ARTICLES ALLEGE SEXUAL HUMILIATION, HUNGER STRIKE,

UNCLAS MANAMA 001553 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR R, NEA/ARPI, S/WCI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KAWC PTER ASEC PREL KPAO BA SUBJECT: ARTICLES ALLEGE SEXUAL HUMILIATION, HUNGER STRIKE, OF BAHRAINI GTMO DETAINEES REF: MANAMA 1547 Sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly. Not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (U) This is an action request; please see para 7. ¶2. (U) Sister newspapers Arabic daily Akhbar Al Khaleej and English daily Gulf Daily News October 19 and 20 published two articles alleging the sexual humiliation of Juma Al Dossary and the advanced hunger strike of Issa Al Murbati, both Bahraini detainees at Guantanamo. American lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, from the firm Dorsey and Whitney, met with Al Dossary, Al Murbati, and the four other Bahraini detainees at GTMO - Salah Al Balooshi, Adel Kamel, Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, and Abdulla Al Noaimi - during an October 16 visit. ¶3. (U) According to the October 20 article, Al Dossary claimed that in September 2002 he was chained to the floor in an interrogation room and had his clothing removed by four military police officers. A female interrogator allegedly stripped naked while standing over the detainee and "smeared her menstrual blood over various parts of his body." In another incident in mid-2003, Al Dossary claimed he was taken into an interrogation room from which he could see a naked man and woman having sex on a table in an adjoining room. When finished, the man and woman entered the interrogation room and asked Al Dossary to reveal the identities of Arab men in photographs, promising him he could have sex with the woman if he cooperated. Al Dossary further alleged that he observed U.S. Marines in Afghanistan use pages from the Koran to shine their boots and saw a cross placed on top of a mosque at the Kandahar air base. ¶4. (U) In a statement to Colangelo-Bryan, Al Dossary said that his physical condition had deteriorated and he experiences pain and numbness in his neck and left arm and suffers from headaches, nausea, and sudden rapid increases in his heart rate. He says he has seizures and nightmares and believes he needs psychological treatment, but does not trust any doctor at GTMO. ¶5. (U) The October 19 article quotes Colangelo-Bryan saying that he observed Al Murbati with a feeding tube inserted into his nose. The attorney says Al Murbati lost a tremendous amount of weight and looks exhausted. "There is nothing to suggest he will end this hunger strike," Colangelo-Bryan said. According to the article, U.S. officials state 24 detainees are still on a hunger strike, down from 200 last month. ¶6. (SBU) The Embassy received a diplomatic note October 23 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referencing the two newspaper articles. The Ministry requests the USG to check on the veracity of the allegations made in the stories and to pass any available information. ¶7. (SBU) Action request: Embassy has talking points on the hunger strikes, but requests talking points to respond publicly to questions about the treatment of Al Dossary, as well as any points that could be conveyed privately to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the diplomatic note. MONROE