Taxi to the Dark Side Page #3

And began charging soldiers with maltreatment, maiming and homicide.

[SGT. Thomas Curtis, Mil-Pol, Bagram] When you're working, you know, with an organization like the Military,

You know, they are going to hold somebody accountable.

You can sweep some things under the rug, but, you know, this was a death.

There was two deaths. And okay, fine, they are going to charge people.

[SGT. Anthony Morden, 377th Mil-Pol Unit, Bagram, Afgan] It seemed like the Military, now after they got a black eye from Abu Ghraib,

wanted to get a public opinion that they were policing their soldiers. And so they said,

And so they said, "We had this incident that happened a couple of years ago.

We could still prosecute some of them."

[PFC. Willie Brand, 377th Mil-Pol Unit, Bagram, Afgan] I had nothing to do with the Military for two years,

And all of a sudden I'm getting a call saying that I'm being court-martialed.

I mean that was a huge surprise for me.

[John Galligan, Willie Brand's attorney] From a defense perspective, I immediately said "This is a political show trial."

Willie Brand is a good soldier. Good soldiers tend to obey orders.

Good soldiers tend to be people who do what they are trained to do.

[Tim Golden, New York Times Reporter] The interrogators on the ground for the most part didn't know what the rules were.

They'd never been interrogators before.

[PFC. Damien Corsetti, 519th Mil-Intel Unit, Bagram, Afgan] My interrogation training consisted basically of,

They taught us some approaches...you know...how to get people to talk.

And then..."Here, go watch these guys interrogate"...

which were the people that we were replacing...

For about five or six hours before I did my first interrogation.

[William Cassara, Damien Corsetti's attorney] Damien was picked for this job because he's big,

He's loud, and he's scary. That was his qualification.

[PFC. Damien Corsetti, 519th Mil-Intel Unit, Bagram, Afgan] "Soldiers are dying. Get the information."

That's all you're told. "Get the information."

[Tim Golden, New York Times Reporter] Soldiers said that when prisoners like Dilawar came into Bagram,

They were immediately assaulted.

They blasted music at them. Often, they had dogs barking at them.

And they would use some of the most menacing

Interrogators to create this sense of threat.

One of those was Damien Corsetti.

[PFC. Damien Corsetti, 519th Mil-Intel Unit, Bagram, Afgan] With the screening, you're trying to instill what's called "The Shock of Capture",

When the person first comes in. And that's when they are most apt to give you information

'cause they're just like, "Oh, crap, what's going on?"

It's not just a disorientation procedure, it's actually a terrorizing procedure.

It's designed to terrify you into spilling the beans, as it were.

Being spat at. Being sworn at. Having the dogs barking around. Cameras flashing in your face.

[SGT. Thomas Curtis, Mil-Pol, Bagram] Keep in mind, in their culture,

That dog's more shocking to them than it is to us.

Kind of like a woman telling them what to do. You know, it's a cultural thing.

So you get more bang for your buck, you know, with a dog.

[Moazzam Begg, British subject detained at Bagram and Guantanamo 2002-2005] And then to be re-shackled, completely naked,

and to do what they call "The Body Search,"

The cavity search, and then to be questioned naked, shivering.

[PFC. Willie Brand, Mil-Pol, Bagram] After they are read their rules and everything,

They are taken to their cell, to where they're going to be put in sleep deprivation for 24 hours.

That's standard for everybody.

Then, from there, MI directs us that they can go to general population, or if they have to stay in isolation.

And if they are going to stay in isolation, If they are going to be allowed to sleep.

And if they can, then when.

To weaken the defenses of detainees,

Interrogators ordered Mil-Pol to find ways of keeping the prisoners awake.

[SGT. Thomas Curtis, Mil-Pol, Bagram] You know, they are in that room not saying anything...

"Oh, well, maybe he knows a little bit more.

Let's let him, you know, lose a little bit more sleep."

Which is the idea of keeping them like this, so you won't sleep. You'll stand.

Because as soon as you let your body go, that pressure on your wrist and your arms

You're going to feel that with those cuffs on.

[PFC. Damien Corsetti, 519th Mil-Intel Unit, Bagram, Afgan] The only time the MPs would ever help us do anything would be to keep them on a sleep schedule.

You know, they are guaranteed so much sleep.

Is that sleep consistent? Is it uninterrupted?

You know, there's 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there.

Who knows? That's how it was proposed to us.

[SGT. Thomas Curtis, Mil-Pol, Bagram] There would be a board, when you walked into the room, on his wall.

You might see an arrow going up to the ceiling.

And there would be maybe a "1" by it. So that would be an hour up.

He's got to stand up for one hour.

And then you may see a "2" with an arrow pointing down.

That means he can sit down for two hours.

[Tim Golden, New York Times Reporter] The prisoners were kept in these big pens downstairs.

And their numbers would be scribbled on the door of the airlock,

which was the little passageway that they were taken out of

when they were brought up to the isolation cells upstairs.

[Moazzam Begg, British subject detained at Bagram and Guantanamo 2002-2005] Detainees were actually chained, with their hands above their heads,

in these airlocks. His number, "421," was something I could see often,

because his back was towards me

In the airlock, and the numbers were written on the backs of the detainees in black marker.

And we all had that. As well as on the front.

My number in Bagram was 180. But later it became "558."

Thank you. It's good to be with you. It's good to be here in Bagram.

[SGT. Thomas Curtis, Mil-Pol, Bagram] I'm sure any high-ranking officer who toured would see the shackles,

because they are going to tour to look.

You know, they are curious just like everybody else is.

[PFC. Damien Corsetti, 519th Mil-Intel Unit, Bagram, Afgan] There are always officers coming and going through the facility.

We kind of joked about it as being The Greatest Show on Earth.

Everyone wanted to come and look at the terrorists.

Mr. Rumsfeld's office called our office frequently.

Very high commanders would want to be kept up-to-date on a daily basis on certain prisoners there.

The Brass knew. They saw them shackled. They saw them hooded.

And they said, "Right on! You're doing a great job!"

When the Red Cross toured Bagram, the sleep deprivation chart was erased.

And the prisoners were unshackled.

[Tim Golden, New York Times Reporter] Traditional military procedure did not allow you to shackle somebody to a fixed object.

Certainly not chaining their arms overhead.

Initially they were handcuffing people into the airlock of the cells for punishment.

And that was to be strictly limited. 15 minutes. Half an hour.

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