Ex-Guantanamo prisoners stroll streets of Uruguay

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ex-Guantanamo prisoners stroll streets of Uruguay

| December 12, 2014 | Updated: December 12, 2014 5:43pm



MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Four of the men released this week after years of captivity at Guantanamo Bay have finally had their first long walk in freedom, stopping to buy a bit of cheese and bread on a stroll through Uruguay's capital.

The men — four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian — are staying at a house in a middle class neighborhood as guests of a major labor union, which has been asked to help by President Jose Mujica.

The union's executive secretary, Gabriel Melgareo, said Friday that four of them managed to elude journalists and went on a 6-mile (10-kilometer) walk along the banks of the Rio de la Plata on Thursday.

"They were enchanted by the blue sky of Montevideo, the tranquility of the city, the ability to walk through the streets in absolute calm," Melgareo told The Associated Press.

Bakery worker Laura Larrobla said two of the men stopped by to purchase cheese, yoghurt and bread.

"They looked good, although they only talked through an interpreter," she said.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Ex-Guantanamo-prisoners-stroll-streets-of-Uruguay-5953318.php

[SamKnause]

1. So very wrong, so very sad.

I wish prosperity and peace for these men.

[SamKnause]

2. 112 views.

1 comment.

That is sad as well.

[Fred Sanders]

11. The ex-torture victims praised Obama for his compassion, the story is being suppressed.

"The Presidents compassion has ended that torture."

Not my words.

[countryjake]

13. Cori Crider was praising President Jose Mujica of Uruguay, not our prez.

Here is her statement:

We are grateful to the government of Uruguay – and President Mujica in particular – for this historic stand. Very few people can truly comprehend what the cleared men in Guantánamo suffer every day, but I believe Mr. Mujica is one of them. Like President Mujica, Mr Dhiab spent over a dozen years as a political prisoner. Mr Dhiab was never charged, never tried. President Mujica spent two years at the bottom of a well; for most of the past two years, Mr Dhiab has had a team of US soldiers truss him up like an animal, haul him to a restraint chair, and force-feed him through a tube in his nose. The President’s compassion has ended that torture.
Cori Crider, Reprieve lawyer for Abu Wa’el Dhiab

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/abu-wael-dhiab/


It's the continued abuse of the prisoners at Guantánamo, throughout President Obama's term in office, that is the story which is being suppressed.

Not my words, either.

Read it.
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/

[magical thyme]

14. thank you for the reality check.

I dreamed for a while of retiring to Montevideo before I was financially ruined. I still dream of winning the lottery...

I hope these men find peace, restored health and live long and happy lives. I know I carry the shame of what was done with my tax dollars and in my name.

[countryjake]

16. A bit more reality, from earlier this week...

America can't handle the Truth – about Guantánamo, Torture or a Man now Free from Both
by Cori Crider in Montevideo Tuesday 9 December 2014
This is why you didn’t see a photo of detainees released over the weekend.
This is why I can’t tell you more about the force-feeding of Abu Wa’el Dhiab.
This is how the dark heart of the national security state beats

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/09/truth-guantanamo-torture-abu-wael-dhiab

He was wan, but he smiled. At a hospital here in Montevideo on Monday, my Guantánamo client Abu Wa’el Dhiab and I sat together for the first time without a shackle bolting him to the floor. My client grimaced in pain a lot – he has been on a hunger strike for the better part of the last two years, and it has gnawed at his spirit and his health. But he smiled: On Sunday, Abu Wa’el was finally released from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, where he had been held for 12 years without ever being charged for a crime, despite the US government having cleared him in 2009.

As pale and thin as this man was, laying there in the hospital bed, a spark has returned to his eyes.

His ordeal may be over now, but there is much about Abu Wa’el’s health and mistreatment I still can’t tell you. The US military balked when I asked for the lab work it conducted just after our doctors saw him – the Pentagon would not so much as give me an official weight in those final days at Gitmo. Instead, the Defense Department moved up the date of his flight to Uruguay at the last minute, in an attempt to evade a damaging photo-op: an emaciated hunger-striker being carried off a US military plane. And in an ongoing court dispute, the Obama administration is still fighting a federal judge’s order to release video tapes showing the abusive force-feedings that Abu Wa’el suffered – over 10 unvarnished hours of his daily reality.

The Pentagon’s approach throughout my client’s case has offered a disturbing glimpse into the US military bureaucracy’s mentality: Though indifferent to human suffering, the US defense department is strikingly keen to be sure evidence of that suffering never sees the light of day.

As a woman who waited ten agonizing years for a dear relative to finally come home from an American prison, the empathy I feel for those who have suffered Guantánamo is almost stronger than my heart can handle. Twelve long years, without any guilt, they've sat in that USA hell-hole.

My sadness and shame is matched by the sheer anger I feel toward my government for allowing Gitmo to ever exist.

[countryjake]

3. Abu Wa’el Dhiab, the man that article says has the greatest physical problems...

I want Americans to see what is going on at the prison today, so they will understand why we are hunger-striking, and why the prison should be closed. If the American people stand for freedom, they should see these tapes. ~ Abu Wa’el

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/case-study/abu-wael-dhiab/

Abu Wa’el was on peaceful hunger strike on and off for years, to protest his indefinite detention without charge. The Guantánamo authorities repeatedly and abusively force-fed him against his will, right up until his release in December 2014 – and despite a federal judge urging them to find an alternative that would spare Abu Wa’el “the agony of having tubes inserted and removed for each feeding.” The force-feeding technique at Guantánamo involves a six-member riot squad tackling a detainee and then strapping him into a multi-point restraint chair. These methods have been condemned by the UN and international medical organisations.

In 2014, Reprieve supported Abu Wa’el in mounting a legal challenge against the US government for the abusive manner in which he was force-fed. Our lawyers watched the video footage of his brutal force-feeding sessions. Although the footage is (for now) classified as “secret”, Cori Crider, our strategic director and one of Abu Wa’el’s lawyers, said that she had trouble sleeping after seeing it. In June 2014, 16 news organisations, including Reuters and the New York Times, intervened in Abu Wa’el’s case, seeking access to the videos on public interest grounds, and won.

The US government has since appealed the judge’s decision to release the footage. 76 members of Congress have called on President Obama to let them view the footage, claiming that “US personnel…should not carry out policies that are contrary to American laws or values.”

It's truly heart-wrenching to see these men finally experiencing freedom after all of these years. Like Abu Wa’el's dream for the future, I hope that all of their wishes to once again be renunited with their families can be fulfilled quickly, so they can live in peace in Uruguay.

A huge lump of shame rises up in me, looking at that picture of them.

[newfie11]

4. It seems the MIC rules this country

Everyone involved with the torture at Guantanamo and elsewhere run by our military should be prosecuted.
This is festering from who knows how high in the chain of command.
It's time to find out and clean house of the sadistic sociopaths.

[mackerel]

5. i wouldn't be surprised if they all have ptsd

[ctsnowman]

6. 12 years

never charged with anything.

[Feral Child]

7. You mean they haven't

immediately strapped Semtex to their chests and killed some American tourists?

Did the Bush Cartel lie to us?


Sarcasm, o/c. The atrocities enacted in our name sickens me beyond description. I hope these men have long and peaceful lives, and can come to a place they can forgive the American people for our intolerance.

[Sunlei]

8. Abu Wa’el Dhiab, we hear you.

Abu Wa’el Dhiab is a devoted husband and father of three children. When his family fled the instability in Kabul in 2002, he was abducted by Pakistani authorities and handed over to US forces. He was then taken to Guantánamo, where he was held without charge or trial for 12 years.


“We are grateful to the government of Uruguay – and President Mujica in particular – for this historic stand. Very few people can truly comprehend what the cleared men in Guantánamo suffer every day, but I believe Mr. Mujica is one of them.

Like President Mujica, Mr Dhiab spent over a dozen years as a political prisoner. Mr Dhiab was never charged, never tried. President Mujica spent two years at the bottom of a well; for most of the past two years, Mr Dhiab has had a team of US soldiers truss him up like an animal, haul him to a restraint chair, and force-feed him through a tube in his nose."

"The President’s compassion has ended that torture."

Reprieve lawyer for Abu Wa’el

[wildbilln864]

9. k & r !

goddamned Bush and Cheney need to spend the rest of their miserable lives in prison!

[Fred Sanders]

10. They look as dangerous as you would expect after being tortured for a decade.

"The Presidents' compassion has ended the torture".

Does any one else see that?

Maybe that should be the title, AP, how about some truth for a change?

[magical thyme]

15. it was the President of Uruguay they thanked. You do realize that, don't you?

Why do you keep claiming they were referring to President Obama, when the actual article makes it clear they were thanking the President of Uruguay?

Talk about some truth for a change...

[Comrade Grumpy]

12. I wonder if we apologized.

[Judi Lynn]

17. The 4 most interesting things about the freed Guantanamo prisoners in Uruguay

The 4 most interesting things about the freed Guantanamo prisoners in Uruguay
By Will Carless, GlobalPost
Posted: 12/16/14, 4:57 PM PST

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — It’s been a week since six former detainees of the Guantanamo Bay military prison arrived in Uruguay, and we’ve started to learn a few things about their past, present and future.

In interviews with attorneys for three of the freed prisoners, GlobalPost has gleaned some interesting nuggets about the four Syrians, one Tunisian and one Palestinian who were held for more than a decade in Guantanamo without ever facing charges and are now starting a new life in this small South American country.

Here are four of the most interesting things we’ve learned:

1. The detainees are planning to stay in Uruguay — at least for now

Ali Hussein al Shaaban, a 32-year-old Syrian who had been imprisoned at Guantanamo since 2002, is delighted to be in Uruguay, his lawyer Michael Mone, Jr., told GlobalPost last week.

“He’s so grateful to the people of Uruguay and President (Jose) Mujica for giving him refuge,” Mone said.

More:
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20141216/the-4-most-interesting-things-about-the-freed-guantanamo-prisoners-in-uruguay