Posted on 05/02/2008 12:09:56 PM PDT by Alouette
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Al Jazeera journalist Sami al-Haj returned home to Sudan on Friday after more than six years in the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison, urging Washington to respect human rights and branding torture as terrorism.
Haj said he and the other Guantanamo detainees had been subjected to all kinds of torture, but the worst had been when his jailers insulted Islam or desecrated the Koran in front of prisoners.
"Security and human rights are inseparable issues -- you cannot have one without the other," he told Reuters in an interview.
"Human rights are not only for times of peace -- you need to hold onto them always even during difficult times and times of war," he added.
"My last message to the U.S. administration is that torture will not stop terrorism -- torture is terrorism."
Haj looked frail but visibly stronger than 12 hours earlier, when he arrived in chains aboard a U.S. military plane from the U.S. prison in Cuba, where he spent the last 16 months on hunger strike in protest at his illegal detention.
Lying on his hospital bed he barely had enough strength to greet President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and the dozens of ministers and well-wishers ecstatic at his return.
His brother Asim collapsed with exhaustion on his arrival after the years of campaigning for his release finally drew to an end.
Al-Haj met his eight-year-old son Mohamed for the first time since his son was a year old in an emotional reunion. The cameraman was arrested near the Afghan border in 2001 and later taken to the highly criticized U.S. military base in Cuba.
"His mother was constantly sending me pictures of him ... but even if I had not seen the picture I would have known him among thousands of children by my strong sense of fatherhood," he said.
Haj will spend the next few days undergoing tests in the hospital after his hunger strike and months of force feeding twice a day left him weak and with many ailments.
"God willing our happiness and celebrations will be complete once our brothers left in Guantanamo prison are released," he said. Four Sudanese prisoners remain in Guantanamo.
(Editing by Jon Boyle)
What, not the panties?
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
These goat-lovin sumbitches are told to say that they were abused. It’s in their manual. Everyone in the sane world knows otherwise, however. No one should attach the slightest credence to it.
These crybabies are starting to bore the hell out of me.
“ATTENTION!
To ALL those whining, panty-waisted, pathetic maggots, it's time for a little refresher course on exactly why we Americans occasionally have to fight wars.
See if you can tear yourself away from your “reality” TV and Starbucks for a minute, pull your head out of your flabby ass — and LISTEN UP!!
Abu Ghraib is not “torture” or an “atrocity”. This is the kind of thing frat boys, sorority girls, and academy cadets do to newcomers. A little fun at someone else's expense. Certainly no reason to wring your hands or get your panties in a wad.
Islam a peaceful religion???
My Ass!!!
Millions of these sons-of-bitches are plotting, as we speak, to destroy our country and our way of life any way they can.
They don't want to convert you and they don't want to rule you. According to them, you are nothing more than a vile infestation of Allah's paradise. They don't give a shit how “progressive” you are, how peace-loving you are, or how much you sympathize with their cause.
They want your ass dead , and they think it is God's will for them to do it. Period. It *is* as simple as that.
Some think if we give them a hug or listen to them, then they'll like us... and if you agree? Then you are a pathetic dumb ass!
If they manage to get their hands on a nuke, chemical agents, or even some anthrax — you will wish to God we had hunted them down and killed THEM while we had the chance!
DISMISSED!”
Al-Haj met his eight-year-old son Mohamed for the first time since his son was a year old in an emotional reunion.
I'm sure the great Sudanese medical care will make him strong as a bull in short order./ sarc.
Yet another reason to execute every single one of these detainees.
“My last message to the U.S. administration is that torture will not stop terrorism — torture is terrorism.”
And I say your face is terrorism and I support stamping it out. I see the terrorists have adopted the liberal tactic of redefining words to suit thier own purposes.
We should have waterboarded this guy.
but the worst had been when his jailers insulted Islam or desecrated the Koran in front of prisoners.
There is an upside to these statements and they can work to our advantage. For every jihadi that is motivated to join up because of these “atrocities” there are probably 100 more that decline because they don’t want to face the abuse.
If they knew how well we treat them in gitmo they would have a lot more volunteers.
Barring his self imposed hunger strike, he might well have arrived in better shape than when he was captured.
Now taking bets on how soon this guy blows himself up (along with a bunch of women and children).
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