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Afghan jail conditions hamper Gitmo prosecutions
U.S. military prosecutors allege that Ahmed al-Darbi has met with Osama bin Laden, trained at an al-Qaida terrorist camp, and plotted to blow up a ship in the Strait of Hormuz or off Yemen.
But the government may never be able to bring those allegations to court because of the torture the prisoner says he suffered in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. Al-Darbi says American troops subjected him to beatings, excruciating shackling, painfully loud music, isolation and threats of rape, according to a new affidavit obtained by The Associated Press. If al-Darbi's statements to interrogators were indeed obtained under such circumstances, they will likely be thrown out.
"I was frightened and there were times I wished I would die," the 33-year-old prisoner from Saudi Arabia said in the statement taken in July at Guantanamo, which was provided to the AP by his lawyer. "I felt that anything could happen to me and that everything was out of control."