Gitmo panels struggle to assess facts
Updated: 2007-09-10 11:25
Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, a doctor from Yemen, acknowledged treating wounded al-Qaida fighters at Tora Bora in Afghanistan, but said he was forced to do so. He said he wasn't a terrorist.
"I deny these allegations against me," Batarfi said. "It is the same information used against me last year. ... I don't want to be back to the same point again next year."
Some detainees, explaining how an innocent man could wind up at Guantanamo, said they had been captured in Pakistan and sold for bounties to US forces - a practice that has been denounced by Amnesty International.
"You did not catch us in Pakistan - we were sold in Pakistan," said Abdennour Sameur, an Algerian. "The Pakistani army was very poor, that's why they were selling us to you."
Al-Zarnuki said he was also sold for a bounty, and added that his own money went missing during his arrest in Pakistan.
"So the Pakistani government made money twice, from our pocket and from your pocket," he told the military panel.
In contrast to the others, one Yemeni detainee proudly proclaimed himself a holy warrior and "an enemy of the United States."
Abdul al Rahman al Zahri praised the September 11 attacks and other terrorist strikes and said they were retaliation "for your criminal acts and your military invasion of the Islamic countries."
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