After reading the article in Salon.com about the captivity of a man from Yemen who was never charged with any crimes and held at a secret CIA "Black Site" for 19 months I am physically sick. The interview with the former prisoner includes a detailed drawing of his cell and descriptions of his daily routines. The thought that his captivity was done in my country’s name makes me nauseous.
Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah was imprisoned ni a series of cells, most no bigger than 7 X10 feet, often with only a bucket as a toilet and a constant barrage of rap music and white noise. After several months of this confinement he slashed his wrists and tried to kill himself. The thoughtful folks at the CIA patched him up and tossed him back in his cell. When he went on a hunger strike, they force fed him.
Finally his mental state deteriorated so much that they turned him over to psychiatrists who brought him back from the edge of insanity only to be interrogated even more. His torture is detailed in the article which I can assure you is not easy to read at one sitting.
What sickens me most is that it is Americans who are doing this to prisoners. We have recreated the Inquisition and many folks like Bashmilah got rounded up by accident. Though he is free today, he still suffers the debilitating effects of the torture and mental illness he developed while incarcerated. His life was turned inside out by my country and that makes me angry and sick.
Read the article if you can stomach it, then call your Senator and Congressperson and demand that this kind of madness stop. And while you are at it, encourage the impeachment of Dick Cheney. It is his policies that have lead to this kind of inhumane acts by our country and it must be stopped.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment