A Client only a Lawyer Could Love...

When I read things like this, I really want to take the advice of the Bard, and kill all the lawyers.

A man who was imprisoned by the US military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is suing the Pakistani and US governments for damages worth over $10m.

Pakistani cleric Mohammed Sagheer was seized by US troops fighting in Afghanistan in 2001.

He spent roughly a year with other suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the US military prison.

His lawyers say he is suing for the mental and physical torture he endured at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay.

In the first case of its kind, Mr Sagheer described his arrest by American authorities as illegal and his treatment at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay as extremely inhuman.

He says he was kept for more than a year in a prison cell that was like a cage meant for animals.

During this period he says he was treated in the worst possible manner and was repeatedly interrogated about his links to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Despite insisting that he no ties to the Islamic militant group, Mr Sagheer says he was punished by the authorities for what they saw as his lack of co-operation.

First off, if Mr. Sagheer had no ties to the Islamic militant group, then why was he fighting US forces in Afghanistan? Granted, that in and of itself does not mean he was a member of Al-Qaeda, but it does mean he was, more likely than not, a Taliban loyalist, and we know the Taliban had ties to Al-Qaeda, that is not in dispute. So it would be fair to make the assumption that Mr. Sageer did in fact have ties to Al-Qaeda, thus making any interrogation he underwent completely justifiable under that circumstance. And just what was this inhumane treatment? He couldn't read his Holy Koran when he was being interrogated?

He suffered physical and mental torture? Please, as Lee pointed out back in August, with this post , a Russian prisoner's family actually wanted him to remain at Camp X-Ray because the treatment he would receive there would be far superior to any treatment he would receive back home, sounds like the Gitmo prisoners are being woefully mistreated doesn't it?

But wait, he says. The news story comes from the BBC. Why pass up a chance to bash American right, BBC?


Hat Tip Right Thinking