Two 50 Year Olds Are Released From Guantanamo

[babylonsister]

Andy Worthington
Posted October 8, 2008 | 09:24 AM (EST)
Two 50 Year Olds Are Released From Guantanamo


As the US courts put pressure on the government to justify the long detention of prisoners at Guantánamo without charge or trial (following the Supreme Court's ruling, in June, that they have constitutional habeas corpus rights, and that the government must justify their imprisonment), two of Guantánamo's oldest prisoners have been quietly repatriated: 51-year old Sudanese prisoner Mustafa Ibrahim al-Hassan, and Mammar Ameur, a 50-year old refugee from Algeria.

Al-Hassan, a 51-year old father of four -- two boys and two girls -- was immediately reunited with his family after returning home. He was held at Guantánamo for six years and two months, even though there was no basis whatsoever for his imprisonment. Like others at Guantánamo, he had traveled to Pakistan in 2002, to study his religion and to seek out business opportunities, but was seized at a checkpoint by opportunistic Pakistani soldiers who were aware that the US authorities were offering bounty rewards for "al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects," and that foreign visitors were easy prey.

Despite the fact that he had nothing whatsoever to do with al-Qaeda or the Taliban, and was one of many innocent men seized in Pakistan without ever having set foot in Afghanistan, he reported that he was treated brutally in Pakistan custody. "When the investigators were interrogating me", he said, "when I told them I went there to trade and I went there to study, they hit me, they tortured me. They were torturing us with electricity and they made us walk on sharp objects. They hit us a lot, and because of the pain we just said anything."

Al-Hassan also suffered horribly in Guantánamo, and was beset by medical problems. For years he complained about stomach pains, but received no treatment. Then, in 2007, medical tests revealed the cause of the pain -- a stomach ulcer that required immediate surgery. This was a source of great concern for him, as he had already had his spleen removed while he was a free man. He also suffered from liver pain in Guantánamo, and although his stomach surgery was successful, a blood test showed that he was also suffering from liver disease. In spite of this disturbing discovery, the authorities would not tell him how advanced his illness was.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/two-50-year-olds-are-rele_b_132898.html

[gratuitous]

1. No charge? Bush said they were the worst of the worst!

That's a charge, isn't it? Spurious, to be sure, but . . .

Sa-a-a-ay, you don't suppose Bush might have been fibbing a little bit, do you? Now, why would he do that? Doesn't he know that he could be liable for crimes against humanity?

Hey!

[enough]

2. There is no Hell hot enough for the perpetrators of this travesty.

[midnight]

3. No I don't think so....

“I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for detention,”
Judge Urbina-American Federal judge

[CoffeeCat]

5. I don't believe in torture...

...but I could seriously torture these people.

That scares me that I would say that, but they deserve it and I would enjoy
watching them suffer.

I guess that makes me a horrible person, but they deserve to experience some of
the hell that they so brazenly inflicted on others.

[CoffeeCat]

4. Bush and the neocons are...

...inhuman scum.

They are a disgusting stain on America.