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Testimony to Witness to Guantanamo (Rhuhel Ahmed)

They kind of marched us out to the runway, put us on the plane. You know I could hear it was a plane; the engines were running. Put us on the plane, sat down, and they took the robes off so we sat down individually. I was sitting against the wall of the plane, and I could feel that the other detainees were, that they sitting in a line. And I could kind of make out, because the goggles were obviously on, I could see under here [motions to area under eyes] through my nose, so, you know, if I done that kind of thing [puts head down and moves back and forth] I could see the people around me. I could see the soldiers’ feet, so I knew that we was all sitting against the wall of the plane.

They tied us down, they padlocked my chain to the floor, so that I couldn’t lift my knees up. And, I was, I think I was strapped around my chest to hold me down to the wall of the plane, so I couldn’t come forward.

Then basically we set off, flew off, and obviously on a journey. They offered us peanut butter sandwich which I could smell, which was…my mouth was watering but I obviously couldn’t eat it. I had a mask as well, they gave me a mask, because just in case they thought people had got TB, so it doesn’t spread. Even though I never had TB, but they used it as a precaution they took.

Someone swore the detainees did have, you know, TB, but it was just a precaution. And my, obviously I could see through the bridge of my nose, I could see straight down. And there they came to my ear, this woman came to my ear and she lifted my earmuffs, and she said to me, “I’m going to place a peanut butter sandwich in your hand, so eat it.” So, obviously, I’m tied down by my chest, my hands are tied here [in front of him at his waist] which I can’t lift, I can’t even go forward. In between my gloves she puts this peanut butter sandwich, and my mouths watering…[laughs], because obviously I’m starving! You know, the smell of the peanut butter sandwich is like “pffft” and when you haven’t had food for, decent food…even though it’s only a peanut butter sandwich, it’s nothing delicious or exotic.

So I'm there, I’m looking down, and I’m thinking, "How am I supposed to eat that?" And I’m there for maybe a half an hour, trying to eat that, I’m trying everything. Coming forward, trying to lift my arms up, and I’m thinking, "Damn! Things you have to do to eat food". So I’m there, and basically she came to my ear again and she lifted my muffs off and she goes, “Don’t you want to eat it?” And I said “Well, how am I supposed to eat it?” She goes, “What do you mean? Your hands in your mouth!” And I thought there’s no point explaining. So she took the sandwich, threw it in the bin, cause everybody had the sandwiches, and I think they threw everybody’s in the bin, because nobody could eat it.

Then they came, they put an apple. And I thought how ridiculous, and how like…you guys must be thick, or stupid or something like that. I just thought, "Damn!. I missing out on my apple, I missed out on my peanut butter and now I’m missing out…" So then they took the apple, threw that away obviously, and they gave a glass of water. And I thought, you know, "Are you having a laugh? Is that supposed to be funny?" And you know, they, I could hear sometimes, cause the earmuffs obviously if you go with your shoulder, they would move out. So I could hear things, and they were saying, “Oh they ain’t eating. No one’s eating!” And I thought, "You stupid idiots."

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