JURIST - Paper Chase: Britons claim abuses at Guantanamo similar to Abu Ghraib

Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, two Britons released from Guantanamo Bay in March, have written an open letter to President Bush claiming they were subjected to abuse similar to that perpetrated at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The men write that "from the moment of our arrival in Guantanamo Bay (and indeed from long before) we were deliberately humiliated and degraded by methods we now read US officials denying," and describe those methods as including assaults on prisoners, prolonged shackling in uncomfortable positions, strobe lights, loud music and being threatened with dogs. Friday's Guardian has the full story. In a related story, French lawyer Jacques Verges has indicated that he will file a lawsuit at the International Criminal Court accusing Britain of war crimes for "torture and systematic abuses of the dignity of Iraqi prisoners, sometimes followed by murders" by UK and US troops. Verges is using the Taguba report [PDF] and Red Cross findings to support his allegations. AFP has the full story.