Holdbrooks, Terry - short clip - PrisonerAbuse

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-	Did you see any of the detainees mistreated	0:00
	while you were there?	0:04
-	Yeah, a number of times.	0:06
	Seeing a detainee having their hand stepped on	0:09
	or their head stepped on or kicked	0:11
	or extra kicks or punches being thrown in during an ERF,	0:13
	perhaps having their head pushed to the toilet	0:18
	having it flushed a number of times, walking	0:19
	through the interrogation would be taking individuals	0:22
	for interrogation, you'd see what was going	0:25
	on in other interrogation rooms.	0:26
	So, you know, occasionally I'd see individuals	0:28
	in stress positions or rooms with the air conditioner set	0:30
	at 40 degrees or individuals would soil themselves	0:34
	from being these positions for so long.	0:36
	Our lieutenants who were in charge of camp operations	0:39
	whenever an earth would take place, they were responsible	0:43
	with coming out, trying to talk situations down.	0:46
	And if it came down to an ERF was going to happen	0:48
	they would initially spray OSI spray into the cell.	0:51
	We were taught, and what was trained to us was to	0:54
	just make a simple S or Z shaped motion	0:57
	across the face with the OSI spray.	0:59
	I can't think of how many times I saw an entire can used,	1:03
	if not two cans used.	1:06
	And it was really just an overkill and then afterwards	1:08
	you got five angry men running in there	1:11
	and slamming you down, beating you up,	1:13
	making it difficult for you to breathe, putting in kicks	1:15
	and punches using your head to open the door, et cetera.	1:18
	Yeah, there was, there was certainly abuse that took place.	1:21
-	Do you know why that abuse took place?	1:24
	Were there reasons for it?	1:26
-	As primitive of an idea as I can possibly think of	1:29
	it was really just Americans feeling	1:32
	that they were getting one back for America.	1:33
	A lot of these soldiers really believed	1:36
	that these people responsible for 9/11.	1:38
	I don't know how individuals are responsible for 9/11,	1:40
	pretty much burned up in an inferno that day	1:43
	but in any case, you know	1:45
	they went down there with these views	1:47
	and these feelings and this animosity and anger	1:49
	and this was a very non-constructive way	1:51
	for them to get it out.	1:55
	But that that's how they chose to get it out,	1:57
	that and recreational drinking.	1:58
	ERF teams were pretty much just	2:00
	five guards and the camp supervisor.	2:02
	We have one individual from DOC department of corrections,	2:05
	basically just the operations of the camp.	2:11
	You know, these individuals oversaw who was moving to where	2:14
	who was on what block, who was in an interrogation center.	2:17
	They were in charge of all movement.	2:19
	One individual from there would come up with a video camera	2:23
	to video cam the process officer for liability purposes.	2:25
	I can't tell you how many times, you know,	2:29
	forgot to put a tape in or forgot to hit the record button	2:31
	or I hit the record button and there was a tape in	2:34
	but I forgot to take the cap off.	2:36
-	You're personally saying this?	2:38
-	No, no, no, no.	2:39
	These were the excuses that were given	2:40
	as to why the footage wasn't obtained.	2:42
-	Why do you think they didn't film the ERF?	2:44
-	I would imagine they were probably told	2:46
	by somebody in their command not the film it,	2:48
	or if perhaps it was too violent	2:51
	of a situation or something we didn't want to	2:54
	have evidence of then, you know, make this disappear.	2:55
	I wouldn't imagine that that would be a far-fetched idea.	2:59

Item Info

Title:

Holdbrooks, Terry - short clip - PrisonerAbuse

Date:

May 1, 2010

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Holdbrooks, Terry

Role:

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Prison Guard
Terry Holdbrooks, male, age 26, served as a prison guard at Guantanamo from June 2003 until July 2004, converting to Islam during this time.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

1:47:17

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

ad73762e92cce8b73906ca3b262cb207
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r40z77g4g
30705d7c-1a6a-4f7b-92f0-4336805c9110

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r40z77g4g

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Holdbrooks, Terry - short clip - PrisonerAbuse

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