New books from Gitmo inmate and guard allege torture, cover-ups

The release of a book by current Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi about his experiences in the American detention center coincides with the release of a new book from a former Gitmo guard, Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman. Both men make serious allegations of brutal torture by the CIA, with Hickman stating that three Gitmo deaths the Pentagon claims were suicides were actually murders.

In Murder at Camp Delta , Hickman says that the CIA uses Guantanamo as a "battle lab" to test gruesome innovations in torture on detainees. When three detainees died as a result of this testing, Hickman writes, the Pentagon covered it up by inventing a story of a suicide pact.

Slahi's Guantanamo Diary recounts CIA torture from personal experience, including sleep deprivation, sexualized torture, and prolonged beatings while submerged in ice. Slahi has been at Gitmo for 13 years and is among the nearly half of current prisoners who have long been cleared for release.

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