(ABC) Marine Sergeant Comes Forward to Report Abuse at Guantanamo Bay

[sabra]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/exclusive_f...

Exclusive: Marine Sergeant Comes Forward to Report Abuse at Guantanamo Bay

<snip>

The allegations come from a Marine Corps sergeant, 23-year-old Heather Cerveny, who spent a week at the base in late September as a legal aide to a military lawyer representing detainees.

In a sworn affidavit filed with the Pentagon Inspector General, Sgt. Cerveny says she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse.

"One sailor specifically said, 'I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door,'" Sgt. Cerveny tells ABC News in an exclusive interview.

She says she was "shocked" to hear several guards from different parts of the camp speak openly of mistreating prisoners.

...

Sgt. Cerveny says the guards also talked about taking away detainees' privileges "even when they're being good" and denying their requests for water. In her affidavit, she states she was told "they do this to anger the detainees so they can punish them when they object or complain."

[pnwmom]

1. Good for her and her superior officer.

I hope their careers aren't in jeopardy.

[MessiahRp]

3. Unfortunately

if this Administration has taught us anything, their careers are in jeopardy as well as their characters which will be slandered into oblivion.

Rp

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Damn, how many shoes will this election f'ing have to drop? nt

[pnwmom]

4. Just as long as they're all right shoes.

We don't want to lose any on the left.

[gratuitous]

5. And this *always* happens

It's hard enough maintaining humanity in relations between guards and inmates. Introducing the concepts of torture and abuse, and you're inviting the complete de-humanization of both sides. The guards provoke their prisoners just so they can abuse them further, and even if the prisoners don't rise to the bait, the guards still sneer at them for being cowards.

This is the Bush administration dream come true: Total de-humanization of friend and foe alike, and they sit above it all, denying that anything untoward is happening while they and their cronies are making huge piles of money from Treasury-funded no-bid contracts.

[The Stranger]

6. More witnesses for the trials of those who defend the camp.

Let Madame Defarge continue her curious knitting.

[rodeodance]

7. she is giving the details on abc evening news right now.

[calimary]

11. Indeed? On a mainstream evening newscast? COOL!

The more this stuff gets out, in the mainstream, the better.

[niallmac]

8. Kudos for her really...but...

she was "shocked"
Anyone on this planet who is shocked that the situation in Guantanamo is
a human rights nightmare is living with the little people in Emerald City.

[Solon]

16. Its easy to be shocked by something you never experienced before...

and most of us haven't experienced the conditions of G-Bay(my shorthand), at all. Its one thing to intellectually know what is happening at the base, the torture, the deaths, etc. Its quite another to see the results, or the torture itself.

Its kinda like seeing a dead body for the first time, many people in this country has seen crime shows, shows that show human bodies being mangled damned near beyond recognition, blood everywhere, etc. However, how many of us have actually SMELLED the dead body, or felt how sticky the blood is? Most folks that don't even flinch at graphic depictions of violence on TV will, more likely than not, lose their lunch if they saw it first hand, with their own eyes.

[leftchick]

9. I saw her on TV tonight

She is so very brave.

[BeHereNow]

10. Yup...Spreading Free-to-be-dumb and De-MOCK-racy.

Yup, that's us alright!
BHN

[JoFerret]

12. Sounds like a most courageous woman

- now look for her to demonized, demoted, denigrated and dismissed.

[KittyWampus]

13. and many of these people may be innocent

[twaddler01]

14. This needs to get out more!

[TroglodyteScholar]

15. ABC who?

Is there a credible source?

[Trillo]

17. Is it a metaphor?

"...the guards also talked about taking away detainees' privileges "even when they're being good" and denying their requests for water."

Reminds me of all the punishments meted out by our society to people who are following the rules. Regarding 'denying requests for water', that reminds me of all the poor people who go hungry.

I don't mean to minimize the acts of the guards, but it seems there are deeper societal issues involved that, to me at least, are reminiscent; and curiously, they all seem to come down from above.