First time Guantánamo guard and prisoner talk before an American audience

Teach Peace Foundation Newsletter
May 7, 2010

Teach Peace applauds the UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights and Amy Goodman for their work to facilitate conversations between Omar Deghayes, an innocent man tortured in Guantánamo for over 5 years, and Guantánamo guard Terry Holdbrooks.

This historic event on April 30th, attended by 423 people, took place at 123 Sciences Lecture Hall on the UC Davis campus.

Mr. Deghayes' torture was difficult to listen to and remain in a peaceful state of mind. The torture he reported was confirmed by US Army guard Terry Holdbrooks and included, in addition to sexual abuse, having Mr. Deghayes' eyes poked by U.S. interrogators making him blind in his right eye. Both men reported that each prisoner has a personally developed torture plan. The Pentagon keeps the torture "fresh" and the "only a few bad apples" false defense by replacing the guards every 7 months.

The bigger takeaway for all of us is many Americans have been fooled to believe Guantánamo is closed. One could argue Obama's biggest disaster is not his decision to expand Bush era wars killing over 700 citizens in Pakistan alone, his initiative to expand offshore drilling that within a week resulted in the ongoing British Petroleum Gulf of Mexico disaster, his 1983 work with the CIA front company Business International Corporation, or his support for the greatest taxpayer theft in US history. From the perspective of the innocent people literally sold to the CIA and tortured at Guantánamo, including Mr. Deghayes, Obama's failure to honor his promise to both close Guantánamo and stop prisoner torture is a life-wrecking disaster.

The fact is prisoners are still being tortured at Guantánamo, some for as long as 9 years. As innocent people such as Mr. Deghayes are released we obtain more insights on why a new 9/11 investigation is needed. Fortunately, millions of Americans are now realizing they have been tricked and we especially thank the thousands of architects and engineers who have helped people understand the truth (see Richard Gage's recent television interview at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=249_1271625202).