Posted by
InchDeep on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 12:05:29 PM
Title should read "Released Jazeera journo spill the beans Lie Through His Teeth." Ask John McCain what a real prison camp is like. Worst prison mankind has ever seen my A$$.
By Mohamed Osman
Khartoum, Sudan - A Sudanese Al-Jazeera cameraman released from the
US-run Guantanamo Bay detention centre described it on Monday as the
worst prison mankind has ever seen, in some of his first public
comments since his return to Khartoum.
Sami al-Haj was whisked from his hospital bed by a convoy escorted by
police cars with flashing lights and wailing sirens to an outdoor event
in his neighbourhood organised by his family. His speech was broadcast
live on Sudanese television.
"After 2 340 days spent in most heinous prison mankind has ever known,
we are honoured to be here, thank you and thank all those defended us
and of our right in freedom," he told the cheering crowd.
Al-Haj was the only journalist from a major international news
organisation held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his
detention as punishment for a network whose broadcasts angered US
officials.
The military alleged he was a courier for a militant Muslim organisation, an allegation his lawyers denied.
Al-Haj said he believed he was arrested because of US hostility toward
Al-Jazeera and because the media was reporting on US rights violations
in Afghanistan.
"I was subjected to 130 (interrogation) sessions, more than 35 about
the Al-Jazeera and they wanted me to be a spy against Al-Jazeera," he
said, adding that being a faithful Muslim he had turned down the offer.
He thanked the Sudanese people and their reception which he said has
made him "forget the long bitter years that we spending humiliation,
injustice and subjugation and oppression. Al-Haj arrived back in
Khartoum early on Friday aboard a US military plane.
Earlier on Monday, al-Haj received visitors in his hospital room,
including dozens of senior officials wishing him a speedy recovery.
Though able to walk a short distance at the event honouring him, al-Haj
is still weak after a 16-month hunger strike prior to his release.
His attorney Zachary Katznelson, who met al-Haj at Guantanamo on April
11, said he was "emaciated" because of his hunger strike and had
recently been having problems with his liver and kidneys and had blood
in his urine.
Al-Haj was never prosecuted at Guantanamo so the US did not make public its full allegations against him.
But in a hearing that determined that he was an enemy combatant, US
officials alleged that in the 1990s, al-Haj was an executive assistant
at a Qatar-based beverage company that provided support to Muslim
fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya.
Two other Sudanese Guantanamo detainees were released together with al-Haj. - Sapa-AP