Guantánamo abuse same as Abu Ghraib, say Britons

Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal, who were freed in March after being arrested in Afghanistan and held without charge for more than two years, allege that heavy-handed treatment was systematic.

"From the moment of our arrival in Guantánamo Bay (and indeed from long before) we were deliberately humiliated and degraded by methods we now read US officials denying," the men write.

The men describe a regime that included assaults on prisoners, prolonged shackling in uncomfortable positions, strobe lights, loud music and being threatened with dogs.

At times, detainees would be taken to the interrogation room and chained naked on the floor, the letter says. Women would be brought to the room to "inappropriately provoke and indeed molest them. It was completely clear to all the detainees that this was happening to particularly vulnerable prisoners, especially those who had come from the strictest of Islamic backgrounds," the letter says.

Mr Iqbal and Mr Rasul have issued repeated allegations of abuse at the camp since their release last March. Previous allegations were dismissed by the US embassy in London, but after two weeks in which America has been convulsed by images of torture and humiliation, their latest challenge looked set to receive a more serious hearing.

The spotlight has shifted from Abu Ghraib to other detention facilities in America's war on terror as reports emerge from Afghanistan, as well as Iraq.

Shortly before their release last March, the two men say a new practice was instituted in what became known as the "Romeo" block. Prisoners were stripped completely. "After three days they would be given underwear. After another three days they would be given a top, and then after another three days given trouser bottoms," the letter says.

That account stands in direct contradiction to denials this week from a Pentagon spokesman, Colonel David McWilliams, that nudity and embarrassment were never used to break down prisoners. "We have no protocol that allows us to disrobe a detainee whatsoever," Col McWilliams told the Washington Post.

Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer who acted for Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal in a supreme court case in the US, said: "These guys had been trying to put it all behind them, but they have been reading the stuff this week and getting really angry that the US is lying again."

The Guardian has learned that some of the British detainees released from Guantánamo Bay have reported that they were sexually abused. There is no way to independently verify these details.

According to a source, who has interviewed them in secret since their release, they were initially too ashamed to talk about it, and are only now starting to give details. The source said: "They are embarrassed about talking about it because they feel humiliated. We have had an account that their religion was used against them, that a copy of the Koran was brought in front of them and pages torn out."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1216645,00.html