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British Guantanamo Bay prisoner `losing his sanity'
THE OBSERVER ^ | Monday, Jan 08, 2007

Posted on 01/08/2007 1:20:46 PM PST by presidio9

Bisher al-Rawi, a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay for four years, is rapidly losing his sanity, according to three lawyers who have visited him during the past month.

Al-Rawi, 35, who was arrested by the CIA and local security forces during a business trip to Gambia in 2002, is showing clear signs of secure housing unit psychosis, a clinical condition that afflicts high-security prisoners, said Clive Stafford Smith, one of the lawyers.

"I have had several clients on American death rows who have developed it and it's clear to me that he is sliding down that path," Smith said.

"The conditions in which he is being held are worse than any death row I've ever seen," he said.

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at Guantanamo, which still has 385 prisoners, despite recent releases. Those who remain were deprived of virtually all legal rights by the US Congress in last year's Military Commissions Act.

Al-Rawi is an Iraqi who fled late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's dictatorship as a child and settled in Britain. Alone of his family, he retained citizenship of Iraq in the hope that one day he would be able to claim the family's abandoned property. He was arrested with his brothers -- one of whom is also in Guantanamo -- and two other men during a trip to set up a peanut processing business. He has never been charged.

Brent Mickum, a US lawyer who also represents him, said al-Rawi was "slowly but surely slipping into madness. Bisher's treatment is designed to achieve a single objective -- to make him lose his mind," he said.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: crymeariver; smallestviolin; terroristsrights
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1 posted on 01/08/2007 1:20:48 PM PST by presidio9
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To: presidio9

Cry me a river Mommand


2 posted on 01/08/2007 1:22:35 PM PST by SevenofNine ("Step aside Jefe"=Det Lennie Briscoe)
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To: presidio9
Al-Rawi, 35, who was arrested by the CIA and local security forces during a business trip to Gambia in 2002, is showing clear signs of secure housing unit psychosis, a clinical condition that afflicts high-security prisoners, said Clive Stafford Smith, one of the lawyers.

I think that would be an overall improvement over his being a psychotic Jihadist murderer.

3 posted on 01/08/2007 1:23:32 PM PST by dirtboy (Objects in tagline are closer than they appear)
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To: presidio9

I suggest we release the prisoner into Smith's caring custody. Let Smith take responsibility for the prisoner's actions.


4 posted on 01/08/2007 1:23:48 PM PST by Rapscallion (The democrats are making the same mistakes again. It is their nature.)
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To: presidio9

actually, is the path clear now to using military tribunals down there? they had better get moving, if a Dem wins the presidency in 2008, they will release these prisoners en masse.


5 posted on 01/08/2007 1:23:53 PM PST by oceanview
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To: presidio9

6 posted on 01/08/2007 1:24:02 PM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: presidio9
file this under "Too Effin' Bad"
7 posted on 01/08/2007 1:24:08 PM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: presidio9
Poor Muzzie...send in the therapists! sarc/
8 posted on 01/08/2007 1:25:34 PM PST by alice_in_bubbaland (New Jersey gets the corrupt government it deserves!)
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To: presidio9

What, he's losing HIS sanity. He should have to listen to Nazi Pelosi for 5 minutes! I'm losing my sanity I tell ya!!! Send me to Gitmo so I don't have to listen to that idiot for the next 2 years.


9 posted on 01/08/2007 1:26:06 PM PST by mc5cents (Show me just what Mohammd brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman)
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To: presidio9

Gee,
how have thousands of Americans "detained" in prisoner of war camps managed to survive sane. What are they doing at Gitmo that was not done in spades in the Philippines or Germany.

Maybe "Bisher's treatment" can be trademarked.

What a propaganda article from the Observer!


10 posted on 01/08/2007 1:28:46 PM PST by maica (America will be a hyperpower that's all hype and no power -- if we do not prevail in Iraq)
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To: presidio9

And I should feel sorry for this person because?


11 posted on 01/08/2007 1:29:23 PM PST by Shadowstrike (Be polite, Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
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To: presidio9

all killers are nuts


12 posted on 01/08/2007 1:30:09 PM PST by Republicus2001
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To: presidio9

Hmmm...I thought Allah was supposed to sustain you and give you strength during hardship? Isn't doing a very good job, is he?


13 posted on 01/08/2007 1:30:37 PM PST by The Blitherer (I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself. -Reagan)
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To: mc5cents

I feel your pain. Did you happen to see the beginning of Saturday Night Live Jan. 6th. ? Now that was scary.


14 posted on 01/08/2007 1:30:56 PM PST by Shadowstrike (Be polite, Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
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To: presidio9

He had already lost his soul to Islam (AKA Satan death cult)


15 posted on 01/08/2007 1:33:15 PM PST by clamper1797 (Kerry does support the troops ... just not ours)
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To: Shadowstrike
Did you happen to see the beginning of Saturday Night Live Jan. 6th. ? Now that was scary.

But hysterical. As soon as it began I was expecting W-Bashing. Glad to see that they can make fun of themselves. Of course, when they make fun of themselves it's never mean spirited. I can't remember a republican president that they didn't portray as an idiot.

16 posted on 01/08/2007 1:33:18 PM PST by presidio9 (Big hitter, the Lama...)
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To: presidio9
Gee, this article makes it sound like we're arresting peanut vendors in Iraq. Where's the 'rest of the story' on this guy?

Was he accidentally caught trying to sell peanuts to al-Zarqawi?

Or did he come back to join the 'Jihad'?

I do not believe that we'd have arrested him without some strong evidence he was involved...

17 posted on 01/08/2007 1:33:43 PM PST by Al Simmons (When you are going through hell, keep going! - Winston S. Churchill)
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To: SevenofNine

We could save him easily. Shoot him.


18 posted on 01/08/2007 1:33:51 PM PST by Rick.Donaldson (http://realitycheck.blogsome.com)
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten

Dammit! You beat me to it.


19 posted on 01/08/2007 1:35:40 PM PST by drew
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To: presidio9
Al-Rawi is an Iraqi who fled late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's dictatorship as a child and settled in Britain. Alone of his family, he retained citizenship of Iraq in the hope that one day he would be able to claim the family's abandoned property. He was arrested with his brothers -- one of whom is also in Guantanamo -- and two other men during a trip to set up a peanut processing business. He has never been charged.

Two things...

1. This is subtle...did anyone ever refer to Mussolini or Hitler as the late Benito Mussolini or the late Adolph Hitler after the died?

2. Did the peanuts resemble IEDs?

20 posted on 01/08/2007 1:36:39 PM PST by frogjerk (REUTERS: We give smoke and mirrors a bad name)
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