Ex-Gitmo detainees allege physical abuse
British men at the center of Supreme Court case
From Bill Mears
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two British Muslim men at the center of a recent Supreme Court case say the U.S. military is deceiving the public about interrogation techniques they claim they were subjected to during their two-year detention at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In an open letter to President Bush and members of Congress, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal claim the Pentagon is lying when officials denied using physically abusive and humiliating techniques to elicit information from them.
The former detainees say their experiences were similar to abuse seen in photographs of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. The pictures show naked prisoners in humiliating poses.
In a related development, the State Department said Thursday that the International Committee of the Red Cross recently provided the Bush administration with a report outlining its concerns about detainees at Guantanamo Bay. (Full story)
In their letter, Rasul and Iqbal claimed they were shackled for hours on end during questioning by military interrogators.
They said they were stripped naked while women were brought into the room and that they were subjected to dogs, strobe lights, loud music and freezing temperatures to disorient, frighten and degrade them.
The men also claimed other detainees were beaten, one of them so bady he required hospitalization.
"From the moment of our arrival in Guantanamo Bay (and indeed from long before) we were deliberately humiliated and degraded by the use of methods that we now read U.S. officials denying," the letter said.
"They recorded the interrogations in which we were driven to make false confessions," the men wrote. "After three months in solitary confinement under harsh conditions and repeated interrogations, we finally agreed to confess."
Rasul and Iqbal were captured in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led military campaign to oust the Taliban in late 2001. They were eventually transported to Guantanamo, known colloquially as "Gitmo."
Their letter was released through the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based group representing the men in their legal appeals.
There was no immediate reaction from the Pentagon.
Rasul and Iqbal were released from U.S. custody and returned to Britain in early March, weeks before the Supreme Court heard their appeal in oral arguments. The two were among 16 men held at Guantanamo protesting their detention. (High court hears arguments)
The justices will decide whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction over the "detention of foreign nationals captured abroad ... and incarcerated" at Guantanamo.
The consolidated cases involve the detention of more than 600 males from about 40 countries, said to be al Qaeda or Taliban fighters captured mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some of those held are under age 18.
Some have been incarcerated for more than two years at the Guantanamo base, without access to lawyers or family.
A key element is whether the Guantanamo base can be considered U.S. territory. If the justices decide Guantanamo is technically Cuban soil, they may decide they lack the power to oversee foreign prisoners held there.
The Navy makes monthly payments of $34 to the Cuban government to lease the land, part of a binding agreement reached a century ago.
The government has been interrogating the men and deciding whether they will face a military tribunal or be released back to their home countries. Dozens have already been freed.
