Infamous GITMO "Interrogator" also tortured Americans and forced confessions as a Chicago cop

© The Guardian

Chicago, Illinois - Last month, we reported that large numbers of military police officers who were formerly stationed at the infamous torture prisons at Guantánamo Bay were getting jobs as local cops.

Now, a new investigation by the has revealed that Former Guantánamo Bay interrogator Richard Zuley was already torturing people as a Chicago detective before he was ever stationed at the military prison.

In fact, it was reported that he was one of the most brutal officers in the city during his 25 years with the police department.

During his time on the police force, between 1977 and 2007, Zuley behaved as if he was in a military prison in a war zone. Zuley often used torture to force confessions out of suspects. He has also been accused of shackling inmates to the walls during interrogations and leaving them for hours on end with no food or water. He's been accused of threatening to hurt family members of suspects if they did not confess, threatening suspects with the death penalty, and in some cases he was even caught planting evidence.

He then left and became an interrogator in the military prisons at Guantánamo Bay, where he reportedly carried out "one of the most shocking acts of torture ever conducted."

"I've never seen anyone stoop to those levels. It's unconscionable, from a perspective of a criminal prosecution - or an interrogation, for that matter," prosecutor Stuart Couch told reporters.

Zuley fit in great at Guantánamo Bay, and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the lead interrogators at the prison.

"From what I was told, General Miller thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Miller was amazed at the information he was getting. So apparently Zuley ratcheted up these techniques, with the backing of Miller, to go up the chain of command for approval," Couch said.

Richard Zuley is currently free, but is now under investigation after some of the innocent people who he put behind bars are now clearing their names and filing complaints against the former officer.

It is a sad state of affairs when those who claim to protect freedom behave in a manner indicative of the historically villainous states of the past.