Nell Freudenberger Reads from an Interpreter's Sworn Statement
Nell Freudenberger, author of Lucky Girls and recipient of the PEN/Malaud Award for short fiction, reads from the sworn statement of an interpreter at the Kandahar Detention Facility in Afghanistan, as part of the 2009 PEN event Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror”. Read the statement below.
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Sworn Statement, Kandahar Detention Facility, Afghanistan, 13 February 2002
I am writing this in response to events that I witnessed while performing my duties as an interrogator with the Task Force 202 JIF.
Specialist [censored] and I were conducting an interrogation of military prisoner number [censored] on 3 January, 2002. Special Forces personnel had been visiting the booth area previously and helping out by giving information that they had from their raids. [censored] and I took a break to regroup and check our notes. I was the translator. While we were out of the booth, several Special Forces members entered the booth. At the time I did not think anything of it, and thought they were just observing him based on previous experiences with their people. This was a different group of [Special Forces] people I hadn’t seen before. [censored] and I finished the break and went back to continue the interrogation. When we entered the booth, we found the Special Forces members all crouched around the prisoner. They were blowing cigarette smoke in his face. The prisoner was extremely upset. It took a long time to calm him down and find out what had happened. The prisoner was visibly shaken and crying. [censored] immediately told them to get out and not to come back anywhere near anyone that we were talking to. I could tell something was wrong. The prisoner was extremely upset. He said that they had hit him, told him that he was going to die, blew smoke in his face, and had shocked him with some kind of device. He used the term “electricity.”
I immediately notified our Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of what had happened.
I was very upset that such a thing could happen. I take my job and responsibilities as an interrogator and as a human being very seriously. I understand the importance of the Geneva Convention and what it represents. If I don’t honor it, what right do I have to expect any other military to do so?
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