"It Was a Sunny Day"

"It Was a Sunny Day"
by Jason Leopold
11 January 2012

.....The bus rolled in to the side of Camp X-Ray and the doors opened. The MP canine unit was present and their dogs were snarling. The first detainee to exit, a man Neely recalls was in his 30s and overweight, was missing a leg. A Marine inside the bus threw the man's prosthetic leg onto the gravel. The MPs nicknamed him "Stumpy."

That was Neely's first exposure to the "worst of the worst."

"I was shocked," Neely said. "I will never forget that."

The one-legged detainee hopped toward the holding area flanked by a couple of MPs who were screaming at him to "walk faster," Neely said. The detainee was wearing a hood; an orange jumpsuit; goggles, which were designed to disorient his senses during the flight to Guantanamo from Afghanistan; a surgical mask; earmuffs; and gloves that looked like oven mitts. His leg, at least the one he still had, was shackled. His hands were attached to a chain wrapped around his torso. more