tomorrow marks 15 years since the
opening of the Guantanamo Bay prison for
all its notoriety little is known about
the 779 detainees who were held there
during that time for the 715 who've been
released and resettled elsewhere as
President Obama prepares to leave office
having failed on his pledge to shut the
facility down hint Hasan spoke with
three former Guantanamo prisoners now
living freely in the United Kingdom my
name is Roy al Ahmed from Tipton West
Midlands I was in quantum obey from 2001
to 2004 falsely imprisoned for terrorism
my name is Muslim peg I'm from the city
of Birmingham I was held by the
Americans in Guantanamo Bay between 2002
and 2005 without charge or trial
my name is Sylvia Russell
I am from Tipton in the West Midlands I
was imprisoned and tortured in go and
tell my BAE from 2001 until 2004 under
false accusations of terrorism do you
think you'll ever be able to relieve
Guantanamo in the past I think is gonna
be part of our life it's it's it's made
us what we are today
these are strippers all naked right in
the beginning of this slice all our
clothes off and spat at us and punched
us and you know degraded as in ways it's
really hot to even now hard to describe
and that's what they wanted to do they
wanted to remove our sense of
individualism a room of our sense of
humanity and give us each a number and
we'll remember our numbers to this day
you know we use them for all sorts of
things zero eight six I even came out I
made my email why my us yeah yeah us 9u
k 1 1 DP murder competition last mates
on a day-to-day basis do you would see
more humanity than not it wasn't torch
every torch every day for three years
you know it wasn't that's not the case
you know you know the first time I ever
had a subway in my life you know I've
never admitted this anywhere was in
Guantanamo
so dizzy for Mia a crab meat sandwich
crab meat sub thought was gone tanum
obey food like yeah green eggs breakfast
disgusting eggs
I liked it and then eggs they would say
to us that this is this food has been
culturally prepared I said okay I'm
going to lose culture are you talking
about and sometimes they would say you
know you should be thankful where you
guys come from people don't even get 3
square meals a day
you think either but came from Pakistan
yeah I can assure you people eat quite
healthfully and stick load in you
remember like the moments of humanity
rather than you spoke about that more
than you spoken about the torture that
you've experienced though it's really
left to an impact on you guys so I mean
I mean there was time that we had a
laugh between ourselves and there was
times there you would see detainees get
beat up and dragged around and they had
flushed in the toilet it's much of the
sink
that's how prison was and we ain't just
had to live with it some detainees were
mentally and physically strong enough to
just overcome and just move on with life
take every day this comes some detainees
weren't a lot of them tried to commit
suicide there was a few guys in front of
us who tried to commit suicide he's not
the best fight to say I mean and I was
only 18 then and it's the first time I
see someone so they killed us off and
then he happened a few other time with
other detainees you know one detainee he
jumped off his bunk tried to bang his
head onto the sink because things were
made of metal I had a panic attack once
in myself so they sent a psychiatrist
and she sits opposite myself and says to
me 5 5 8 which was my number have you
ever considered or movie your trousers
and threading them with your sheet and
then using that to tie a noose around
your neck and then tying it into the
corner of the cell and jumping off have
you ever considered that I said no not
until you put the thought in my mind so
even though it's been so long after
you've left Montana know you've written
books you've given speeches you've taken
part in protests there's still some
parts of society that doubt your story
not really care how did you feel about
that we don't care at all when do you
think you used to get to me in the
beginning walking the streets and get
being called a terrorist and you used to
really get to me but now I don't care no
more they can say what they want
I'm carry on living my life let people
say what they want it's made me a lot
stronger everything that I've gone
through a lot stronger than I used to be
so the stigma doesn't go away and you
still being punished now I still be
punished I have walked into people's
houses and they've had newspapers
without photos on there and I've just
panicked
what happened was I called the guy at
the room and I closed the newspaper and
put it aside because I got really scared
if he finds out who I am what's he gonna
do I do get recognized on the streets
especially in London a lot what do they
say they do is she I say it's not me I
always say about it's not me there's
been a lot people have been talking
about Obama's legacy and what's gonna
come after Obama you just you just left
without me even saying anything no I
think he was thinking about the homeless
you're thinking a trump what were you
thinking one of the promises that Obama
made you never fulfilled if he did not
fulfill them well what's the future
gonna hold for the rest of us there when
the world's most powerful man comes
along and says that I will carry out a
crime because torture is a crime Paulson
imprisonment is a crime and the rest of
the world won't even bat an eyelid it's
setting a prayer it's saying it's s
essentially saying to the rest of world
well if he said that he can do that well
what's to stop us from doing what we
want the world's gonna become
more unstable as a result
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