VIDEO: Marine Sergeant Reports Detainee Abuse At Guantanamo Bay
VIDEO: Marine Sergeant Reports Detainee Abuse At Guantanamo Bay
President Bush has consistently touted the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay as a “model prison,” saying the American people should “take great pride” in the facility.
But a sworn statement by Marine Sgt. Heather Cerveny paints an entirely different picture. Cerveny has described how “she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse” of Gitmo detainees. The guards alledgedly told Cerveny of practices including “hitting the detainee’s head into the cell door” and “punching [them] in the face.” The Pentagon Inspector General today announced a new investigation into the claims.
Cerveny gave her first public comments on her charges last night to ABC News. Watch an excerpt:
You can read Cerveny’s affidavit to the Pentagon Inspector General here.
Full transcript below:
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) Twenty-three-year-old Marine Sergeant Heather Cerveny was sent to Guantanamo Bay in late September as a legal aid to a marine lawyer representing a detainee. She has come back, now, with a story of what she says is unchecked abuse by guards there.
SERGEANT HEATHER CERVENY (UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS)
None of them looked like they cared. None of them looked shocked by it.
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) In a sworn affidavit filed with the Pentagon inspector general, Cerveny says, she met several navy prison guards at an on base club, where over drinks, they described, in detail, harsh, physical abuse of the detainees.
SERGEANT HEATHER CERVENY (UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS)
The one sailor specifically said, ‘I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door.” Other ones specifically saying, ‘you know, today, that guy was annoying me. You know? I smacked him in the head.”
BRIAN ROSS (ABC NEWS)
(Voiceover) The sergeant says the guards told her they worked at camps five and six. And that such beatings of detainees were common and justified.
SERGEANT HEATHER CERVENY (UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS)
I initially asked him, what consequences - you know, what happened for you doing this to him? And he said nothing.
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53 Responses to “VIDEO: Marine Sergeant Reports Detainee Abuse At Guantanamo Bay”
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Why does Sgt. Heather Cerveny hate our freedom?
October 13th, 2006 at 11:00 amI believe that our cruel little momma’s boy Bush really does get off on torture.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:05 amGod Help this Sgt. The Bush/Rove/Rummy regime will have her head.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:05 amWe live in a country that closer to a Stalinist regime than the land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Bush has disgraced our country.
Wow, so the Northern Alliances sells Bush a bunch of people grabbed at random for thousands of dollars a head just so they can go to Cuba and get pounded on?
What a great freakin’ foreign policy! What a great way to represent our country!
October 13th, 2006 at 11:05 am.
“I took the detainee by the head and smashed his head into the cell door.†- - This is nothing more than a come-on line that grunts routinely use once they’re slightly liquored up.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:06 amMany months ago Chris Matthews had a gaurd on who talked about how Iraqis were round up at random and tortured. Never heard much more about it, though…
October 13th, 2006 at 11:07 amAnd the killing of the messenger will begin in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
October 13th, 2006 at 11:07 amThis chick is cute.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:12 amPrepare to be swift-boated, ma’am. Let’s see, I think they’ll start with the fact that you’re obviously a woman of loose morals since you were out a bar trying to woo our brave servicemen who are defending our nation against the radical islamofacists. Be prepared, is all I’m saying because it is no doubt coming.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:16 amAmerica’s Least Wanted
Sounds like someone’s got a case of the partisan sour grapes, because that’s the only reason there’s ever bad news about Dear Leader and His Dear War.
Sincerely,
A. Trollmonkey, esq.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:17 amComing soon to you’re local cities…..Neighbors selling names of neighbors as terrorests sympathisers…Nation wide sweep by bull shit bush and crew to incarcerate anyone sympathetic to the left or non bush belief’s…..
October 13th, 2006 at 11:19 amHere’s a story about 16 detainees that were released from Gitmo.
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer | October 12, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan –Sixteen Afghans and one Iranian released from years in captivity at Guantanamo Bay prison arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, an Afghan official said, maintaining that “most” of the detainees had been falsely accused.
. . . rest of article
October 13th, 2006 at 11:23 amSharon #12; The Twilight Zone’s, “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” is as relevant today as it was during the Commie scare in the 1960s.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:23 amYeah yeah, she’s cute, but can she write good stories?
October 13th, 2006 at 11:31 amYes the detainees are being abused at GITMO, but nobody can stop the Bush Regime from torturing people now > thank the stupid Congress!
October 13th, 2006 at 11:33 amThe Torture Bill means that what these guys did is not necessarily illegal. Doesn’t that bother you guys?
October 13th, 2006 at 11:35 amPlease demand that Bill Clinton do something about this abuse! Maybe we can Nancy Pelosi under oath to get to the bottom of this!
-GSD
October 13th, 2006 at 11:37 amWant to see how little King George has changed in the last 230 years. Read The Second Declaration of Independence .
October 13th, 2006 at 11:39 amI smell a Rovian trap…
…like the one that ensnared CBS’ anchorman Dan Rather with the fake Bush military documents…
…though the documents were fake the essence of their content was true…
…second hand conversations are always inherently dangerous, just because they involve too many proverbial “cooks” in the kitchen…
…having said that, anyone who doesn’t understand that there is indeed abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are certainly intellectually retarded…
…one need look no further than prisoners in our own U.S. prisons system if one has any doubts…
October 13th, 2006 at 11:39 amI guess you all have found the answer to the question
“Why does everyone else in the world appear to Hate us?”
Keep up this conduct, with no consequences, and you can remove the word appear from the question. Finally, don’t be surprised if even the ambivalent try to kick you in the ass when your back is turned. Its the normal way to treat the playground bully. Your leadership just doesn’t recognize that it is putting every American who travels at risk.
And for those who are wondering, this isn’t a threat, just an observation on the consequences of acting against any moral or ethical standard. Want to convince the rest of the world - recognize the world court - quit backing out of treaties because of a ruling against you, finally, get real and knock of the arms race. You won already. But a billion dollar nuke does nothing against a IED.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:41 amWant to see how little King George has changed in the last 230 years. Read The Second Declaration of Independence.
If the link doesn’t work just click on Clyde.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:44 amHawt!
October 13th, 2006 at 11:46 amGITMO is Bush’s first concentration camp, so nobody should act surprised that the place is run by sadistic Nazi-type guards, who love to torture people!
October 13th, 2006 at 11:47 amLet’s see how long it takes before someone swiftboats Sgt. Cerveny.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:48 amThis woman is obviously a strap-on-wearing lesbian who was coerced by the Democratic Party to go into deep cover and set up our brave fighting boys and embarass the Administration. She joined the USMC under false pretenses. After completing boot camp and technical training, she used her feminine wiles to wangle an assignment to Gitmo, where she trolled the NCO club trying to elicit damning braggadacio from the trusty prison guards. By lasciviously licking her lips while the servicemen bragged about their brave service, she subliminally encouraged them to make stuff up because they thought that there might be a possibility that they would get laid.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:59 amSWIFT BOATING IS IN FULL SWING - check out ABCnews.com’s comment section on this story - it’s quite astonishing how closeted misogynists like to project their own “issues” and seudo macho/manliness onto women.
BREAKING NEWS on ABC - PENTAGON INSPECTOR GENERAL ORDERS AN INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED ABUSE BY GUARDS AT GUANTANAMO PRISON
October 13th, 2006 at 12:01 pm‘we do not torture’. how silly of these folks to think otherwise.
October 13th, 2006 at 12:13 pmOkay, a young marine sgt. getting bullshited at a club with aledged prison guards who were drinking. ‘I smacked him in the head’. ThinkProgress you can do much, much better than this.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:27 pmMy friend’s brother is in Iraq, and he tells my friend that they beat the shit out of Iraqi’s all the time. He says that “the soldier’s are pissed off because they don’t want to be there, the Iraqi’s are pissed off because they don’t want the Americans there, and basically you hate each other.” He mentioned one instance of an Iraqi who was pissing them off, so they took the Iraqi and his truck out to the desert, beat the shit out of him, took his money and his truck and left him in the desert. He says that stuff happens all the time, especially the part about taking money off dead Iraqi’s.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:34 pm#30
i believe it. the soldiers don’t want to be there. and they only act/talk as if they do because of the consequences. anyone that has been in the military knows this.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:43 pm#31. There are bad soldiers, but the reason the democrat party fought to exclude the military absentee ballots during the 2000 election aftermath, was because they new who those votes were for.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:48 pm#32
let’s not forget the propaganda that was being spewed ‘weapons of mass fear’. and isn’t that any young boys fantasy to shoot and kill legally. these boys were still growing pubic hair. they don’t know the history of israel, bushes etc. none of it. that is what is wrong i believe in school. they still sell the theory that columbus discovered america. we need to educated these young americans on what is really going on. listen to the majority of them coming back and even over there. they don’t even know who, what, when, where, how and why. and the ones that do educated themselves in this are changing their minds.
October 13th, 2006 at 2:01 pm#31. There are bad soldiers, but the reason the democrat party fought to exclude the military absentee ballots during the 2000 election aftermath, was because they new who those votes were for.
Comment by paul — October 13, 2006 @ 1:48 pm
I see that you are calling it the “democrat party”. Was this deliberate, in homage of your semi-illiterate boss, George W. Bush?
October 13th, 2006 at 2:05 pmBig Papa
October 13th, 2006 at 2:07 pmRead “In the belly of the beast”?
#34
thanks for grabbing that. i was going to ask but got busy and then said damn.
October 13th, 2006 at 2:12 pmcouldn’t hang on to the thread if we zip-tied your sweatty-palmed hands to it, couldja Paul?
October 13th, 2006 at 2:13 pmWell, Paul, I guess Brandon delivered a response for your #29, though I’m certain it wasn’t the one you wanted to hear. But there are some hairs to split here - after all, Brandon’s brother is in Iraq, not at Gitmo, and it makes
OK Brandon, time to confess to Paul that you just made all that up, and that your brother and his brother-in-arms are actually helping little old ladies cross the street and getting flowers and candy handed to them.
October 13th, 2006 at 2:43 pmRight on, Heather, thank you for heelping to out the truth!
October 13th, 2006 at 2:56 pmRUCerious #35
No, clue me in…
October 13th, 2006 at 3:09 pm#450 - big+papa,
October 13th, 2006 at 4:55 pmTry this.
#41 - 450 should be 40.
October 13th, 2006 at 4:56 pm#34 and #36. Liberals; outstanding spelling and grammar; failures at national security.
October 13th, 2006 at 5:23 pmWill she be drummed out the Marine Corps or whisked off to one of the secret gulags to be tortured?
You madame are a hero. Good for you. The truth will set us free once again. Hopefully, the lies of George Bush and Dick Cheney and the gang will be coming out with all the oversight of a Democratic Congress.
October 13th, 2006 at 6:12 pmPaul - you got it all backwards(and imagine my surprise) - Republicans are the big failures, didn’t you see Jim Baker’s report? W got a “Incomplete”, after what, 8-9 semesters of trying? Now he’s going to have to spend some of his “political capital” (and yes, I’m laughing while I type that, ’cause he’s more bankrupt than Air America in the “political capital” dept) to get himself a “do-over” or some other noble sounding excuse (excuse-making, gop advantage #2, right behind slander). In the meantime, his crazy-old-cold-war-relic-nixon administration-holdover of a Sec.Def. has demoralized and denigrated our Armed Services to the point that, if they actually had a couple more years we’d be seeing our first ever military coup in the US.
Go Team!! Check out my sassy new cheerleader outfit; I wear it when I go out to aggravate the “liberals” over at Think Progress!!
October 13th, 2006 at 6:23 pm#44. carollt. I am sure she’s nice, but is this what passes for a liberal hero.
‘I went to a club and I was drinking with these guys that said they were prison guards. One guy said he slammed a prisioners head into the wall. The other guy said he smacked a prisoner in the head. Now, I’m telling the press.’
October 13th, 2006 at 6:27 pmcarollt. I am sure she’s nice, but is this what passes for a liberal hero. Paul
She was in a bar, and they began drinking together.
I’ve been in bars here in San Diego frequented by sub-jocks, and fighter pilots, and they will get drunk and tell you things they would never say to someone they know. What’s your point? That she’ s a slut for being in the bar? Spit it out Paul; what are you intimating?
October 13th, 2006 at 9:36 pm#46 Why do you immediately assume they were some braggarts? Are you kidding? I know you righties like bragging about being “tough” but these guys admitted they were war criminals. You support them? Yeah, I thought so.
October 13th, 2006 at 10:43 pmRead what the goon squad did to an American plant, Sean Baker, who only ended up with brain damage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Baker
October 14th, 2006 at 4:29 am#47. barfly. This is just a paper-thin story about 2nd hand information. It’s not much of a story. She’s probably a great soldier, but hero?
October 14th, 2006 at 9:33 amSgt. Heather Cerveny…
She is so pretty!
I want to marry her. Hope she is still single.
October 15th, 2006 at 7:17 amThanks WaltTheMan #41
October 16th, 2006 at 2:41 pmIf they have nothing to hide, why not have camera’s throughout the place broadcast 24/7 ??? Even if it is web cast. Allow Amnisty International to post someone there or inspect it?
February 7th, 2007 at 5:57 pm[…] VIDEO: Marine Sergeant Reports Detainee Abuse At Guantanamo Bay In a sworn statement, Marine Sgt. Heather Cerveny describes how “she met several Navy prison guards at a club on the base where, over drinks, they described harsh physical abuse†of Gitmo detainees. […]
April 9th, 2007 at 6:17 am