Back in the spring, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee named Manssor Adayfi ignited a stir when he claimed that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who would soon announce his bid for the White House, had mocked Adayfi as he was being allegedly tortured.
The Miami Herald launched the controversy in March, picking up on claims that Adayfi, who was freed and became an activist, made about DeSantis in his 2021 memoir.
Writing at Al Jazeera’s website in April, Adayfi recalled that in 2006 he and other prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest conditions at Gitmo. At one point, the guards tried to force-feed him to break the strike.
“As I tried to break free, I noticed DeSantis’s handsome face among the crowd at the other side of the chain link. He was watching me struggle. He was smiling and laughing with other officers as I screamed in pain,” Adayfi wrote. “That force-feeding was inhumane. It was meant to break me and teach me a lesson. It was meant to show me that I was just an animal with no human rights. There is no other way to call it, it was torture.”
Yet, the left-wing New York Times, of all sources, refuted Adayfi’s claims about DeSantis on Sunday.
The paper reported as much under a headline that noted claims about DeSantis abusing detainees were “unfounded.” In a subheadline, the Times proclaimed it “found no evidence” to back up Adayfi’s assertion of maltreatment.
According to Newsmax, which reviewed the Times’ article, the Times interviewed 40 people for its piece and “discovered no one who could refute DeSantis’ public denials of any forced feeding of detainees.”
In the news: 2 Florida Republicans Want Biden Admin To Explain Use Of Drag Queens Targeting Children In Ecuador
The Republican governor said of Adayfi’s claims at the time they were made, “That’s not true. I was a junior officer. I didn’t have the authority to authorize anything. There may have been a commander who would have done feeding if someone was going to die, but that is not something I would have even had the authority to do.”
Newsmax noted that a few former officers stationed at Gitmo during the alleged force-feeding supported DeSantis’ comments.
Retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who was the chief prosecutor at Gitmo when DeSantis visited there, told the Times, “He was just too junior and too inexperienced and too green to have had any substantial role.”
Retired Navy Capt. Patrick McCarthy, who had knowledge of DeSantis’ duties at the time, said, “Ron DeSantis was never in a position to witness the enteral feeding of detainees, or in the position to participate in an enteral feeding. Nor was he in the position to witness or participate in the mistreatment of any detainees.”
Retired Army Col. Mike Bumgarner told the Times that lawyers, like DeSantis, would not have been allowed in the area where such events happened.
“There is no way in the world that could have occurred,” Bumgarner said. “They would have never let a lawyer there.”
Android Users, Click To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Signup for our free newsletter.
We can’t do this without your help; visit our GiveSendGo page and donate any dollar amount; every penny helps