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Defense attorney denounces horrors at US Base

Havana, Nov 22/2005 (AIN) The systematic torture committed against prisoners at the US Naval Base on illegally occupied Cuban territory at Guantanamo was denounced by the US lawyer representing 12Kuwaiti prisoners.

I don't know if Bush really knows what happens with the Pentagon's detainees, stated Thomas B. Wilner. The president says there is no torture, but there is no doubt that the US is holding prisoners who suffer from uncontrolled abuses, he added.

"Everyone of my clients has been severely beaten, dogs have been used to terrify them and they have been forced to remain in torturously cramped positions," said the attorney. One client, Saad al-Azmi, has also suffered sexual harassment, assured the lawyer in an interview published by Juventud Rebelde newspaper.

Wilner said that some of his clients "confessed" being members of the Taliban army or the terrorist organization Al Qaeda to stop being tortured.

Bush must know that the detainees were taken to Guantanamo to evade the law, underscored the attorney, adding that even the FBI admits prisoners are being tortured.

Talking on behalf of the US lawyers representing the detainees at Guantanamo, Wilner pointed out that Bush could be sanctioned for having permitted the use of torture in violation of US and international law.

Wilner maintains that the way Bush has managed foreign and domestic affairs clearly shows his intellectual short-sightedness and his incapacity to deal with complex issues. The president simply cannot understand the historical significance of his decisions, he added.

 

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