The officer in charge "actually ordered me to put on the uniform of my enemy," Baker told WLEX-TV of Lexington, Ky., which first reported his allegations. "I was reluctant, but he said: 'You'll be fine. Put this on.' So I did."
Baker, who is 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs about 225 pounds, said he was ordered to crawl under a prison bunk and refuse to come out. He said he assumed that the MPs taking part knew it was a drill.
When the response force rushed into the cell, Baker said, the MPs dragged him out, slammed him face down, pinned his arms, twisted his legs behind his back and locked him in a painful chokehold.
"One of the individuals got up on my back and put pressure on me," Baker said. "I could not breathe, and I began to panic a little bit."
The soldier slammed his head against the steel floor while choking him, Baker said. A translator shouted at Baker in Pashto, an Afghan language, apparently believing he was a Taliban detainee, Simpson said.
In addition to the alleged brain injuries, Simpson said, Baker was cut on his temple and was treated at the prison.
A military physical evaluation board report of an examination Baker underwent in September 2003 cited his "service-connected disability" and said that Baker's "TBI [traumatic brain injury] was due to soldier playing role of detainee who was noncooperative and was being extracted from detention cell in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during a training exercise."
Baker was treated at four military hospitals, including a 48-day stay at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, before his discharge. Arellano, the military spokeswoman, said in late May that the Walter Reed treatment was unrelated to Baker's prison injuries. But the military since has conceded that Baker's hospitalization was for those injuries, spokesman Marshall said.
According to Simpson -- who said he had obtained portions of the military's internal investigation -- the MPs reported that they had been told Baker was a troublesome detainee who had assaulted a sergeant and refused to leave his cell.
Two of the MPs reportedly told investigators that before the incident, they gave a videotaped description of their mission to a team member, who taped the exercise. A sergeant in Baker's unit, the 438th Military Police Company, attempted to retrieve the tape but was told it had been lost or misplaced, Simpson said.
