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George Bush Is the Terrorist, Says Former Guantanamo Prisoner

Asif Iqbal, a young British man of Pakistani origin, former prisoner at Camp Delta in Guantanamo, speaks with Granma.

CUBA, January 9, 2007.- November 2001 will remain in the mind of Asif Iqbal as the beginning of the worst nightmare of his life. For two and a half years, he stopped being the young man who had left on a trip to Pakistan along with two friends, Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul, to visit their parents, because they were going to get married. Suddenly, all three were captured by the US occupying forces in Afghanist, labelled "enemy combatants" and transferred to Guantanamo as presumed terrorists.

"I was arrested in the middle of the street without any warrant whatsoever simply because I am a Muslim. I was sent to a prison in the province of Khandahar where there were 2,500 other prisoners. I was among some 40 prisoners who were latter picked up by the Americans because I spoke English," Asif Iqbal told Granma.

Asif Iqbal is in Cuba as part of an international anti-war delegation that on January 11 —the fifth anniversary of the first group of prisoners taken to Guantanamo— will demand the closure of the detention center at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo, located at the illegal base on Cuban territory

What happened in Guantanamo?

In January of 2002 I was transferred to Guantanamo. I stayed at Camp Delta that was called a different name at that time. I was treated like an animal. They tortured me savagely. I was confined under the most inhuman conditions that could be imagined.

How did you get released?

They never pressed charges against me.

What do you think about the occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and US policies in the name of the War on Terrorism?

The only thing I can tell you is that the United States spends all its time looking for terrorists where there are none. For them we are all terrorists, but the only terrorist that I know is called George Bush.

What does it mean to you to return to Guantanamo after what you have gone through?

I want to expose to the world that there are still many people who have not been released from this place, and are being held without any charges or sentences against them, nor rights to defend themselves. This has to be denounced. I spent two years and a half there and never met any of the terrorists Bush talks about. I know that the majority of the people being held there are innocent.

Is it a crime being Pakistani, Iraqi of Afghani….?

By Deisy Francis Mexidor

(Cubaminrex-Granma)

 

 

 

 

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