Tom Wilner, attorney for 11 Kuwaiti men arrested by US forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan and now held at Guantanamo Bay, told the press his clients say they were beaten, tortured and subjected to electro-shock and sodomy to extract confessions. According to Wilner’s notes, one detainee said: "The American soldiers kept saying, ‘Are you Taliban or are you al-Qaeda?’… They kept hitting me, so eventually I said I was a member of the Taliban." He says the 11 are all innocent.
Wilner says the physical abuse took place in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while "At Guantanamo…there has been a switch to mental torture," such as being held in extreme isolation. Wilner was allowed to interview his clients for the first time in December, and had to submit all his notes before leaving the prison camp. The notes are sealed and sent to a military facility at Arlington, VA. Lawyers must then petition for the notes to be declassified before they can receive them back, and must receive government permission to speak about their interviews. (AP, Feb. 8)
See our last post on the ongoing torture scandal.
