Moazzam Begg talks to the Dog

The Talking Dog has posted another excellent interview; this time with former Guantánamo inmate, Moazzam Begg. Here are a few highlights:

Begg recalls his relationships with the guards:

The interrogators and guards varied from person to person and from place to place. Bagram was a much harsher regime than even Guantanamo... I came across a number of decent soldiers and interrogators that I would be happy to call friends. At Guantanamo I had a number of conversations, and indeed, interpersonal relationships, with guards that I considered just amazing. I learned an awful lot from these people, and about them.

And his time in the prisons at the Bagram airbase:

I will never forget what transpired in Bagram... this is the base that was bombed just the day before yesterday [during Dick Cheney's visit to Afghanistan].. I was held there for a year. I was hog-tied– left in painful positions or hours, interrogated, kicked, beaten,... but I remember the screaming of a woman in the next cell, and I was led to believe that she was my wife.

I witnessed the deaths (or the beatings that led to the deaths) of two detainees at Bagram... this will never go away.

I met a number of former Irish prisoners... they were interned for years without trial, held in hoods, subjected to white noise– the commonality of their experience with mine was remarkable... just replace Northern Ireland with Guantanamo and it was almost virtually the same.