Al-Jazeera man 'close to death' at Guantanamo Bay

[PaulaFarrell]

Source: Independent, UK

An al-Jazeera journalist captured in Afghanistan six years ago and sent to Guantanamo Bay is close to becoming the fifth detainee at the US naval base to take his own life, according to a medical report written by a team of British and American psychiatrists

Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national, is 250 days into a hunger strike which he began in protest over his detention without charge or trial in January 2002. But British and American doctors, who have been given exclusive access to his interview notes, say there is very strong evidence that he has given up his fight for life, experiencing what doctors recognise as "passive suicide", a condition suffered by female victims of Darfur.

Dr Dan Creson, a US psychiatrist who has worked with the United Nations in Darfur, said Mr Haj was suffering from severe depression and may be deteriorating to the point of imminent death.

He said the detainee's condition was similar to that of Darfuri women in Sudan whose mind suddenly experiences an irreversible decline after enduring months of starvation and abuse. He said: "In the midst of rape, slow starvation, and abject humiliation, they did whatever they could to survive and save their children; then, suddenly, something happened in their psyche, and, without warning, they would just sit down with their small children beneath the first small area of available shade and with no apparent emotion wait for death."



Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2956428.ece

[NanceGreggs]

1. Fifth Rec ...

How sad is this? How low has our country been brought down?

[EFerrari]

2. It's murder.

:(

[NanceGreggs]

4. In a word ...

... plain and simple.

It IS murder.

[hang a left]

3. I remember reading about the forced feeding....

and the shoving of tubes up the detainee"s noses. I am just horrified, disgusted, and shocked.

snip>>>

His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, of the human rights charity Reprieve, said his client had endured months of brutal force-feeding and lost nearly a fifth of his body weight during the hunger strike.

Mr Stafford Smith said: "The US military is rightly afraid of a fifth prisoner dying in their custody. But they wrongly respond by treating prisoners worse. Blankets and clothes are removed in case they are used to commit suicide. The harshest methods of forced feeding are deployed – Sami has suffered the feeding tube being forced down into his lungs by mistake several times."

The warning about the condition of Mr Haj coincided with the release of Guantanamo transcripts which describe the hostility between guards and their prisoners. The transcripts includes details of guards interrupting detainees at prayer, detainees flinging body waste at guards and interrogators withholding medicine.

Dr Hugh Rickards, a British psychiatrist, warned in his report that the level of Mr Haj's mental suffering "appears so acute that it is my duty as a medical practitioner to put this in writing to ensure appropriate assessment and treatment".

Dr Mamoun Mobayed, a British psychiatrist based in Northern Ireland, and a third member of the team who has also been given access to written notes of recent interviews with the prisoner, said there was also concern about the mental health of Mr Haj's wife and seven-year-old son, who was just one when his father went on assignment to Afghanistan.

snip>>>

end

[Judi Lynn]

5. Almost too painful to read this information, isn't it? The right-wing has never been well disposed

toward journalists, has it? Not unless the journalists work for the corporate media.

From the article, maddening, desperately awful information:

In June this year a Saudi man became the fourth prisoner to take his own life at Guantanamo Bay. Guards found him dead in his cell. Two Saudis and a Yemeni prisoner were found hanged in an apparent suicide at Guantanamo in June last year. A senior US officer caused outrage at the time by describing the suicides of three men as an act of asymmetric warfare and a good PR move on the part of terrorist suspects.

Mr Haj, 38, was sent on assignment by al-Jazeera television station to cover the war in Afghanistan in October 2001. The following month, after the fall of Kabul, Mr Haj left Afghanistan for Pakistan with the rest of his crew.

In early December, the crew were given visas to return to Afghanistan. But when Mr Haj tried to re-enter Afghanistan with his colleagues, he was arrested by the Pakistani authorities – apparently at the request of the US military.

He was imprisoned, handed over to the US authorities in January 2002, taken to the US military compound in Bagram, Afghanisatan, then Kandahar, and finally to Guantanamo in June 2002.

His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, of the human rights charity Reprieve, said his client had endured months of brutal force-feeding and lost nearly a fifth of his body weight during the hunger strike.

Mr Stafford Smith said: "The US military is rightly afraid of a fifth prisoner dying in their custody. But they wrongly respond by treating prisoners worse. Blankets and clothes are removed in case they are used to commit suicide. The harshest methods of forced feeding are deployed – Sami has suffered the feeding tube being forced down into his lungs by mistake several times."
(snip/...)

We heard about the techniques they employ to make forced feedings so fiendishing painful long ago. It takes a dedicated hunger striker now whose will will be strong enough to withstand their ripping the tubes out of one patient and jamming them down another without washing them, even, and slamming them in there so hard they nearly rip the detainee apart from the inside.

They must have been supremely satisfied when they stepped up that program, and a lot of men couldn't take the internal pain of being force fed and dropped out of hunger striking to get away from it. This journalist had to be damned determined to escape that hell hole. (Or, was he, as the geniuses around _Bush claim, practicing "asymmetric warfare" to give them all a black eye, PR-wise?)

I tip my symbolic hat to the administration and its unbelievable magnificence. You Republicans ARE the mighty chickenhawks. Who wouldn't be proud to be victimized by you?

[hang a left]

10. I share your outrage.

I just wanted to share with you that I have a very good friend that married a Palestinian. His last name is El Haj.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Hope their life together will be safe, healthy, and happy, wherever they go. n/t

[izzie]

6. All done with a cross in ones hands and lets you do it with out guilt

I often recall that they are trying or have made the last Czar and his wife Saints and to think they only got about 20 million people killed all while being good Church people. Puts one off church.

[mmonk]

15. Yep.

My Christianity has lost meaning to me, probably not to return. This isn't an attack on Christianity. It's just it allows people not to emphathize with others of different faiths and allows for absence of conscience. It allows for no outrage on things like this while screaming bloody murder about abortion being legal or using stems cells for research.

[Megahurtz]

34. I Know

exactly how you feel. :(

[Judi Lynn]

7. In honor of this man, as he slips away, here's his photo.

Jesus H. Christ. Guess he's lucky to be leaving a world where this could happen.

[leftchick]

8. thank you Judi Lynn

God forgive us all. :(

[Judi Lynn]

9. It IS so very, very sad, isn't it?

:(

[mmonk]

17. Yes.

As a member of Amnesty International, I already have his picture.

[emilyg]

32. Blood on Bush's hands

[madrchsod]

12. we are no better than "them"

it is another sad chapter in our history..

[Vinca]

13. We are "them." nt

[mmonk]

18. "Us and them" more times than not end up being the same.

[PaulaFarrell]

14. a little more info

http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/DA_fall_06/prisoner/prisoner.html

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2068273,00.html

you can sign a petition for his release at :

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19079/article.php3?id_article=19079

[bread_and_roses]

16. Signed. Where are our Democrats on this? Are they speaking up

for this man and the others? I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that this is happening in this Country and we are all paralyzed, evidently, by the unremitting assault on human rights and Constitutional protections into some kind of numb, vegitative state, it seems....

I have not one iota of confidence anymore that should the next President be a Democraat things will be any different - whichever it is (since it won't be DK) will continue to abuse the power that this Junta has abrogated to itself. Power never surrenders voluntarly, and evidently we as a people are unwilling to make noise enough, protest enough, spend enough time in the streets, to put a stop to this.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Thank you for a chance to sign the petition, at least. One can always try to hope. n/t

[ooglymoogly]

44. thank you for finding this petition

I hope everyone who is reading this goes to the site and signs the petition....its the least we can do to try to save this man.

[w4rma]

19. torture is evil. (nt)

[peacetalksforall]

20. The use of technology in the killing of man

To come from Africa and end up at the tip of the island of Cuba in the Caribbean of the Western Hemisphere (for which the U.S. pays nothing because of politics) to be imprisoned without end (because of politics and corporate need ) and to die (because of politics and corporate need) .............

To come from America-US and be taught about what a wonderful country we come from where we never r e a l l y learn about our cruel history and then end up learning that all lessons were for nothing and see us use the technology of aviation to carry out the most inhuman of crimes .............

How low can we go?

One thing we can be certain of

This subject is not going to make the weekend talk shows on corporation tv
This subject isn't even going to make it to the Daily or Colbert Show

It's time to refocus attention on
the Cheney/PNAC/CIA/Blackwater/Halliburton prisons
operated on behalf of the corporations and barons
for whom we gladly kill
by wrongly using the gift of technology and the gift of labor to give the gift of taxes to accomplish these crimes.

Ever think about it - 'they' are accused by our leaders who keep the evidence secret that 'they' used four aircraft to 'attack' us. Our homegrown corporate terrorists use our own aircraft and our gas to move prisoners around and the 'executives/tors' around who are responsible for the decisions and the supplies around and the politicians around - and then they fly nuclear bombs around to position them to have our own soldiers conduct a probable act of destruction against still one more nation, unless we get 'lucky'.

I wonder if the Man from the Sudan will die tomorrow - the day of the stand-down in the U.S. Better yet, call him the professional journalist from the Sudan. Or better yet, call him the human being from Sudan.

Yes, the truth hurts.

[lovuian]

22. There is a point in the human psyche that life is not worth living

starvation abuse a prison that one can not endure

this is the beginnings of symptoms of man's failure to thrive

A sorry state of mankind these days

[slowry]

23. Guantanamo makes even awkward beheadings seem utterly humane.

How can this place continue to exist, without riots in the streets? Vile.

[Desertrose]

24. Heartbreaking......

and for what? Another life sacrificed on the altar of bush's greed.


This is SO wrong on so many levels.

DR

[ejbr]

25. email to CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, CBS

First paragraph from petition provided by DU member,PaulaFarrell: Petition for Sami Al Haj

Dear Sir/Madam:

I would like to draw your attention to the case of Sami Al Haj, who was detained in Afghanistan from 15 December 2001 to 12 June 2002, when he was transferred to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, where he is still held.To the best of my knowledge, he was simply exercising his right to freedom of expression, guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I therefore call on you to take steps to ensure that his story is told.

After a 250 day hunger strike to protest his detention without trial, Guantanamo Bay doctors say that he is on the brink of death. Mitt Romney's assertion that we should double the size of Gitmo has been televised. How about telling the stories of those persons who have been incarcerated without trial for over five years? Are we supposed to "double Gitmo" in order to detain more innocent victims of the global war on terror? Should Americans remain ignorant of how our tax dollars are being spent? Apparently, our country is wasting money, time and effort on the wrong people. Even if you are unconcerned about the horrendous fate of innocent people, then might you at least have concern over our wasted resources?

Sincerely,

[PaulaFarrell]

27. You've inspired me to write a letter

I know there is a long list of media contacts somewhere on this site - anybody know where it can be found?

[ejbr]

30. Cool. You were the one who inspired me! Here's the link

Media Contacts

[redqueen]

26. How can the guards there continue what they're doing?

How do they just keep on keeping on... as if what they're doing is normal and justifiable?

*sigh*

[Nihil]

28. Pray that their "Nuremburg moment" comes very soon.

Murdering, torturing scum happily working under the facade of "orders".

[1620rock]

29. Should anyone in the world NOT hate us????

[libodem]

31. When you think of the human spirit

the strength and resilience, to realize he has been so abused as to lose the will to live, it has to he under the most abject conditions. He should be allowed to die with dignity or be released. It might be worse to live with the memories of what he has had to endure. I am so ashamed.

[truedelphi]

33. Six hundred prayers a day. Adds up over the years since March 2003

My prayers used to be for little things - that a check not bounce, that my car not be ticketed, that my tomatoes produce abundantly.

For the birds in my yard. For my family and friends. For success at my job.
That my six times a year hair cut go well.

Then The War and Gitmo. And I can no longer squander prayers on the everyday mundane.

Six hundred prayers a day. One for each of the named number - yet how many there really are, who knows?

I do so while trying to maintain peace in my heart as I pray.

I do so while trying to avoid frustration - what do those I pray for look like? Who are their families? What are their stories? Will they ever get out of Gitmo alive? If they do, will they ever heal?

Haj was someone whose story I had heard. Our government offered to let him go back to Al Jazeera. All that Haj had to do was to be willing to name names of others so that those others could at some time in the future take his place at GitMo.

He has a little child and I am sure like any loving parent, part of him must have wanted to take the deal. To return home and write again. To have abundances of paper and pencil, peace and quiet, and tea in the garden with his youngster crawling into his lap.

But he did not submit to their bribes as he was an honorable person.

I wish him well as he enters the other Home dimension. Once he's settled there, I will ask him to offer me strength in my daily prayers.

Because it really is hard to pray and not be filled with hatred and anger at those, my supposed "Leaders", who have committed sins against innocence. (And we know he was innocent, or they would never have made the offer to let him go.)

[Judi Lynn]

40. It's hard to get past the hatred. Excellent comments. If only he weren't so completely alone in this

If only for a moment the savage reality would dawn on these administration people of what they have done, without their insulation of drunkenness, and stupidity to hide behind, their obsessive lies, and they had no one else left to blame for the decisions which they make alone which bring such tragedy to the world.......

They'd stampede into the ocean to drown themselves, leaving a thankful world behind them.

[truedelphi]

46. On some levelthey've already done that

Stampeded into the ocean, leaving us thankful and behind them

It's just that on the playing field of what we call reality, how many more beings must suffer before they go into oblivion?

I guess until that happens we need to be as kind as we can be with those we are close to.

[Megahurtz]

35. War Crimes.

Plain and simple.:cry:

[Hydra]

36. Everyone has their breaking point

Apparently his has been reached while we in America sit by passively and allow Bush to do even greater evil in our name.

Some have asked where the Dems are in this: they support it, either as an expansion of the authority they think they will win in 2008, or due to fear of being "soft on terror"

Right now, I think "soft on terror" applies perfectly to them- soft on the terror of the Bush Admin.

[John Gauger]

37. George W. Bush should be in jail.

It's weird to think that Rev. Yearwood can go to jail for trying to enter a room that he had every legal right to enter, but George Bush will never go to jail for anything he has done. When I was little I was taught about the concept of justice and that our country held justice as a very high priority. It's just not true. It seems like as I move through life I learn more and more things that I was taught were lies. This is just another illustration.

[Pacifist Patriot]

42. Indeed

[HuffleClaw]

38. journalists are a larger threat than terrorists are to this administration

disgusting.

[micraphone]

39. I never knew I could get so angry....

but every day something else happens to get angry about all over again.

And why is reported in the foreign media? MSM - hello????

[superkia]

41. With the constitution under attack, eventually we will be in camps too.

[Danger Mouse]

43. That is...horrible.

Add another skull to your throne, Bush.
You are King of Death.

[Judi Lynn]

45. From Al Jazeera: Al-Hajj 'suffering from depression'

Al-Hajj 'suffering from depression'

Two leading psychiatrists say Sami al-Hajj, the Al Jazeera cameraman held in the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, is suffering from severe depression and could be close to death.

The British and American psychiatrists said in a letter that al-Hajj, who has been on hunger strike for 247 days, could be suffering from a form of depression known as "passive suicide", where an individual loses the will to live.

Psychiatrists Hugh Richards from Britain and D L Crisson from the US warned on Tuesday that if al-Hajj remained in the camp, his life could be in danger.

Clive Stafford-Smith, al Hajj's lawyer, told Al Jazeera: "I'm incredibly worried about him.
"Last time I saw him ... he was talking about death."

'Immediate treatment'

Al-Hajj, originally from Sudan, was arrested in Pakistan in December 2001 on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border by Pakistani intelligence and was handed to the US military in January 2002.

More:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AE290F88-4501-4E8C-825B-B264DF7B7218.htm