'Give me an injection and I will be dead' : After several months of legal action, the Guardian has won the right to interview foreign nationals being held without charge on suspicion of terrorist involvement, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East.]Audrey Gillan goes inside Broadmoor high security hospital and talks to Mahmoud Abu Rideh about being locked up with no prospect of release and why he has tried to kill himself.
The effects of the legal limbo in which Mahmoud Abu Rideh is trapped are visible on his arms. For 22 months, he has been locked up, without charge or trial, in Broadmoor high security hospital under controversial anti-terror laws, [draconian laws.]
The Palestinian has not been told the evidence against him and does not know when, if ever, he will be released.
His doctors say that his mental health problems do not warrant being held at Broadmoor, but the home secretary, [ruling class], refuses to move him to a lower grade psychiatric hospital. The only alternative on offer is a return to Belmarsh high security prison, where he was held with 11 other terror detainees, [scapegoat prisoners for the Coalition of the Killing], before the harsh regime took its toll on his mental health. When he pulls up his shirt sleeves in the visitor room at Broadmoor, he reveals dozens of scars up and down his arms, inflicted using pens, plastic and anything else he can find.
Since his detention, he has been repeatedly harming himself, [frustration from the prison conditions], from drinking toilet cleaner to setting himself on fire.
"I don't have a criminal record," he told the Guardian. "I don't touch kids. I don't take drugs. I don't kill somebody or cut him. This is a hospital for these kinds of people and they put me here with them. Belmarsh is a prison well known for the worst kinds of criminals and the government put me there. I am living with these kinds of people, what do you expect? Of course I would go mad."
Mr Abu Rideh is the first of any of the detainees, [prisoners], still in custody to be allowed to speak publicly about his detention, [imprisonment]. The Guardian secured the right to speak to him by taking legal action against David Blunkett, the home secretary, who had refused our request for access to the detainees, [prisoners.] The high court ruled that the men should be entitled to give interviews.
[Just plain propaganda and rubbish the Guardian are working for their government but they make it look like they oppose, however if any person takes a look at the language they use it is wrong. therefore being corrected here.]
The child visit centre at Broadmoor high security hospital is packed for the occasion. Arranged around the circle of upholstered armchairs are the Guardian, Mr Abu Rideh, a nurse, the hospital's public relations person and two people from the Home Office, armed with a tape recorder, whose job is to ensure that national security is not contravened.
[Again just plain rubbish and propaganda by the Guardian.]
A pile of papers sits on the carpeted floor of the small room. Mr Abu Rideh has been waiting a long time for this chance to speak and he has prepared for it in detail, his Arabic scrawled over sheets and sheets of A4, dozens of photographs scattered at his feet.
He denies that he has any links to al-Qaida, [the Coalition of the Killing's alleged demon made up by the US], insisting that the allegations against him are "lies".
Mr Abu Rideh: "The security services came into my home and they didn't find anything, they didn't find a bomb, they didn't find anthrax," he said. "It's very easy to say someone has done something if you don't give the evidence. Someone who can lie to the whole nation about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq can lie about me."
He was arrested at his home in Surrey on December 17 2001, accused of being "an active supporter of various international terrorist groups, including those with links to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network", with activities including fundraising. [Just plain rubbish and propaganda to bolster support and quell dissent for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East.]
Judges at the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal - hearing the vast majority of evidence in secret - upheld Blunkett's decision to detain Mr Abu Rideh, although they have said he should be moved to a low security hospital rather than Broadmoor. They said that the £100,000 that had passed through the bank account of his charity, the Islamic Services Bureau, since 1999 was "reasonable" grounds for suspicion. [Just plain rubbish.]
Blunkett justifies all the detentions, [imprisonment], of foreign terror suspects, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing], by pointing out that each of the men held is free to leave the UK and return home. But as a Palestinian refugee Mr Abu Rideh is stateless. "Where can I go, please?" He said his state of mind had deteriorated to the point where he would prefer to be executed. "I have been sick before I came here, but I am very sick now," he said.
"I hear voices. I put my radio off and the radio is still talking. It says you will stay in this hospital all your life. The hospital don't want me here. The Home Office don't want me to go back to prison. Give me an injection and I will be dead and they won't need to spend £140,000 a year on me being in this hospital."
He says all his fundraising work was for charity. "I have given the Home Office and MI5 everything. I worked for orphans, for schools, I told them I am not a terrorist." Showing pictures of water wells, schoolrooms full of children, orphanages, sewing machines for widows, sackloads of flour, drums of cooking oil, he said that his charity's aim was to help people in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and other countries.
"I worked with charity and helped people. People gave me money at the mosques. I did all my telephone calls from my home and from my mobile phone. I knew I was tapped but I had nothing to hide. MI5 and MI6 never came to meet me. They never asked me questions, they never said to me you are crossing the line, you have gone to talk to a terrorist. They just arrested me after, [CIA reichstag and false flag operation], September 11. I don't have any secrets."
The government claims Mr Abu Rideh fought with the mojahedin in the war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but he says the first time he went to Afghanistan was in 2000 with his charity. "I open a school in Afghanistan for Arabic children in Kabul, not in Kandahar. "These children are refugees, they have problems with their government. I opened a school. I wasn't arrested in Afghanistan or Pakistan."
He is also accused of associating with Abu Hamza, [another scapegoat], the controversial cleric whose sermons at Finsbury Park mosque in north London were, [allegedly], attended by the, [alleged], shoe bomber Richard Reid and the, [alleged], 20th September 11 hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. [Just plain rubbish and propaganda because 911 was an inside job. A US reichstag.]
Mr Abu Rideh: "Lots of countries are trying to extradite Abu Hamza, like Yemen. My name does not come up in any country in connection with Abu Hamza. He was in charge of Finsbury Park mosque and I would go there for money for the orphans. I would talk to him about that but I didn't attend his sermons. I knew he was being recorded and I never hid anything."
His treatment in Broadmoor is worse, he claims, than anything he experienced during the five years he was held in an Israeli jail after throwing stones at soldiers during the first intifada, where he claims, [? said], he was tortured.
He has made a number of complaints to the hospital about racism among staff. In his interview, he made further complaints, alleging that a staff member had called him a "fucking terrorist" and that another forced him to kiss his shoe and say he was his slave. He claimed, [? said], that another spat in his sandwich.
Mr Abu Rideh claimed, [? said], he had also been assaulted on a number of occasions by other patients and that staff "egg them on".
Now he harms himself, [because of the prison conditions], he says, out of frustration when people are racist or when he goes into a "dark time" experiencing flashbacks of his torture. "I drink shampoo, I drink air freshener, I drink toilet cleaner," he said. "Every week I try something. It's better than being here. The staff don't want me here. They hit me and the patients hit me. What I have been through in this place is worse than when I was detained in Israel when I was tortured. They have destroyed me."
Last night, a spokesman for Broadmoor said that Mr Abu Rideh had made 10 formal complaints involving 26 incidents, [only], two of which had been upheld. [?]
One matter, which involved him complaining that a staff member had bruised his shoulder, was being investigated by police. [? they couldn't give a stuff.] Another incident where he attempted to set fire to himself and allegedly assaulted a member of staff in the ensuing fracas, leaving her with three broken ribs, [?] was also in the hands of the police. [In other words a counter claim means the police couldn't give a stuff about his initial complaint.] No complaints had been received about the sandwich allegation or the terrorist name-calling but they would now be investigated. [Just plain rubbish.]
Doctors who have seen him are divided in their opinion as to whether he is mentally ill under the terms of the Mental Health Act. Andy Payne, his consultant at Broadmoor, has said that "while he does have some symptoms of a depressive disorder and a generalised anxiety disorder with some post-traumatic symptoms, he is not now suffering from mental illness of a nature or degree which would warrant his detention under the Mental Health Act or his treatment in a psychiatric hospital".
This was taken into account in January at a mental health tribunal but it ruled he was mentally ill and that there was no choice but to detain him in a psychiatric hospital because his "mental and physical health would rapidly and seriously deteriorate" if he was returned to Belmarsh.
[So they caused his mental health propblems but they had no chioce but to cause him to continue to be caused mental health problems.]
In a statement, the Home Office said there was reason to suspect that Mr Abu Rideh was an international terrorist, with links to al-Qaida. [Just plain rubbish and propaganda.]
Ruling Class Home Office: "Broadmoor is an appropriate setting for Mr Abu Rideh, taking into account his clinical needs and the risk he presents to the public," the statement continued. "We would point to the decision of the mental health review tribunal which said that he does require treatment in hospital. He is detained in a high security hospital because he is a risk to national security."
[Blunkett should be charged with crimes against humanity.]
Two weeks ago another detainee, known only as G, was released from Belmarsh and placed under house arrest because he had become so mentally ill in custody. Blunkett fought to prevent his release and denounced it as "extraordinary" and "bonkers", promising to change the law to prevent it happening again.
But Mr Abu Rideh said house arrest was not an option for him. "I need treatment. I can't go out. Maybe I will harm myself. Maybe the voices will come. I fear for my kids. I want treatment but my treatment is not to be in Broadmoor hospital." He has a glossy brochure for a low security hospital and he dreams of moving there.
His two-hour chance [? to be propagandised by the Guardian and the ruling class], to talk, to tell his side of the story, is over. An officer, [guard], will take him back to the ward from where there seems to be no chance of release.
Mr Abu Rideh: "My children are orphans, my wife does not have a husband," he said. "I would stop any bomb. I would put my body in front of it to stop it happening to this country. I was sacrificed because of terrorism. I am not a terrorist. I don't believe in terrorism. Why don't they just charge me?"
The Guardian edited by Gregory Kable posted May 6 04
Related:
Belmarsh prisoners consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim prisoners released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism, [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], has [said], his fellow prisoners are suffering such 'severe mental problems' that they constantly consider suicide.
