forget the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters, which were both false flag operations. No, a bunch of Arabs armed with box cutters led by some guy living in a cave on the other side of the world really didn't do it. Don't forget that the US considers Chavez of Venezuela a dictator, when in fact he was elected with higher popular support than any US president in my lifetime, and I'm old. And don't forget that the US calls itself a democratic country when in fact it cheats in its own election process.
I see no reason to believe this country for any claim that it makes, even if it's when they say the sun will rise in the morning. If they say it, it probably is not true.
My problem is understanding why the American population accepts this, indeed why it supports this. My God I hate this country.
No, George W. deserves to be sent to heaven, where his only friend will be Hitler.
Of course, heaven is filled with the tortured souls of the Muslims and Jews consigned to Hell on Earth by the self-righteous Christians seeking Land, Oil, and Power!
Consider how long eternity would last for the war criminals forced to spend it with their victims...
Hmmm, who to believe? The us gov't that has lied their country into war, suppressed science, promotes faith based health care and birth control and a pres who vetoed a law banning torture. Or someone who got caught up in Afghanistan? My money's on the guy who got caught.
There are times when one hopes hell exists, it's the only way bush et al could be punnished properly.
The U.S. Pentagon responding by e-mail says, "We treat all detainees humanely… and all credible claims are investigated thoroughly…. The abuses Mr. Kurnaz alleges are not only unsubstantiated and implausible, they are simply outlandish.
Also, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graib do not exist, Iraq actually invited us to move our army there, VP Dick Cheney is a very kind and moral man, President Bush is super intelligent, pigs can fly, and we are actually against fascism...love and kisses, Your friendly neighbourhood Pentagon"
Saw the name, I knew Turkiye. Murat, man, this is so out of control, I will make my husband read this, he is a lawyer, in Turkey. We own another business here, more friends and business partners, daughters and such, he is leaving on April 4, with Dilara, our daughter I am sure he will be at the consulate immediately. He already carries my list. twofer.
FIVE years they took from this man, this is why I get angry, when they refer to all Pakistanis, Afghanistanis, Iraqis, Iranians as Muslims. Perhaps they choose to call themselves that as the murderers over there, pointing at DC, hate driving in that damn place, which has nothing to do with this, call themselves Christians. Why bother? Always people with al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda they are Sunni, they are shit, they are devoid of religious affiliation, submit to Allah??? al-Qaeda, they murder other Muslims, in camis, with the hoca inside, during Ramazan, my spelling is Turkish usage, sorry. This is the hell of all hells for any Muslim, so if they believe the wee gonna get the young kid to suicide lie, 17 Virgin garbage that is NOT in the Qur'an too late. This is a matter of POWER only and money.
Stupid 2 second poll today, what shocks you the most? $4gal/gas, $110/barrel oil, blah.. I said none of it, I asked do you seriously think if it was george II with the Saudi and ME oil he would not be doing exactly the same thing? After that twit Hayden today, we even wonder why this poor man was sold by 'supposed' Muslims, his brothers for a bag of gold coins? OIL MONEY, after Vietnam I had hoped, now this, next Iran and FIALL, never changes, never gonna either.
Done.............
Murat Kurnaz -- I love you, I am so sorry, please forgive me, what I did was wrong and so hurtful, you are an innocent and beautiful human being who deserves much more than a mere apology. Thank you greatest lord of ALL life, for allowing this to be.
This happened within my world and I am responsible for cleaning this mess up.
Namaste