MotherJones Blog: Murat Kurnaz Details His Plight Before House Subcommittee

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Murat Kurnaz Details His Plight Before House Subcommittee

Murat Kurnaz, a young Turkish citizen born and raised in Germany, traveled to Pakistan to learn more about Islam in October 2001, weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. In short order, arrested and held by US forces in Kandahar, and then shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bad timing was his only crime. (See here for MoJo's coverage of Kurnaz's plight, based on interviews with German intelligence officials and exclusive documents. See here for a timeline of Kurnaz's Kafkaesque odyssey.)

By 2002, according to documents obtained by his attorneys, both the US and German governments had determined conclusively that Kurnaz was neither a terrorist, nor a terrorist sympathizer or supporter, but American military officials nonetheless refused to release him and instead held him in solitary confinement for five years. For much of that time, he was unaware that anybody in his family knew where he was or if he was alive. And for the entire stretch he was subjected to torture.

In his account before the House Foreign Affairs' Oversight Subcommittee on Tuesday, Kurnaz detailed a technique visited upon him in Kandahar called "water treatment"—a perverse twist on a more widely known technique called waterboarding—wherein the victim's head is forced into a bucket of water while he's punched repeatedly in the stomach, causing him to inhale water.

Additionally, he said, he was subjected to religious and sexual humiliation, administered unknown drugs against his will, and electrocuted via wires attached to his feet.

In a bitter irony, Kurnaz's innocence became the rationale for his continued incarceration. He was told repeatedly that he'd be held forever unless he signed a statement admitting his role in a suicide bombing that was alleged to have happened in 2003. Kurnaz was, of course, in prison in 2003, and the suicide bombing he supposedly helped to orchestrate turned out to be a fiction.

"America's adherence to the rule of law... and American values [have been] ignored. The treatment of these detainees—both in Gitmo and elsewhere—has been appalling," said William Delahunt, the subcommittee chairman.

The two committee Republicans to attend the hearing were sympathetic to Kurnaz's plight, but ranking member Dana Rohrbacher remained incredulous that the treatment he faced was anything other than an aberration. "I don't believe it," Rohrbacher intoned, suggesting that torture is not part of the military's detainee treatment policy. To support his contention, Rohrbacher noted that none of the congressmen who have visited Guantanamo—Democrat or Republican—has returned with any evidence that torture is a systemic problem.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who sits on the House Judiciary committee scolded Rohrbacher, noting that American politicians are not allowed access to prisoners when they visit the installation, and have no other way of ascertaining how endemic the torture problem really is.

Rohrbacher's disbelief also flies in the face of scores of media and watchdog reports, which show that prisoner abuse has been a matter of policy at Guantanamo and other U.S.-operated facilities around the world for years. And on the same day as the hearing, the FBI's inspector general released a report praising the Bureau for not participating in the abusive interrogations conducted by other agencies—a direct insinuation that other agencies do indeed torture prisoners.

For his part, Kurnaz says stories like his are common among the prisoners who've been held at Guantanamo, 250 of whom remain in captivity. "Often people were released because their countries demanded it," he said. "Others remain because their countries do not."

Comments

This is so appalling. Why aren't more people outraged about this?

Posted by: Paul Miller on 05/21/08 at 8:18 AM Respond

because they're too damn busy watching American Idol.

It's pretty sickening what American has become

Posted by: Marty on 05/21/08 at 10:17 AM Respond

"Murat Kurnaz ... traveled to Pakistan ... weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks ... Bad timing was his only crime."

Are we being played for fools here, or what?

What about the bombing the authorities claimed he was party to..., though, in fact, he was already their prisoner...

The Keystone Cops were never this funny: "... Rohrbacher noted that none of the congressmen ... returned with any evidence ... Rep. Jerrold Nadler ... scolded Rohrbacher, noting that American politicians are not allowed access to prisoners ..."

HEY, I've got an idea! Let's play off the "feudal" sensabilities of the less developed nations and fool everyone into thinking that rampant imperialism isn't the issue, rather it should be classified and filed as vengeance with a smile...

Posted by: Michael L. Wagner on 05/21/08 at 10:28 AM Respond

I am outraged, and I am not even an American citizen (irony intended), but someone who lived ten years in the USA, and used to admire its freedoms. Oh God, what have you come to?

Posted by: John on 05/21/08 at 10:35 AM Respond

Our rapid slide into tyranny will continue, so long as, our public is brain-washed by the corporate-owned media and as long as the neocons remain in charge of setting our political agenda.

Significant portion of our people either don’t care or are incapable of fathoming the basic principals of our constitution. They were made to believe that Rambo-Style justice is supreme to individual’s protection guaranteed by the constitution. The excessive patriotism –at all cost- infused to our psyche by calculating politicians is derailing our long-held believe in the rule of law. How should we feel if our own innocent citizens are arbitrary arrested abroad and subjected to the same inhuman treatment which we are subjecting others to at Gitmo and Abu Graib?

Holding politicians accountable for constitutional violations is the basic yard stick to measure a functioning democracy. The oil junta of Bush-Cheney have left long trail of documented constitutional violations; torture is one of them. Nancy Pelosi first act as Speaker of the house was to remove impeachment off the table. The corporate masters of Bush, Cheney and Pelosi must be proud indeed; their servants have succeeded in trashing our democracy. Our founding fathers must be turning in their graves.

Posted by: Zack on 05/21/08 at 10:56 AM Respond

What's sort of funny (?) is how the very people causing all the trouble are the ones most stuffy...

I think this has a lot to do with being a seeker of truth versus living a boring life...

Here in CA there was a commercial where first you see this bored kid nonsensically playing with his cat; then there's happy, chattering kids going by outside...

It doesn't take a genius to understand that idle hands are the devil's workshop...

Maybe Barbara Bush and Co. need to understand that their over-protective parenting has much to be desired...

They need to lighten their steps and stop worshiping money (and hero-worshiping the dirty-dealing rapist PIGS who are so good at keeping the lower-classes hard at work!!!).

Posted by: Michael L. Wagner on 05/21/08 at 12:15 PM Respond

I feel I didn't actually make my point; what I was trying to say is: Aren't the people who take themselves too damn seriously the ones who are the most vacant-headed and mean spirited?

Posted by: Michael L.Wagner on 05/21/08 at 12:25 PM Respond

we the people deserve what ever those creeps in power do to us were just a herd of sheep,we believe everythink they throw at us,most of us have no b-lls,to vote these creeps out.

Posted by: joe on 05/23/08 at 7:11 AM Respond

I'm of the impression that if people knew about this stuff, they would have the balls to vote these jerks out of office but cnn and our good friends over at fox news don't report this kind of stuff. nobody knows so nobody can do anything about it.

Posted by: rmd on 06/03/08 at 6:14 AM Respond

This guy is guilty as sin. He was a collaborator with the Islamic Finatics and was preparing to kill Americans anywhere he could find them.

Posted by: Jake on 06/03/08 at 1:16 PM Respond

It is surprising that Congress is forbidden access to prisoners there. They represent us - or at least they use to... The election is coming up. We need people that will do something to stop the torture, the secrecy, the violation of civil rights in Congress.

Posted by: Eva on 06/08/08 at 11:17 AM Respond