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Gitmo Detainee to Receive Rectal Surgery as Result of Torture

Via Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald, who has been covering Guantanamo Bay from the beginning: Mustafa al Hawsawi, 48, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

He is alleged to have helped the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler’s checks and credit cards.

He was held by the CIA until transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. He is still there, awaiting trial with the other 9/11 detainees. He will undergo rectal surgery this week. The Pentagon has confirmed the surgery but doesn't want to talk about why he needs it. His lawyer, Walter Ruiz, a Naval Reserve officer, is talking,

[al Hawsawi] has sat gingerly on a pillow at the war court since his first appearance in 2008. But the reason was not publicly known until release of a portion of the so-called Senate Torture Report on the CIA program in December 2014, which described agents using quasi medical techniques called “rectal rehydration” and “rectal re-feeding.”

“Mr. Hawsawi was tortured in the black sites. He was sodomized,” Ruiz told reporters Monday evening, advising them to “shy away from terms like rectal penetration or rectal rehydration because the reality is it was sodomy,” he said. Since then, he said, he has had “to manually reinsert parts of his anal cavity” to defecate.

“When he has a bowel movement, he has to reinsert parts of his anus back into his anal cavity,” Ruiz said, which “causes him to bleed, causes him excruciating pain.”

Simply disgusting.[More...]

The Pentagon says:

The medical facilities that are provided for detainees is state-of-the-art quality. It’s the same level of medical care that’s provided to our men and women in uniform.”

But the 9/11 detainees are held separately in Camp 7, which reportedly has its own medical facility. Are they flying in a colo-rectal surgeon? Unknown.

Hearings in the 9/11 military trail, for which the death penalty is being sought, continued this week.

Ruiz said the Saudi has other medical problems dating back to his years in the CIA black sites — including “cervical degeneration,” neck damage from being thrown into a wall, an approved interrogation tactic called “walling” — something the lawyer argues should not only be treated but should be explored as part of an eventual trial that could decide whether to execute the five men accused of perpetrating the worst terror attack on U.S. soil.

Lawyers argue that the treatment after capture should disqualify the military court from ordering the alleged plotters’ execution.

They should just send him home to Saudi Arabia.

Close Gitmo. Just another thing that will not happen if the Republicans remain in control of Congress.

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  • Display: Sort:
    The second round of trials at Nuremberg (5.00 / 4) (#1)
    by Peter G on Wed Oct 12, 2016 at 04:13:43 PM EST
    was of the doctors. The prosecutor for that trial, Telford Taylor, was one of my professors in law school, 30 years later. He had recently published a book which concluded that some of the conduct of the U.S. in Vietnam constituted war crimes under the standards he had enforced at Nuremberg, and on that basis recommended prosecution of the U.S. personnel responsible.

    Thank you, Peter, (none / 0) (#3)
    by BackFromOhio on Wed Oct 12, 2016 at 09:08:37 PM EST
    for pointing this out.

    Parent
    Obama and Democrats are protecting the torturers (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by Andreas on Thu Oct 13, 2016 at 02:20:07 PM EST
    and those like George Walker Bush and Richard Cheney who are responsible.

    Yup, it is the most disappointing thing about (5.00 / 1) (#11)
    by ruffian on Fri Oct 14, 2016 at 07:06:38 AM EST
    them, to me. There had to be a way to hold them accountable.

    Parent
    More of this (none / 0) (#2)
    by Chuck0 on Wed Oct 12, 2016 at 06:46:10 PM EST
    with President Drumpf.

    St. Obama has had over seven years (none / 0) (#4)
    by Mr Natural on Thu Oct 13, 2016 at 11:11:54 AM EST
    to do something - anything - about this.

    The other day someone on NPR interviewed Harvard Law prof, Noah Feldman, about prosecutions across the presidential interregnums.  His take: what happens in the club stays in the club.

    It is not unbelieveable that such a horror could have continued to exist since the period of the prisoner's torture, but it should be.

    Parent

    And the sole discretion too... (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Thu Oct 13, 2016 at 11:57:32 AM EST
    Sure, Congress makes it more difficult, but executive power is all that is needed to close the joint.  He's got another couple months to keep his promise to close it, otherwise it's on Clinton to fulfill it 8+ years late or leave it unfulfilled.  

    Obama has gotten the number of souls down, but anybody who thinks the torture stopped amongst those that remain is fooling themselves.  Force feeding is torture...rectal feeding, otherwise known as sodomy, forget about it.

    Never too late to do what our supposed principles demand, try them in a real court of law, no tribunal bullsh*t, or release them.  If no country will accept them, a sturdy sea-faring ship and a couple million in cash per prisoner works for me if it works for the prisoner.

    Parent

    I was referring (none / 0) (#6)
    by Chuck0 on Thu Oct 13, 2016 at 01:42:24 PM EST
    to torture. Not Gitmo itself. Donald Drumpf endorses the use of torture. Obama put an end to it.


    Parent
    Obviously not. (none / 0) (#7)
    by Mr Natural on Thu Oct 13, 2016 at 02:05:19 PM EST
    Yeah... (none / 0) (#9)
    by kdog on Thu Oct 13, 2016 at 03:50:39 PM EST
    somebody musta missed the "stop torturing people" memo.

    Parent
    The October 9th New York Times Story (none / 0) (#10)
    by Mr Natural on Thu Oct 13, 2016 at 07:13:06 PM EST
    which precipitated the sudden interest in surgical intervention.

    How U.S. Torture Left a Legacy of Damaged Minds

    Hawsawi's wikipedia page

    New York Times reports about the complicity of Board Certified Professional Psychologists in staging and sequencing the individual torture processes:

    Outside Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds

    Pentagon Curbs Use of Psychologists With Guantánamo Detainees

    Pentagon Wants Psychologists to End Ban on Interrogation Role