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Interesting piece on 14yr old in Guantanamo
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| NYCTrancefan |
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=155842004
"AN AFGHAN boy held for nearly a year at Guantánamo Bay on suspicion of being a Taleban sympathiser yesterday accused the United States military of stealing 14 months of his childhood.
Mohammed Ismail Agha, 15, was one of the youngest prisoners at the US detention centre in Cuba until he was freed with two other teenagers at the end of January. Military officials said the boys had provided viable intelligence but had no further value in that respect and were no longer a threat.
Agha was seized about a year after the Taleban was ousted by a US-led coalition. Speaking publicly for the first time since his release, he said American forces interrogated him at the Bagram air base, in Afghanistan, about whether he was a Taleban supporter. But once he reached Cuba, he said, few questions were asked.
"At first I was unhappy with the US forces. They stole 14 months of my life," said Agha, sitting in a relative’s general store at the bazaar in Naw Zad, a market town some 300 miles south-west of Kabul.
"But they gave me a good time in Cuba. They were very nice to me, giving me English lessons."
He said his family feared he was dead or had travelled to Pakistan or Iran to find work. It was not until ten months into his detention that family members received a letter from him through the International Red Cross saying he was still alive.
Agha denied having anything to do with the ousted Islamic militia."I’m not Taleban, it’s not true. I’m innocent," he said.
Agha said his ordeal began when he and a friend left their farming community for Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, in late 2002. Since the Taleban was ousted in 2001, militants have maintained a stubborn insurgency in southern provinces, including Helmand.
The boys were standing outside a shop in a town along the way when they were detained by Afghan militiamen.
"They said, ‘Come and join us’, but we told them we are poor people, jobless, and we don’t want to join the militia, we want to earn money," Agha said. "Then they said, ‘You are Taleban’."
Agha said he was then handed over to US soldiers, who first took him to the southern city of Kandahar and then to Bagram, where he was held in solitary confinement. He lost track of his friend, Mohammed Wali, in Kandahar, and has not seen him since.
"They were interrogating me every day and in the first three or four days giving just a little food, and giving punishment," he said. He added that he was not beaten, but was made to sit on his haunches for three or four hours at a time.
"They were asking me if I was Taleban. I said, ‘No, I’m innocent’. I thought they would release me, but instead they sent me to Cuba."
Agha said he was hooded and had no idea where he was going until he got off a plane on the other side of the world in February 2003.
"For two or three days, I was confused, but later the Americans were so nice with me, they were giving me good food with fruit, and water for ablutions before prayer."
Besides teaching him to read and write English, he said, the military provided books in his native Pashto language and a Koran. He was housed with two other Afghans he identified as Naqibullah, 15, and Hasadullah, 13, who also were released on 29 January and brought home last week.
The Pentagon has insisted age plays no role in deciding who is held as an "enemy combatant", and officials have said other children are being held at Guantánamo."
----- Okay maybe not everyone is treated in this manner and you could say that he didn't belong there but just makes you wonder about the constant chirping of the "Human Rights Groups" With that said I hope this mess is over soon so I don't have to hear about how its a concentration camp, etc, etc. |
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| rizen |
| While schools are getting closed down, we can afford to hold and teach someone not of this country for 14 months? Being the military and all, that must of costed millions, probably a $5000 koran and $100 pencils :( |
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| NYCTrancefan |
| quote: | Originally posted by rizen
While schools are getting closed down, we can afford to hold and teach someone not of this country for 14 months? Being the military and all, that must of costed millions, probably a $5000 koran and $100 pencils :( |
More compassionate conservatism(Oxymoron indeed) at work:rolleyes: |
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