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"Innocent, guilty, black, white, Muslim, or Jew, no matter what you are – there is no excuse to treat people in the manner that I and other people did," Neely said. |
CAIRO — Brandon Neely still feels the burden of guilt and shame for the litany of abuses and cruel treatment he and fellow guards at the notorious Guantanamo camp gave to weak, helpless detainees.
"Innocent, guilty, black, white, Muslim, or Jew, no matter what you are – there is no excuse to treat people in the manner that I and other people did," Neely, who served in Guantanamo for six months, told The Independent on Wednesday, February 18.
"It’s wrong and just downright criminal, and it goes against everything the United States of America stands for."
In one of the first accounts by a former guard describing abuses at Guantanamo, Neely said the detainees were given the harshest treatments designed to afflict physical or psychological pain.
Beating, verbal abuse and humiliation began from the first day the detain set foot inside the notorious detention center.
"Upon arrival, detainees were screamed at throughout the whole process," he said.
"Detainees would be told that their country had been nuked and nothing was left, and that their families were dead. I know of some guards even telling detainees they could be executed at any time."
Neely also recalls special humiliation sessions coinciding with Muslims' prayer times.
"During call to prayer, many times soldiers would mock and laugh at the detainees.
"Many would also try to sing along to the call for prayer. Some would spray the detainees with water during prayer."
The US has been holding hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo, opened in 2002, for years, branding them unlawful enemy combatants to deny them legal rights.
The infamous detention center has been globally condemned as a stain on America's human rights record.
World's Most Dangerous
Neely, now a law enforcement officer in the Houston area, mocks the argument that Guantanamo holds the world's most vicious and dangerous terrorists.
"I can recall being told about the detainees that…we would be coming face-to-face with the worst people the world had to offer."
He remembers being told that many of the detainees helped in the planning of the 9/11 attacks.
"I was ready to go and face the world’s most dangerous men; these terrorists who had plotted and killed thousands of people in my country," Neely says.
"Then the day came when these 'world’s most dangerous men' arrived, and they were not what I expected to see."
Neely says the first batch of detainees to arrive at Guantanamo was no more than a punch of ailing, trembling people.
"Most of them were small, underweight, very scared, and injured. I was expecting these people to come off that bus looking like vicious monsters."
The false ideas Neely was feed about the detainees began to be exposed as he started to interact with the detainees.
"During these times is when I really started to look at the detainees as real people and not just monsters, as I had been told they were."
He spent plenty of times with David Hicks, the Australian Muslim convert who was captured in Afghanistan.
"Hicks did not come across as the cold-blooded killer that we were told all these guys were. He was a normal guy like me.
"He would sit there, crack a joke, and make small talk. Just like any other normal person would."
Neely also used to listen to music with British detainee Ruhal Ahmed who was nearly his age.
"The Ruhal Ahmed I saw and spoke with was just a normal, everyday young guy like I was."
Neely says his time in Guantanamo has taught him a lot about Muslims.
"I couldn’t believe how dedicated these people were to their religion; always reading the Qur'an, always praying.
"You don’t see that in America much any more." |
