Military Confirms Soldier Injured in interrogation training

Military Confirms Soldier Injured in Cuba
Tue May 25, 2004
By BRETT BARROUQUERE, Associated Press Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Army confirmed Tuesday that a former military police officer was injured while posing as a prisoner during a training session at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last year.

But Maj. Laurie Arellano, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, said Spc. Sean Baker's medical discharge last month was not related to the head injury he received during training at the detention center, where the U.S. government is holding suspected terrorists. She declined to elaborate, citing medical privacy laws.

Arellano's comments came a day after Baker said he posed as an uncooperative prisoner and was beaten so badly by four U.S. soldiers that he suffered a traumatic brain injury, requiring a medical discharge.

Baker, of Georgetown, said the soldiers only stopped beating him when they realized he might be American.

Baker was with the 438th Military Police Company when the unit was deployed to Guantanamo last year. Officials said the injury occurred when he volunteered to take part in a training exercise for another unit ?-the 303rd Military Police Company based in Jackson, Mich.

Arellano said Baker was taken to the military hospital on the base, where a medical exam and brain scan cleared him to return to duty.

A few months later, Baker was sent to Walter Reed Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va., for an unrelated "medical consultation," Arellano said. He stayed at Walter Reed until his discharge from the military in April, she said.

Attempts to reach Baker Tuesday were unsuccessful.