Some Afghan Detainees Claim U.S. Beat Them, Others Say Treatment OK

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAY8OXPBID.html

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Some of the 16 Afghan prisoners freed from a U.S. military jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Saturday that their American captors beat them, while others said they were not mistreated.

"I have been badly punished 107 times," Abdul Rehman, 29, told Associated Press Television News in an interview at Kabul Central Jail. He said that by "badly punished" he meant his captors chained his hands and feet and beat him with a metal rod on his legs and back.

A U.S. military spokesman at Guantanamo Bay, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, denied the abuse claims. "Physical coercion is simply not an option. We don't do it. There's no beating," he said.

The men, mostly between 20 and 30 years old, were brought to Kabul from the U.S. military headquarters at Bagram, north of the capital, on Thursday, but their presence in Afghanistan was not announced until Saturday.

more

[Nambe]

1. A year in prison is beating enough.

Why spin whether they were beaten or not. Their encarceration violates everything the US stands for.