Sunday, March 11, 2007
Episode at Guantanamo Leaves Family at a Loss - Washington Post
Mishal al-Harbi's brain was deprived of oxygen for several minutes on the evening of Jan. 16, 2003, while he was in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As a result, he cannot stand, his speech is slurred, and he has a twitch that periodically causes his head to shake and his legs to jerk.
U.S. authorities say Mishal's brain was damaged when he tried to hang himself at Guantanamo. But his brother Fahd says a beating by prison guards cut off the flow of oxygen, leaving Mishal unable to walk or talk properly. Fahd said his brother needs intensive physical therapy and costly medicine to control his seizures and hallucinations -- side effects of the injury -- and he wants the U.S. government to help pay for them.
...
Because he also has memory lapses, Mishal said, he is not sure how he was injured. But former detainees -- about 400 men have been released from the facility, and nearly 400 remain -- have reported regular beatings, and Fahd said he believes his brother was attacked by guards.
Mishal's devotion to Islam would have prevented him from attempting suicide, Fahd said. "With the strength of his faith, which took him all the way to Afghanistan, it's impossible that he tried to kill himself. He knows that you spend eternity in hell if you do that."
Fahd, 32, has watched over his younger brother since their father died when they were children. Perhaps if he had been more vigilant, he said, Mishal might not have ended up in Afghanistan in 2001. But as a government employee supporting their mother, two younger brothers and a sister with Down syndrome, Fahd was consumed with work and out of town for months at a time.
Mishal dropped out of school when he was 14 and began working odd jobs to help support the family. When he had saved enough money, he bought a used truck and picked up passengers at the airport, his mother said.
In his free time, Mishal played soccer, listened to pop music and sneaked cigarettes, Fahd said.
Then, suddenly, Mishal stopped smoking, a habit that ultra-devout Muslims consider a sin, and replaced his music cassettes with taped Koranic verses and sayings of the prophet Muhammad, Fahd said. About a year later, around June 2001, he disappeared from the family home in Medina, Saudi Arabia. He called a month later, saying he was in Afghanistan and asking for forgiveness from his mother and brother for traveling without telling them.
...
Mishal was unconscious for three months and spent an additional eight months hospitalized at Guantanamo. He was released into Saudi custody in July 2005, Fahd said, and sent home nine months later.
Sitting cross-legged on the carpet in the family guest room, his frayed black leather wheelchair to his left, Mishal said he remembers that after the desecration of the Koran, a guard entered his cell. "He was carrying a shield. He pushed me with it. I don't remember anything else," he said, speaking with a heavy tongue.
His head jerking back and forth several times, Mishal said he had gone to Afghanistan "for jihad, for the sake of God."
Fahd said the time his brother spent at Guantanamo may have irrevocably damaged his future.
"All the men who were released from Guantanamo, they are now leading a normal life," he said. "But Mishal can't walk, get himself a glass of water or go to the bathroom by himself. I just want him to go back the way he was before Guantanamo." ...
Mishal al-Harbi's brain was deprived of oxygen for several minutes on the evening of Jan. 16, 2003, while he was in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As a result, he cannot stand, his speech is slurred, and he has a twitch that periodically causes his head to shake and his legs to jerk.
U.S. authorities say Mishal's brain was damaged when he tried to hang himself at Guantanamo. But his brother Fahd says a beating by prison guards cut off the flow of oxygen, leaving Mishal unable to walk or talk properly. Fahd said his brother needs intensive physical therapy and costly medicine to control his seizures and hallucinations -- side effects of the injury -- and he wants the U.S. government to help pay for them.
...
Because he also has memory lapses, Mishal said, he is not sure how he was injured. But former detainees -- about 400 men have been released from the facility, and nearly 400 remain -- have reported regular beatings, and Fahd said he believes his brother was attacked by guards.
Mishal's devotion to Islam would have prevented him from attempting suicide, Fahd said. "With the strength of his faith, which took him all the way to Afghanistan, it's impossible that he tried to kill himself. He knows that you spend eternity in hell if you do that."
Fahd, 32, has watched over his younger brother since their father died when they were children. Perhaps if he had been more vigilant, he said, Mishal might not have ended up in Afghanistan in 2001. But as a government employee supporting their mother, two younger brothers and a sister with Down syndrome, Fahd was consumed with work and out of town for months at a time.
Mishal dropped out of school when he was 14 and began working odd jobs to help support the family. When he had saved enough money, he bought a used truck and picked up passengers at the airport, his mother said.
In his free time, Mishal played soccer, listened to pop music and sneaked cigarettes, Fahd said.
Then, suddenly, Mishal stopped smoking, a habit that ultra-devout Muslims consider a sin, and replaced his music cassettes with taped Koranic verses and sayings of the prophet Muhammad, Fahd said. About a year later, around June 2001, he disappeared from the family home in Medina, Saudi Arabia. He called a month later, saying he was in Afghanistan and asking for forgiveness from his mother and brother for traveling without telling them.
...
Mishal was unconscious for three months and spent an additional eight months hospitalized at Guantanamo. He was released into Saudi custody in July 2005, Fahd said, and sent home nine months later.
Sitting cross-legged on the carpet in the family guest room, his frayed black leather wheelchair to his left, Mishal said he remembers that after the desecration of the Koran, a guard entered his cell. "He was carrying a shield. He pushed me with it. I don't remember anything else," he said, speaking with a heavy tongue.
His head jerking back and forth several times, Mishal said he had gone to Afghanistan "for jihad, for the sake of God."
Fahd said the time his brother spent at Guantanamo may have irrevocably damaged his future.
"All the men who were released from Guantanamo, they are now leading a normal life," he said. "But Mishal can't walk, get himself a glass of water or go to the bathroom by himself. I just want him to go back the way he was before Guantanamo." ...
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