Testimonies

"They put me in a kneeling position like this. They told me not to sit back on my heels. They said: 'look straight ahead, don't look to the sides'. There were four or five guys surrounding me and insulting me and beating me. For three days, I was not allowed to sleep. Then, on the fourth, they made me kneel all night. They punched me, they kicked me, once to my chin.

"Another time I was told to lie down and they picked me up by my neck so I was half-strangled and they said: 'we are going to kill you unless you confess what you did'."

Detainee, Afghanistan

"The Americans interrogated us on our first night which we coined as 'the black night'. They cut our clothes with scissors, left us naked and took photos of us before they gave us Afghan clothes to wear. They then handcuffed our hands behind our backs, blindfolded us and started interrogating us. The interrogator was an Egyptian. He asked me about the names of all members of my family, relatives and friends. They threatened me with death, accusing me of belonging to al-Qaida."

"They put us in an underground cell measuring approximately two metres by three metres. There were ten of us in the cell. We spent three months in the cell. There was no room for us to sleep so we had to alternate. The window of the cell was very small. It was too hot in the cell, despite the fact that outside the temperature was freezing (there was snow), because the cell was overcrowded. They used to open the cell from time to time to allow air in."

"During the three-month period in the cell we were not allowed outside into the open air. We were allowed access to toilets twice a day; the toilets were located by the cell.' Walid al-Qadasi said that the prisoners were only fed once a day and that loud music was used as torture. He said that one of his fellow detainees went insane. Walid al-Qadasi was eventually transferred to Bagram, where he faced a month of interrogation."

Testimony of former detainee given to Amnesty April 2004, Yemen. Detention in Kabul

"He stated that he was blindfolded, kicked and beaten, and had his clothes removed. "Then they asked me which animals I had had sexual activities with - they made the noise of goats, sheep, dogs, cows. They laughed at me. "I said that such actions were against our Afghan and Islamic tradition, but they again asked me which kind of animals do you want to have sex with? Then they beat me with a stick from the back and kicked me. I still have pains in my back as a result."

Former detainee Afghanistan. July 2003

"I was hooded while being taken to interrogation and some of the time during interrogation. I was interrogated at least three or four times a week for up to seven or eight hours a day. Sometimes I was just left sitting in the interrogation tent with nothing, no food or toilet facilities.

"The guards in Kandahar regularly tore up the Qurâan and threw it around. My body hair was shaved, including my pubic hair. After three months in Kandahar I was flown to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on 1 May 2002. I was stripped naked, given a full body search and pictures were taken of me naked."

Statement of former detainee given during legal proceedings in Kandahar

"Mr Al Dossari was arrested in Pakistan and held by Pakistani authorities for several weeks. Mr Al Dossari was transferred from Pakistan to Kandahar, Afghanistan via airplane by the US authorities. On the plane, he was shackled by chains on his thighs, waist and shoulders, with his hands tied behind him.

"The chains were so tight around his shoulders that he was forced to lean forward at an extreme angle during the entire flight. This caused great pain to Mr Al Dossari's stomach, where he had had an operation some years before. When Mr Al Dossari complained about the pain, he was hit and kicked in the stomach, causing him to vomit blood.

Upon arriving in Kandahar, Mr Al Dossari and other detainees were put in a row on the ground in a tent. "US Marines urinated on the detainees and put cigarettes out on them (Mr Al Dossari has scars that are consistent with those that would be caused by cigarette burns). A US soldier pushed Mr Al Dossari's head into the ground violently and other soldiers walked on him."

Mohammad Al Dossari has alleged, among other things, that he was forced to walk barefoot over barbed wire and that his head was pushed to the ground on broken glass. He has alleged that US soldiers subjected him to electric shocks, death threats, assault and humiliation."

Guantánamo detainee. Unclassified details of the alleged treatment of Bahraini detainee Jumâah Mohammad Abdul Latif Al Dossari, as provided to Amnesty by the US lawyers for the detainees

All indicated that they had been horribly treated, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan where they were first held for many months after being taken into custody (in Kandahar, Kohat, Bagram). Although the words they used were different, the stories they told were remarkably similar - terrible beatings, hung from wrists and beaten, removal of clothes, hooding, naked exposure to extreme cold, paraded naked in front of female guards, sexual taunting by both male and female guards/interrogators, some sexual abuse (rectal intrusion), being kept in uncomfortable positions for hours.

All confirmed that this treatment was by Americans. Several said pictures were taken of some of this abuse. Some of the pictures still exist and are being used by the interrogators. Many knew that the Americans had killed several people during the interrogations at these places. Several also mentioned the use of electric shocks - like ping pong paddles put under arms - some had this done; many saw it done. Several said they just could not believe Americans could act this way.

The handwritten notes of a US lawyer who met with Kuwaiti detainees in Guantánamo in January 2005 

According to his account, recorded by a lawyer who visited him in Guantánamo in early 2005, Omar went for seven to eight days without food in Bagram. He was held in a dark room for days on end, without any access to light. Omar and others were locked in boxes with no air and effectively suffocated for long periods.

He was chained to the wall, with his hands high up in the Strappado position. This caused extreme pain. While he was in Bagram, as part of the humiliation process, Omar was forced to live naked for long periods. His hands and feet were tied so tightly, they swelled to much above normal size. He was forced to move and assume uncomfortable positions while tied this way. He was often beaten with chains. He was also forced to stay in positions and to urinate and defecate on himself.

Libyan national and UK resident Omar Deghayes

"I reached Bangkok International Airport on 6 July 2003 and at the airport I was llegally and immorally arrested - back hand/leg cuffed, a black big mask on my head up to neck, was thrown on floor of station wagon facing down. I am heart patient/diabetic/high blood pressure/skin disorder/gout; it could have been fatal, there was no human consideration at all.

From the airport I was taken to unknown place for few days and kept eyes covered, ears cover, handcuffed, leg cuffed. After a few days I was transported by plane to Afghanistan, under extremely severe, bad conditions. I was kept in isolation from July 2003 to 20 September 2004 and since then I am in isolation cell in Guantánamo Bay Island. Am I being considered human being or animal, or is USA my God?"

In a handwritten letter to the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT), dated 8 December 2004, Pakistan national Saifullah Paracha wrote of his abduction by US agents in Thailand and his transportation to Afghanistan where he was held for more than a year before being transferred to Guantánamo where he remains

"When they came and arrested and handcuffed me, they were wearing all black. They even covered their heads black. They took me, covered me, put me in a vehicle and sent me somewhere. I don't know where. It was at night. Then from there to the airport right away. We were in a room like this with about eight men. All with covered up faces. They cut off my clothes. They were pulling on my hands and my legs.

They put me in an airplane and they made me wear the handcuffs that go around your body so I would not do anything on the airplane. This is all kidnapping. Yes. They took me underground in the dark. I did not see light for two weeks, Bagram, Afghanistan. Right there in the dark. They put me in the dark. I was surprised.

I did not know what I did wrong or what I did. They starved me; they handcuffed me, there was no food, I was under their control. They are the ones who took me and put me there. They know what they have done. I was surprised that the Americans would do such a thing. It shocked me."

At his hearing in front of the CSRT in Guantánamo on 9 October 2004, Jordanian national and UK resident Jamil El Banna recalled his transfer from Gambia to Afghanistan in what he described as a 'kidnapping' by US agents