This one will be tough to explain away by those who deny that torture is happening in Gitmo…

Spc. Sean D. Baker, 38, volunteered to take part in a training drill at training drill at the Guantanamo prison in January 2003. To make the drill realistic he was dressed in an orange jumpsuit and the MPs were told that he was an uncooperative detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant.

Baker said he put on the jumpsuit and squeezed under a prison bunk after being told by a lieutenant that he would be portraying an unruly detainee. He said he was assured that MPs conducting the “extraction drill” knew it was a training exercise and that Baker was an American soldier.

As he was being choked and beaten, Baker said, he screamed a code word, “red,” and shouted: “I’m a U.S. soldier! I’m a U.S. soldier!” He said the beating continued until the jumpsuit was yanked down during the struggle, revealing his military uniform.

The assault left him with seizures, blackouts, headaches, insomnia and psychological problems.

Baker is now receiving $2,350 a month in military disability benefits, plus $1,000 a month in Social Security, but–adding insult to inury–regulations require that he give up his military job (including pension) when he started receiving disability.

The Pentagon initially said that Baker’s hospitalization following the training incident was not related to the beating. Later, officials conceded that he was treated for injuries suffered when a five-man MP “internal reaction force” choked him, slammed his head several times against a concrete floor and sprayed him with pepper gas.

“Even in light of all that happened to him,” his lawyer claims, “he still wants to serve his country.”