:salam2:
Ex-Gitmo Detainee "Addicted" to Jail
IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
Hicks suffers from agoraphobia and panic attacks, two hallmarks of prisoners who spent a long time in confined isolation.
CAIRO — Long damaging years in America's notorious Guantanamo detention camp has left Australian David Hicks a mental wreck, preferring isolation inside prison cells and artificial lighting to open air and sunshine.
"He tried to go out but he just said everything closed in on him," his father Terry told The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday, December 24.
Hicks was returned to Australia in May to serve a nine-month term in his home town of Adelaide after five years in Guantanamo.
During the last seven months, he ventured out of his cell into the sunshine only once.
He can no longer cope with the open space of the outer world, preferring enclosed rooms and artificial lighting to open air.
The 32-year-old is now due to be released from his jail on Saturday, December 19, but he is psychologically unprepared to pick up the threads of his old life.
He suffers from agoraphobia - a physiological disorder associated with being afraid to leave known, safe environments.
Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 during the US-led invasion and was later moved to Guantanamo.
He was the first prisoner in the notorious facility to be tried after five years in detention.
Hicks was released as part of a plea bargain deal under which he pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism and recanted allegations he was abused by US Guantanamo jailers
His father has told reporters his son was forced to sign a document in which he backtracked on the abuse accusations.
Human rights groups have further questioned the plea deal's requirement that Hicks refrain from speaking to the media for a year.
Panic Attacks
Beside his agoraphobia, Hicks suffers from another hallmark of prisoners who spent a long time in confined isolation.
Hicks's father said his son struggles from panic attacks believing he is still in the hands of the US interrogators.
It was clear when his guards tried to take Hicks out of Yatala prison to the northern suburban Holden Hill police station in early November as part of the release preparation.
"They told him he had no choice, he had to go; and they put him in the van and took him away," Terry told The Herald.
"He just regressed back to Guantanamo Bay and he had such anxiety they had to bring him back."
Psychologists believe that Hicks's precarious mental state marks people who have spent prolonged confinement and isolation, a typical methodology used in Guantanamo.
Over the past years, Guantanamo has drawn worldwide condemnation for operating outside the law.
Many prisoners at the camp, where some 340 detainees are still being held, have committed suicide and gone on extensive hunger strikes.
Jose Padilla, the US citizen who was held incommunicado and without trial for 3-1/2 years in a US military prison, has become the public face of prisoners who was reportedly subjected to severe psychological torture that drove him insane, according to psychiatrists.
The interrogation techniques used with Padilla have reportedly driven him to see his interrogators as a father-figure.
Ex-Gitmo Detainee "Addicted" to Jail
IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
Hicks suffers from agoraphobia and panic attacks, two hallmarks of prisoners who spent a long time in confined isolation.
CAIRO — Long damaging years in America's notorious Guantanamo detention camp has left Australian David Hicks a mental wreck, preferring isolation inside prison cells and artificial lighting to open air and sunshine.
"He tried to go out but he just said everything closed in on him," his father Terry told The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday, December 24.
Hicks was returned to Australia in May to serve a nine-month term in his home town of Adelaide after five years in Guantanamo.
During the last seven months, he ventured out of his cell into the sunshine only once.
He can no longer cope with the open space of the outer world, preferring enclosed rooms and artificial lighting to open air.
The 32-year-old is now due to be released from his jail on Saturday, December 19, but he is psychologically unprepared to pick up the threads of his old life.
He suffers from agoraphobia - a physiological disorder associated with being afraid to leave known, safe environments.
Hicks was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 during the US-led invasion and was later moved to Guantanamo.
He was the first prisoner in the notorious facility to be tried after five years in detention.
Hicks was released as part of a plea bargain deal under which he pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism and recanted allegations he was abused by US Guantanamo jailers
His father has told reporters his son was forced to sign a document in which he backtracked on the abuse accusations.
Human rights groups have further questioned the plea deal's requirement that Hicks refrain from speaking to the media for a year.
Panic Attacks
Beside his agoraphobia, Hicks suffers from another hallmark of prisoners who spent a long time in confined isolation.
Hicks's father said his son struggles from panic attacks believing he is still in the hands of the US interrogators.
It was clear when his guards tried to take Hicks out of Yatala prison to the northern suburban Holden Hill police station in early November as part of the release preparation.
"They told him he had no choice, he had to go; and they put him in the van and took him away," Terry told The Herald.
"He just regressed back to Guantanamo Bay and he had such anxiety they had to bring him back."
Psychologists believe that Hicks's precarious mental state marks people who have spent prolonged confinement and isolation, a typical methodology used in Guantanamo.
Over the past years, Guantanamo has drawn worldwide condemnation for operating outside the law.
Many prisoners at the camp, where some 340 detainees are still being held, have committed suicide and gone on extensive hunger strikes.
Jose Padilla, the US citizen who was held incommunicado and without trial for 3-1/2 years in a US military prison, has become the public face of prisoners who was reportedly subjected to severe psychological torture that drove him insane, according to psychiatrists.
The interrogation techniques used with Padilla have reportedly driven him to see his interrogators as a father-figure.
May Allah make it easy for him and every other brother suffering at the hands of the enemy, Ameen!!:tti_sister::tti_sister: