Lawyers in Boston representing six detainees being held at Guantanamo
Bay filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. government. The
suit alleges widespread abuse and torture at the prison. All six
detainees are Algerian nationals who were picked up in Bosnia and then
taken to Guantanamo.
One of the Algerian men alleges that U.S. military guards jumped on his
head until he had a stroke that paralyzed his face. He also charged that
the guards nearly drowned him in a toilet, broke several of his fingers
and sprayed tear gas at him.
The man -- Mustafa Ait Idir -- was accused of plotting with five others
to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in November 2001. All were
acquitted by Bosnia's highest court in January 2002, but U.S. agents
arrested them anyway as they left the courthouse. They were eventually
taken to Guantanamo Bay. At the time the U.S. was criticized for seizing
the men after they were acquitted.
The United Nations' top human rights official in Bosnia said the arrest
of the men undermined the respect for the rule of law, due process, and
human rights. Madeleine Rees said "The United States is behaving like a
rogue state."
At the time U.S. officials vowed the six detainees would be "treated
humanely and according to international law." The lawsuit filed
Wednesday is the first effort to use the Freedom of Information Act to
compel the Bush administration to disclose medical records and video
recorded at Guantanamo.
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