A Tunisian detainee testified Saturday before a U.S. military review hearing that he was abused while in captivity in Afghanistan before being brought to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, a military official said.
| "It was terrible! I suffered so!" |
The 35-year-old Tunisian told the review panel he was held in the dark and without sufficient drinking water for more than two months in Afghanistan, said a military officer who served as the tribunal recorder and whose identity was barred from being disclosed. Military officials said the detainee was captured by the Northern Alliance before being turned over to U.S. troops.
The man didn't specify which force was holding him at the time of the alleged mistreatment, but he told the panel the experience led him to falsely confess to training with militants, the tribunal official said.
| Northern Alliance was kinda prone to nastiness with prisoners who recently had been shooting at them, weren't they. |
The Tunisian told the panel he made the false confessions due to the ``mistreatment he had received in Afghanistan, or as he phrased it, torture,'' the officer said. As recently as March 2003, he allegedly told interrogators he had received paramilitary training. But on Saturday he denied having received the training, saying ``he's been treated well'' during two and a half years at Guantanamo and ``felt there wasn't going to be any retribution'' if he told the truth, the officer said.
| Yeah, yeah. We know. He was going charity work. And somebody left the explosives where he happened to be having lunch after rescuing some puppies and kittens... |
| Unless someone corroborates his story, though, he's not going anywhere. |
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