From dangers in Gitmo to how it operates: Ex-inmate Shaker Aamer’s interview to RT (EXCLUSIVE)

Shaker Aamer, who spent over a decade in Guantanamo bay, has talked to RT about how the prison works and why the detainees have not been prosecuted after 14 years of confinement.

Here are his best quotes from the interview:

• On the prosecution of detainees

Saudi born UK citizen Aamer, who was held in Gitmo from 2002 until October of last year, explained that the government cannot prosecute the detainees because “it will show the failure of intelligence services” as they cannot prove that the detainees “did anything wrong.”

• On how Gitmo operates

“Guantanamo is being run by one concept – how to destroy a human being,” he told RT. “Guantanamo is not a detention facility, it’s not like a normal jail,” he said, adding that it is “run by psychologists, by psychiatrists,” who know how to “manipulate.”

• On torture

Apart from the physical torture, he said there is also “mental torture.”

“They know nothing will affect us more than insulting our religion. Nothing will make us break like grabbing our Holy Koran and throwing it in front of us or just opening it …searching it.”

“You are talking about people who are very loyal to their religion, truthful believers.”

• On ‘enhanced interrogation’

US officials have decided to call the new methods of interrogation used in Guantanamo “enhanced techniques,” he said, adding that these include keeping an inmate standing for 18 hours and rectal-feeding.

“If they are willing to do this to us, they are willing to it against their own people one day.”

• On Gitmo staff

The American military “professionally diverts” the public’s attention away from Gitmo to prevent them from learning the truth, he said. American soldiers working in the facility are “victims of circumstances,” he added, urging the soldiers’ families to call them back home in order to force the facility’s closure.

• On US ‘lying’ to UK

He exhibited his “prison blanket,” which he said he had last seen back in June of 2005, along with some clothes that were given to him upon his release from Gitmo, saying that they had never belonged to him. He said the US authorities were “lying to its closest ally the UK” when, after he was released, they told them that these were his clothes to allegedly prove he had been taken care of.

• On dangers in Gitmo

He said that there were no dangerous inmates being held in Guantanamo and urged civilians to inspect it.

“I want my audience to please watch this so they can find the truth about Guantanamo – how dangerous it is and this is how dangerous this box is,” he said opening a black box which turned out to be empty. “Nothing dangerous in this box. Similarly, nobody is dangerous in Guantanamo.”