“Ve Learned From Der Best”
Just keep telling yourselves that we’re the good guys; we don’t torture people.
(CBS) 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.”
This guy was a German resident, yet he had to get questioned by Americans to experience what his own country used to do to people. That’s quite a history lesson.
Comments
Well, the electric shocks to the feet (if done with high voltage) and the hanging by his arms should both leave internal traces that would show up on MRI, I believe. The electic shocks would show as abnormal regrowth/scarring in the soft tissues of the feet, and possibly in bone with high enough voltage/current. The hanging by his arms would result in tendon/ligament damage in the rotator cuffs.
If they don’t present such evidence, it’s gonna be awfully hard to substantiate unless there’s a smoking gun witness.
Bullshit. Its a history lesson in not being a gullible pussy.
dwex, the sad thing is, I doubt CBS will do any type of investigative journalism to confirm or refute his story.
Everyone has to realize that the real bad part of the torture policy is now every Gitmo prisoner can have a stage and an audience for making any claims they want--the world will now listen. This is the result of the lack of transparency in the Bush administration policies and behaviors.
Good thing we can trust these guys 100%. Hopefully, he is actually telliong the truth on how he was treated. Fuck him.
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I’m not saying that this guy is lying, but what facts substantiate his claims? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and I cannot buy into this guy’s story without some facts to back it up.