Sounding like a broken record now..

A former US soldier who worked on interrogations at Guantanamo Bay has written a damning expose of the brutal, degrading treatment he says was meted out to prisoners there. Sgt Erik Saar's book, Inside the Wire, comes with the US military's treatment of prisoners in the spotlight due to court hearings over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

In an interview with the BBC, Sgt Saar says that bizarre, sexual abuses at the prison camp set dangerous precedents that paved the way for mistreatment of US detainees in Iraq. One of the most disturbing interrogations Sgt Saar says he saw in his six months at the prison concerned a female interrogator trying to break a Saudi detainee, captured after enrolling in a US flight school.

He tells how she began peeling off her clothes, taunting the man sexually in an attempt to shame him and stop him relying on his faith for support. She left the interrogation room, Sgt Saar says, and found a red marker pen.

"'Brooke' came back round his [the prisoner's] other side, and he could see that she was beginning to withdraw her hand from her pants," said Sgt Saar. "As it became visible, the Saudi saw what looked like red blood on her hand."

When the interrogator wiped what he thought was menstrual blood on his face, the prisoner raged, almost breaking free from his handcuffs. But "Brooke" taunted him further, said Erik Saar, asking whether Allah would be pleased with him and telling him to have fun trying to pray.
Finally the detainee was returned to his cell without water, leaving him unable to cleanse himself.

But he says what he saw completely changed his attitude towards the camp, and his country.

And of the 600 or so prisoners there, no more than a few dozen were "hardcore terrorists", says Erik Saar. "The US Government portrays Guantanamo as a place where we are sending the worst of the worst, but this is not true."

"But Guantanamo has become a symbol of everything wrong with America's image. If we are trying to build a bridge to the Muslim world, what sort of face are we portraying?

Story from BBC News

MathewK -

Well, what can I say, he must be trying to talk up the book, seeing that the more controversial it sounds, hopefully more people will buy it and he will get paid more, unless something has dramatically changed in the publishing world.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many of these fools get airtime in the world, he seemed so outraged that this woman interrogator had wiped her blood on this fellows face. If she had driven a knife into his guts and left him tied up and bleeding to death in the cell, ok that's just wrong. What's so bad about tricking this fellow because of his beliefs, she wasn't chopping his head off or anything.

I mean what is considered acceptable interrogation.

Here is a prayer mat, copy of the Koran, that way is the general direction of Mecca, start talking. Should we go further would you like some coffee and biscuits every morning, was your cell warm enough last night, would you like softer lighting, how about a trip to the mosque every friday maybe a virgin or two, did last nights lamb suit you palette.
Lastly when would be a good time for us to ask you some niggling questions, whatever is convenient for you, just let us know, no hurry, take your time.

Is this what the human rights groups want?

Bridge building? What the hell is Iraq and Afghanistan then? How many trillion dollars in debt is America in now, how many American men and women are in Iraq and Afghanistan paying in blood alongside Iraqis in the fight against those we "need to treat humanely". Last I checked there were no Arab troops sent in from elsewhere to deal with the likes of Zarqawi, lots of whining and criticising but nothing worth mentioning. What more needs to be done, should we put Osama in the White House to finish this bloody bridge?

Crazy isn't it, attacker attacks victim, victim now needs to build bridge to understand attacker.

The world is quick to criticise, call for inquiries and dismiss completed inquiries into the actions of the US government and its soldiers. So anyone stepping up to deal with the vermin, that murdered Margaret Hassan, planting roadside bombs, shooting in the back, murdering women and children, no rights, no compassion, no mercy, no inquiry, no bridges? Other than the US marine?

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