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Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Thu May 19, 2005 at 09:51:01 PM EST
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The New York Times has reviewed the ACLU's newly released documents and reports on the deaths of two Afghans:

Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.

The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb. He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.

Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar's face.

"Come on, drink!" the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. "Drink!"

At the interrogators' behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.

"Leave him up," one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.

Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen.

These reports are contained in Government documents turned over to the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act Request. You can read the actual documents here. They were not cooked up by Newsweek or the liberal media. Or even the dead men's defense lawyers. What will be the Adminstration's response? Take your choice: (1)It was the work of a few bad apples, or (2) There is no credible evidence to support these claims.

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    Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#1)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:14 PM EST
    In sworn statements to Army investigators, soldiers describe one female interrogator with a taste for humiliation stepping on the neck of one prostrate detainee and kicking another in the genitals. They tell of a shackled prisoner being forced to roll back and forth on the floor of a cell, kissing the boots of his two interrogators as he went. Yet another prisoner is made to pick plastic bottle caps out of a drum mixed with excrement and water as part of a strategy to soften him up for questioning.
    I hope they have photos to go along with the sketches and descriptions or the whole story will be "flushed" down the "memory hole".

    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#2)
    by aw on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:14 PM EST
    How do these people live with themselves?

    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#3)
    by DawesFred60 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:14 PM EST
    the political thing is most if not all prison systems in the world do the same thing, its not unusual for guards to beat to death inmates, we do it in our system the mexicans do it in mexico and its normal, so why so up-set about this one? one reason the usa is doing openly and reporting to, but so do all so called nation states do the same thing?, hey how about china? england? name it. if you people really want justice start to call and ask this government to make all detention centers in POW Camps. that is the only way you can stop some of the mass murder, but remember the guys in the camps our your enemy to death. by the way woman should not be in male prison or jails, most of the woman inside the system are in fact evil as hell with males, old ones and young ones, keep woman from being prison guards in all male prisons in the usa and keep woman out of the jail system, bin laden loves it all to well.

    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#5)
    by Lora on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:14 PM EST
    Is there anybody with a conscience left?

    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:14 PM EST
    Sickening. Disgusting. Yet we are so willing to believe "it couldn't be that bad". As a democracy, it is us and it is that bad.

    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#7)
    by wishful on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:15 PM EST
    There is absloutely no indication that this administration and its minions make any distinction between a poor taxi driver in Afghanistan and one in any urban US setting. At least we have found one thing on which they actualy ARE consistent, and then they'll have to go and deny it. Otherwise, there is no consistency at all. Think about it. They are trying to kill off all social programs that assist the poor, especially the working poor. Maybe the torture is not as direct, but lack of adequate food, shelter and medical care (etc.) just takes longer to kill you and your kids. You are just as dead though.

    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:15 PM EST
    "This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees." Rudolf Hess, the SS commandant at Auschwitz.

    Re: Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:15 PM EST
    Jim, Dr. Ace - where are you guys? Can you put this in perspective for us? Tell us again how they never had it so good.

    Documents Describe Deaths of Two Afghans | 8 comments (8 topical)