Lakhdar Boumediene was held for 7.5 years in Guatanamo without being convicted of a crime. He was finally released by a federal judge. ABC’s Jake Tapper interviewed Boumediene and he talks about what happened to him.
Boumediene said he endured harsh treatment for more than seven years. He said he was kept awake for 16 days straight, and physically abused repeatedly.
Asked if he thought he was tortured, Boumediene was unequivocal.
“I don’t think. I’m sure,” he said.
Boumediene described being pulled up from under his arms while sitting in a chair with his legs shackled, stretching him. He said that he was forced to run with the camp’s guards and if he could not keep up, he was dragged, bloody and bruised.
He described what he called the “games” the guards would play after he began a hunger strike, putting his food IV up his nose and poking the hypodermic needle in the wrong part of his arm.
“You think that’s not torture? What’s this? What can you call this? Torture or what?” he said, indicating the scars he bears from tight shackles. “I’m an animal? I’m not a human?”
For review, here’s the Boumediene case in a nutshell:
In early October 2001, less than a month after al Qaeda’s attack on September 11, 2001, American intelligence analysts in the Embassy became concerned that an increase in chatter was a clue that al Qaeda was planning an attack on their embassy. At their request Bosnia arrested Bensayah Belkacem, the man they believed had made dozens of phone calls to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and five acquaintances of his. All six men were residents of Bosnia, who were born in Algeria. Five of the men were Bosnian citizens.
In January 2002, the Supreme Court of Bosnia ruled that there was no evidence to hold the six men, ordered the charges dropped and the men released. American forces, including troops who were part of a 3,000 man American peace-keeping contingent in Bosnia were waiting for the six men upon their release from Bosnia custody, and transported them to Guantanamo.
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On 20 November 2008 US District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled that the USA had no credible evidence to justify the detention of Boumediene and four of the five other men. According to the Washington Post Leon took the extraordinary step of encouraging the Department of Justice to not appeal his ruling, because seven years was enough. Because the Government claimed the evidence should be considered classified Leon considered the evidence in camera. But it was revealed that evidence the five men had planned to travel to Afghanistan was based on a single un-named source.
All but two of the men have been released from Guantanamo. Seven years is a heckuva a long time to be held on no evidence.
Boumediene is best known as the lead plaintiff in Boumediene v. Bush, which eventually led to a decision by the Supreme Court that detainees had the right of habeus corpus.