{{Short description|Former Guantanamo Bay guard}} '''Brandon Neely''' is a former United States Army guard at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16> {{cite news |url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGCm2uzDOVnZrPh8S-R2kIBdiKuQD96BEUB00 |title=Former Gitmo guard recalls abuse, climate of fear |publisher=Associated Press |author=Mike Melia |date=2009-02-16 |accessdate=2009-02-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219021317/http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGCm2uzDOVnZrPh8S-R2kIBdiKuQD96BEUB00 |archivedate=2009-02-19 }} </ref><ref name=HumanRightsNeely> {{cite news |url=http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-guantanamo-testimonials-project/testimonies/testimonies-of-military-guards/testimony-of-brandon-neely |title=Testimony of Spc. Brandon Neely |publisher=Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas |date=December 2008 |accessdate=2009-02-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218121317/http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-guantanamo-testimonials-project/testimonies/testimonies-of-military-guards/testimony-of-brandon-neely |archivedate=2009-02-18 }} </ref><ref name=Cnn2011-10> {{cite news | url = http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/28/world/meast/guantanamo-guard/ | title = Ex-Guantanamo guard tells of violence against detainees | publisher = CNN | date = 2011-10-28 | accessdate = 2011-10-31 | quote = 'We were told that they were all guilty ... that these were the worst of the worst,' Brandon Neely said about the detainees who were arriving at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. | author = Jenifer Fenton }} </ref> Neely is notable for agreeing to be interviewed by the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas at the University of California, at Davis.

Neely declined to respond to a recall to active duty from the Individual Ready Reserve in 2007.<ref name=CourageToResist> {{cite news |url=http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/625/1/ |title=Iraq vet Brandon Neely successfully resists IRR recall |publisher=Courage to Resist |date=2008-10-08 |accessdate=2009-02-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105235740/http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/625/1/ |archivedate=2009-01-05 }} </ref><ref name=AndyWorthington2008-11-11> {{cite news | url=http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/11/11/on-veterans-day-my-correspondence-with-brandon-neely-iraq-war-resister-and-former-guantanamo-guard/ | title=On Veterans Day, my correspondence with Brandon Neely, Iraq war resister and former Guantánamo guard | publisher= | author=Andy Worthington | author-link=Andy Worthington | date=2008-11-11 | accessdate=2009-02-16 | quote= }} [http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2008/11/11/on-veterans-day-my-correspondence-with-brandon-neely-iraq-war-resister-and-former-guantanamo-guard/ mirror] </ref><ref name=Alternet2008-11-11> {{cite news |url = http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/106404/this_veterans_day%2C_u.s._soldiers_say_%27stop_the_war%27/ |title = This Veterans Day, U.S. Soldiers Say 'Stop the War' |publisher = Alternet |author = Brian Lews, Brandon Neely |date = 2008-11-11 |accessdate = 2009-02-16 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20090214043106/http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/106404/this_veterans_day%2C_u.s._soldiers_say_%27stop_the_war%27/ |archivedate = 2009-02-14 }} </ref> Neely reported that, after receiving letters from the Department of Defense, he was sent an honorable discharge<ref name=SeattleTimes02-2009> {{cite news | url = https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/ex-gitmo-guard-describes-abuse/ | title = Ex-Gitmo guard describes abuse | publisher = Seattle Times | date = 2009-02-15 | accessdate = 2020-08-09 | quote = 'Neely, who served for a year in Iraq after his six months at Guantánamo, received an honorable discharge last year' | author = Mike Melia }} </ref> from the Army Reserve.

In January 2010, Neely flew to the United Kingdom and met with former captives.<ref name=Bbc2010-01-12> {{cite news | url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8452937.stm | title=Guantanamo guard reunited with ex-inmates | publisher=BBC News | date=2010-01-12 | author=Gavin Lee | access-date=2010-01-12 }}</ref> Neely and Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul reconnected in 2009 via Rasul's Facebook page. The ''BBC Radio'' was scheduled to air a documentary about the meeting on January 14, 2010.

==Guantanamo duty== Neely was a guard at Guantanamo for the first six months the camp was open, and described feeling guilty for the brutal treatment captives received at that time.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16/>

In an interview with Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas Neely said that he and another guard experienced the first resistant prisoner for whom a "code red" (a euphemism for a violent extrajudicial punishment) was called, calling in the camp's first use of its immediate reaction force.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16/> He described how he and the other guard were trying to get a captive to kneel, so they could remove the captive's shackles. He could feel the captive trembling, and his body tense up. He and the other guard threw the elderly man to his cell's concrete floor, and called for the immediate reaction force. Neely described learning later that the reason the captive was shaking, and his body was so tense, was that he believed he was being made to kneel in preparation for his summary execution—a bullet to the back of the head.

Neely described watching a medic calling upon the immediate reaction force to hold an underweight captive immobile so he could force him to drink a can of Ensure.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16/> When the captive wouldn't open his mouth, Neely said the medic asked Neely to move, and then punched the captive twice in the face. Neely said he only realized afterwards that the medic had him move to a point where Neely's body blocked the medics punches from the guards in the guard tower. He said he later learned that the captive resisted drinking the diet supplement because he feared it was poisonous.

Neely said that he saw camp medical staff perform a digital rectal examination, searching for contraband, without first lubricating their fingers, and that this made the captive scream in pain.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16/>

Neely said that it had been a friend of his who was the first guard the captives saw drop a Qur'an on the ground.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16/> He said that this incident upset the captives so much it triggered a camp-wide hunger strike. While the Colonel in command of their unit said the guard who dropped the Qur'an would be punished, his friend was never punished.

Neely said that female guards used to regularly take their turns escorting captives to the open-air showers, and that the captives felt humiliated to be exposed, naked, in front of the female guard.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16/>

Neely said that camp authorities told the guards they could not leave Guantanamo for their next assignment unless they signed a confidentiality agreement, promising not to give interviews about Guantanamo, or to write about their experiences there themselves.<ref name=Ap2009-02-16/>

==Civilian life== Brandon Neely is the former president of the Houston chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War.<ref name=AndyWorthington2008-11-11/><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/business/media/11bbc.html | title=Guantánamo Reunion, by Way of BBC | work=The New York Times | author=Brian Stelter | date=2010-01-11 | accessdate=2010-03-12 }}</ref>

Brandon Neely [http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=15854 resigned] from IVAW in early 2008 citing IVAW was becoming radical and anti-American.

Neely, 29, had left the US military in 2005 to become a police officer and was still struggling to come to terms with his time as a guard at Guantanamo.<ref name=Bbc2010-01-12/>

Neely is one of seven Twitter users suing U.S. President Donald Trump for being blocked from his @realDonaldTrump personal account. The ''Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump'' lawsuit was filed on July 11, 2017<ref name="forbes-11jul2017">{{cite news|last1=Heilweil|first1=Rebecca|title=Trump Violates First Amendment With Every Twitter User He Blocks, Lawsuit Contends|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaheilweil1/2017/07/11/trump-violates-first-amendment-with-every-twitter-user-he-blocks-lawsuit-contends/|accessdate=July 12, 2017|newspaper=Forbes|date=July 11, 2017}}</ref> ⁠— see section §{{hsp}}⁠⁠Later developments for any official judgements handed down in the case thus far.

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=15854 Brandon Neely's letter of resignation from IVAW] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9-v4mqFQMw Interview with Rachel Maddow - (video)] February 17, 2009 * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nshpz BBC -- Tales from Guantanamo]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neely, Brandon}} Category:Living people Category:United States Army soldiers Category:Year of birth missing (living people)