Humanitarian Aid Worker: Torture Only Stopped When I Pretended I Was In Al Qaeda

Washington’s Blog
Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Lakhdar Boumediene worked for a humanitarian relief agency – the equivalent of the Red Cross in the middle least (the Red Crescent).

Boumediene tells ABC News that he was tortured at Guantanamo with needles, feed tubes, and being “stretched” (like the old-time rack).

More importantly, Boumediene confirms that telling the truth got him tortured more, while lying and saying what the interrogator wanted him to say got it to stop:

Boumediene said it was in his interest to lie to the interrogators, who would reward the detainees if they admitted guilt.

“If I tell my interrogator, I am from Al Qaeda, I saw Osama bin Laden, he was my boss, I help him, they will tell me, ‘Oh you are a good man,’” he said. “But if I refuse ? I tell them I’m innocent, never was I terrorist, never never, they tell me. ‘You are, you are not cooperating, I have to punch you.’”

Those who say that torture works are lying.

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