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Indybay Feature

Living With Guantanamo Scars

by IOL (reposted)
CAIRO — When Mishal al-Harbi's foot touched the grounds of Guantanamo, he was full of life but by the time the young Saudi left the notorious detention center he was damaged for life, The Washington Post reported on Sunday, March 11.

"He was just like the rest of his brothers before he left," Hamida Owayid, his mother, said bitterly.

"What did the Americans do to him?"

Mishal, who went to Afghanistan by 2001 to join the fight against the US, was detained and later shipped to the infamous detention center by 2002.

Three years later when he was released, the young Saudi was permanently paralyzed and restricted to a wheelchair for life.

Washington has been holding hundreds of detainees at the top security detention facility, mostly arrested in Afghanistan after the toppling of Taliban following the 9/11 attacks. Only ten of them have been indicted for charges.

Guantanamo's buildings hide behind multiple rows of 12-foot chain-link fences covered in green tarpaulins and topped with tight spirals of barbed wire.

Old wooden and newer steel watchtowers dot the perimeter.

Amnesty International insists Guantanamo has become a "symbol of abuse and represents a system of detention that is betraying the best US values and undermines international standards."

The international rights watchdog once likened it to gulag prisons, the Soviet detention centers notorious for torturing political prisoners and suspects.

Brutality

The US report on Guantanamo detainees claim Mishal tried to commit suicide in January 2003, which resulted in significant brain injury due to oxygen loss.

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http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1173364187377&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
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