Lawsuit seeks proof of U.S. torture

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/13/news/gitmo.html

WASHINGTON A Guantánamo Bay detainee said that beatings by guards at the U.S. military prison had left his face partially paralyzed and one of his fingers broken, according to a papers prepared for a lawsuit in federal court in Boston.

The papers ask a judge to order the U.S. military to hand over documents about its treatment of six Guantánamo detainees arrested in Bosnia, including medical and psychiatric records. It is the first lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act in connection with detention challenges, a new tactic in the effort to end the secrecy that surrounds "enemy combatants" at the prison.

"We've been asking for this information since September," said Stephen Oleskey, a former Massachusetts deputy attorney general who is a lawyer for the plaintiff. "It bears on their conditions of confinement and their mental and physical well-being. The government has made no effort to give it to us, despite the fact that federal law requires it be promptly provided, and thus we have no alternative but to go to court."

The complaint centers on Mustafa Ait Idir, an Algerian who was arrested in the Balkan state of Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2001. Idir was interviewed in February during a trip to Guantánamo by two attorneys, Oleskey and Rob Kirsch, who took on the case of six Algerians suspected of conspiring to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The United States took the six to Guantánamo after Bosnian courts dismissed charges against them for lack of evidence.

more

[wicket]

1. Another link:

Boston lawyers sue over alleged abuse at Guantanamo Bay

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/04/13/boston_lawyers_sue_over_alleged_abuse_at_guantanamo_bay/

:kick:

[Moderator]

2. kick to combine

[Rose Siding]

3. Lawyers Sue Over Alleged Guantanamo Abuse

BOSTON - Lawyers for six Bosnian detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp sued the U.S. government Wednesday, leveling new allegations of abuse and torture by U.S. forces there.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, asks a judge to force the Department of Justice and Department of Defense to release information that would allegedly prove the torture of prisoners by American forces at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
...
One of the Bosnian detainees, Mustafa Ait Idir, claims in the lawsuit that he was severely beaten while his hands were tied behind his back.

"The guards picked him up and slammed his body and his head into the steel bunk in his cell," the lawsuit says. "They then threw him on the floor and continued to pound his body and bang his head into the floor."

The guards then held his face in the toilet "and repeatedly pressed the flush button," according to the lawsuit.

"We cannot comment on the lawsuit as we have not received the complaint," Department of Defense spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said in an e-mailed statement. "However, with regard to allegations of detainee abuse, U.S. policy requires that all detainees be treated humanely."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=718&e=7&u=/ap/20050413/ap_on_re_us/guantanamo_lawsuit

[Roland99]

4. "U.S. policy requires that all detainees be treated humanely"

Well, if McClellan ever resigns, this guy is a sure-fire candidate to replace him.

[Technowitch]

5. He'll have to learn the phrase--

"The President's position on this is well-known."

[TahitiNut]

6. "The President's position on this is well-known."

[Up2Late]

7. Guantánamo Detainee's Suit Says Prison Guards Beat Him (NYT)

Guantánamo Detainee's Suit Says Prison Guards Beat Him

By NEIL A. LEWIS

Published: April 14, 2005

WASHINGTON, April 13 - A lawsuit filed in federal court on Wednesday says guards at the Guantánamo Bay detention center beat a detainee frequently, leaving him with visible scars and partial facial paralysis.

The suit, filed on behalf of Mustafa Ait Idir, is based on accounts that he gave his American lawyer on a recent visit to Guantánamo, in Cuba. Mr. Idir's lawyers said he told them that sometime in the spring of 2004 he was forcibly removed from his cell and that while he was shackled and lying on the ground, a guard jumped on his head. As a result, the suit said, Mr. Idir apparently suffered a stroke and has one side of his face paralyzed. The lawyer's accounts form the basis of a federal suit in Boston that asks the Defense Department to release medical records that might corroborate Mr. Idir's account.

A law firm in Boston, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, is representing Mr. Idir and five fellow Algerians at Guantánamo in a suit that seeks their release. The six were captured in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The suit is the first effort to use the Freedom of Information Act to compel the Bush administration to disclose medical records at Guantánamo.

A spokesman for the Pentagon said the military would not comment on the cases of any individual detainees. The spokesman, Maj. Michael Shavers, said that all detainees were supposed to be treated humanely and that any violations of that policy were investigated.

A senior Air Force general has been investigating possible abuses at Guantánamo, an assignment that stemmed from the disclosure of several Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) memorandums in which bureau agents recounted abuses that they had witnessed there.

(more at link above)

(Note: I'm not sure if you have to be registered with the N.Y. Times, but it is only registration, no payment required for "New" articles)

[struggle4progress]

8. kick