Turk in Guantanamo pleads his case
KEHL AM RHEIN, Germany -- "On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. ... On another occasion, the A/C had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room probably well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night."
Welcome to the hell of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish national born and raised in the northern German city of Bremen, has been locked away without charges for the last four years.
The above account from an unnamed FBI official is included in a Jan. 31, 2005, verdict by Federal District Court Judge Joyce Hens Green, who concluded that the detention of Kurnaz -- classified an "enemy combatant" by a U.S. military tribunal -- was simply wrong. Green argued Kurnaz's imprisonment at Guantánamo was based on flimsy evidence and an unfair trial. The U.S. government appealed Green's decision.
The case is set to keep Washington, Berlin and Ankara on their feet, as Kurnaz's two lawyers are determined to do anything to free him or at least get him tried before a civilian court.