A truly Kafkaesqe story to air on 60 Minutes, Sunday

An acquaintance of mine is a producer at 60 Minutes and he sent me a press release on the following story (I've cut it down a little in size. You can hear the whole shameful story on 60 Minutes). As Michael Karzis says, "It's interesting to finally find out what those nameless, faceless people in orange jumpsuits actually have to say."

IN HIS FIRST U.S. TELEVISION INTERVIEW, FORMER

TERROR DETAINEE SAYS AMERICANS HELD HIM IN GUANTANAMO FOR

YEARS DESPITE EVIDENCE OF HIS INNOCENCE – “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY

Murat Kurnaz Claims he was held Underwater, Shocked, and Suspended from Ceiling by U.S. Troops

A German resident held by the U.S. for almost five years tells Scott Pelley that Americans tortured him in many ways – including hanging him from the ceiling for five days early in his captivity when he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Even after determining he was not a terrorist, Murat Kurnaz says the torture continued. Kurnaz tells his story for the first time on American television in a 60 MINUTES interview to be broadcast on Sunday, March 30 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Kurnaz, an ethnic Turk born and raised in Germany, went to Pakistan in late 2001 at age 19 to study Islam, and wound up in Pakistani police custody. It was three months after 9/11, and Kurnaz says the U.S. was offering bounties for suspicious foreigners. Kurnaz says he was “sold” to the Americans for $3,000 and brought to Kandahar, Afghanistan as terrorist suspect. He claims American troops tortured him in Afghanistan by holding his head underwater, administering electric shocks to the soles of his feet, and hanging him suspended from the ceiling of an aircraft hangar where he was kept alive by doctors. “Every five or six hours they came and pulled me back down and the doctor came,” he recalls. “He looked into my eyes. He checked my heart and when he said ‘okay’ then they pulled me back up,” he tells Pelley.

The Pentagon refused to comment on the allegations.

He says he was then brought to Guantanamo as one of the first “enemy combatants.” His treatment there, he says, included repeated beatings at the hands of soldiers in riot gear, sleep-deprivation and solitary confinement.

After a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2004, Kurnaz was visited by an American lawyer, who successfully sued the U.S. government to release his classified file. That file contained information from the FBI, German Intelligence and even the U.S. military pointing to his innocence. But after a series of military tribunals and review boards, he remained in Guantanamo for another three-and-a-half years.

Kurnaz’ lawyer, Baher Azmy, says there may be many more cases like Kurnaz’s at the offshore prison. “In Guantanamo, no detainee has ever been able to genuinely present evidence before a neutral judge and so as absurd as Murat Kurnaz's case is, I assure you, there are many, many dozens just as tenuous,” Azmy tells Pelley.