Sean Baker

Who is Sean Baker?

Sean Baker, a native of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, is a United States Air Force veteran and former member of the Kentucky National Guard, who served during the first Gulf War, and as a member of the 438th Military Police at Guantanamo Bay.

In January 2003, Baker was ordered by an officer at Guantanamo to play the role of a prisoner in a training drill. As per instruction, Baker wore an orange prison jumpsuit over his uniform and crawled under a bunk in a cell, so an "internal reaction force" consisting of four US soldiers could practice extracting an uncooperative inmate from his cell. The soldiers in the reaction force were operating under the impression that he was a genuine detainee that had assaulted a sergeant.

During an interview with WLEX, a Kentucky television station, Baker stated that he was beaten severely and that a soldier pressed his head down against the steel floor of the facility to the point where he became unable to breathe. Although Baker shouted out the safeword he had been given to stop the exercise and stated that he was a U.S. soldier, the soldier continued beating Baker's head against the floor and choking him. Only after ripping his prison jumpsuit in the struggle, revealing that he was wearing a battle dress uniform and government-issue boots underneath, did the beating stop.