Former Gitmo Prisoner Moazzem Begg: Guantanamo Was Even Worse Than I Realized

I have always believed that the secret detention sites -- where prisoners were waterboarded -- and military prisons, such as Bagram, were far worse than Guantánamo. Now I'm not so sure. They once called it "asymmetrical warfare" and a "good PR move" but the U.S. administration may soon have to call the alleged suicides of prisoners in Guantánamo something they were trying to hide all along: murder.

The latest revelations in the U.S. magazine Harper's suggests a major cover-up occurred after the 2006 deaths of three Guantánamo prisoners: Manei al-Otaibi and Yasser al-Zahrani from Saudi Arabia and Ali al-Salami from Yemen. Four Camp Delta Military Intelligence guards, including a decorated sergeant, have furnished an account dramatically at odds with the official U.S. version of what happened on the night of the deaths. I remember at the time how none of the former prisoners believed the official U.S. version and, after I spoke to the families of the deceased, they too remained convinced that their loved ones had either been killed accidentally or -- more likely -- murdered.

Last week Johina Aamer delivered a letter to Gordon Brown, asking him to press the U.S. government for the release of her father, Shaker Aamer, who has been held in Guantánamo for more than eight years without charge.

Shaker is regarded as one of the most influential prisoners in Guantánamo because of his vociferous and passionate advocacy for prisoners' rights. As a result of this he has spent many years in isolation, on hunger strike and been forcibly fed liquid food through tubes in his nostrils. At the time of the deaths Shaker told his U.S. attorney, Zachary Katznelson, that he was "strapped to a chair and fully restrained at the head, arms and legs," and that they "cut off his airway, then put a mask on him so he could not cry out." This is similar to what the Harper's article claims happened to the three men before they died. Shaker has also alleged that his head was repeatedly slammed against a wall in Bagram in the presence of at least one British intelligence officer.

Obama's 22 January 2010 deadline to close the prison camp at Guantánamo has not been met. Few of the scores of former prisoners I've spoken to over the last year ever believed it would. The recent problems in Yemen and claims of "recidivism" by some of the former prisoners has become the latest excuse in not releasing the men -- not even the hundred or so who have been "cleared" for release. Shaker Aamer was cleared for release over two years ago.