The Associated Press reports, with a straight face, charges by a British Muslim, captured in Afghanistan, that he was abused at Guantanamo Bay:
A Briton released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay told Europe’s top human rights body Friday he was beaten, shackled, kept in a cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of “systematic abuse” in American custody.
Jamal al-Harith’s testimony before a Council of Europe panel came as part of an inquiry by the body into human rights abuses at the U.S. detention facility to be made public in a report due out early next year.
At one point, al-Harith said he refused to take an unidentified injection and was chained up and attacked by five men wearing helmets, body armor and shields.
“They jumped on my legs and back and they kicked and punched me,” said the 37-year-old Web site designer and father of three from Manchester, England. “Then I was put in isolation for a month.”
Al-Harith said he was kept mostly in a wire cage and given food marked “10 to 12 years beyond their usable date” as well as “black and rotten” fruit. Sometimes, unmuzzled dogs were brought to the cage and encouraged to bark, he said.
If you read far enough, you find this:
the Pentagon denied the abuse allegations and said the men were properly held in Guantanamo after being captured in Afghanistan and having fought for al-Qaida.
Here, though, is the key information:
He and three other Britons were released in March and have filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court seeking $10 million each in damages.
It is not unusual for people to lie for money. In my business, I see this quite often. It’s interesting, though: the liberal media had no problem assuming, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, that 250 Swift Boat Vets were lying about John Kerry even though they had no apparent motive to do so. The word of al Qaeda terrorists captured in combat with American troops, on the other hand, is taken at face value even though the terrorists’ pecuniary motive is obvious.
This is, of course, not surprising to anyone who has been paying attention.
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