Ex-Guantanamo Guard Apologizes to Former Detainees

Pulse

The BBC recently arranged a meeting between Brandon Neely, a former Guantanamo Bay guard, and two former Guantanamo detainees, Shafiq Rasul and Ruhal Ahmed. Both Rasul and Ahmed were released from Guantanamo in 2004 after being detained there for two years. Back then, Ahmed, Rasul and Neely were all 22 years old.

Neely served as an officer at Guantanamo for 6 months before leaving to serve in Iraq. Having quit the army in 2005, Neely admits that it was only after he left the military that he began questioning the government’s claim that prisoners at Guantanamo constituted the “worst of the worst”.

The decision to meet came about as a result of Facebook, which Neely used in order to get in contact  with Rasul and Ahmed early last year. Upon receiving a message of apology from Neely, Ahmed explains:  ”At first I couldn’t believe it. Getting a message from an ex-guard saying that what happened to us in Guantanamo was wrong was surprising more than anything.”
Here’s a clip from that meeting:

Importantly, in March of 2009, Brandon Neely also appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show where he provided a personal account of what he witnessed as well as participated in as a guard at Guantanamo Bay:

For more information on Shafiq Rasul and Ruhal Ahmed, two of the four British detainees whose 2003 habeas petitions resulted in establishing Guantanamo detainees’ right to seek habeas relief, check out this link to the landmark Rasul v. Bush Supreme Court decision of 2004.
And, for Brandon Neely’s testimony, which first appeared in the Guantanamo Testimonials Project at UC Davis, click here.

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