Cleric's story of abduction, torture, Letter opening salvo in CIA officers' trial

[Rose Siding]

snip>
In a kidnapping case against 26 Americans and five Italian intelligence operatives, including the one-time CIA chief in Rome and Italy's former top spymaster, Nasr, better known as Abu Omar, will speak to the court through his letter, telling his story for the first time in his own words.

According to Abu Omar's written account, obtained by the Tribune, he was walking to his mosque in Milan on Feb. 17, 2003, when he was stopped on the street by a man who identified himself as a police officer. The cleric wrote that he was pulled into a van, beaten and taken by plane to Egypt.

He described in detail how his Egyptian interrogators tried to get him to agree to become an informer, and he says he refused. What followed, according to his letter, was torture with electric shocks, beatings that caused him to lose the hearing in one ear, and sexual abuse.

For long periods of time, he said in his letter, he was kept in an underground cell "where you cannot distinguish between night and day and the cockroaches and rats and insects walk all over my body night and day."
Abu Omar has been locked away for nearly four years, most of it in Egypt's notorious Torah Prison, some 1,600 miles from the massive Tribunale in Milan, where a preliminary hearing in the case is to begin on Tuesday. Those proceedings could shine the first bright light on the U.S. practice of "rendering" terrorist suspects to other countries for interrogation that allegedly is often accompanied by torture.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070107abuomar-main-story,1,7418553.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

[Bitwit1234]

1. How can any citizen of the US condone this

How in the world can a US citizen, someone who calls themselve American condone this type of treatment. Fox news, the right wing bloggers, the 30% still left support this horrific action. What is wrong with them.
How were these people raised. What kind of upbring did they have to love torture. God help us if this is what Americans condone.

[struggle4progress]

2. 'This is how they kidnapped me from Italy' (Translation of the account)

... Seven months passed as if seven years. I experienced pain and torture and reading papers and magazines was completely prohibited as well as radio and television or seeing family members, everything was prohibited, an unbearable hell and I kept myself busy by telling myself that my Italian government would not let me down and that the Italian ambassador will come and release me by force for I am an Italian citizen by law and hold an Italian passport, but none of this happened. During the interrogations, they asked me about some of the words written in my Italian passport and in the Sigorno and what they meant in Arabic and they asked about the phone numbers stored on my cell phone and then they told me that I was going to be moved to another place and they gave me two papers. One paper stated that I had been well treated and that I was never tortured and they forced me to sign it under the threat of further torture until I signed. As for the second paper, it stated that I had no belongings in their custody, so I refused and told them that I brought with me from Italy a few items that were on me and I listed them but he said to me that the people who brought me from Italy stole them and took them and I responded, "The things are here and they asked me during the interrogations about them," so they tortured me until I signed that I had no belongings.

I took off the clothes they had dressed me in (the blue clothes) and they gave me the clothes I had worn coming in from Italy, the clothes that the people who kidnapped me had dressed me in; a training suit (pajama style) the sleeves were torn as well as the legs of the pants were cut at the bottom down to the legs. They then bound my hands behind my back as well as bound my feet and blindfolded me and then they placed me on a mini-bus and I was very happy as I imagined that I was returning to my country, Italy, after the intervention of the Italian government. They asked me, "Do you know where you are going?" I responded, "To the airport to return to Italy," and they left me and did not respond. The vehicle drove for approximately half an hour and then it stopped and they opened the door and ordered me to step down and they took me to a building and I heard footsteps coming towards me and take me to a room and suddenly I saw many hands beating me all over my body as well as feet and curses from many mouths and then they asked me my name and my age and job and about my family and they told me, "You are now in a place that even blue flies cannot get to," and they put me in a cell while my hands and feet were still bound and I was still blindfolded and they warned me against taking off the blindfold or moving it even a little and they told me that "there is a guard at the door who will be watching you and if he sees you moving the blindfold you will undergo a torture campaign."

I asked them about the "Qibla" and where the bathroom was so that I could use and wash for prayer and they said, "You are in a bathroom," and they moved the blindfold slightly to the top and said, "Look at this place where you will urinate and defecate," there was an extremely small hole, "and this is that water that you will use for drinking and for washing after urinating and defecating," the same water container. The cell had no electricity and one cannot tell night from day and has no openings for ventilation and there was one blanket. How can I sleep in a bathroom that smells so disgustingly rotten, that cattle would be embarrassed to urinate or defecate in, let alone a human being? The cell was approximately the same size as the cell in which I stayed for about seven and a half months at the Egyptian National Security & Intelligence building near the Republican Palace in Hadayek El Quba. As for this new place, I found out later that it is called the State Security Apparatus and is in Nasr City in Cairo. And although I do not wish to recollect this place which every time I remember, I remember what I experienced in brutal torture and sexual abuse and I am overtaken with and uncontrollable and continuous weeping. But I will tell of some of what happened to me there ...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-cialetter-story,1,2033270.story?coll=chi-news-hed

[B3Nut]

3. How can anyone, in any country, condone this

and call themselves a human being? Is our species this hopelessly depraved and stupid?

Todd in Beerbratistan

[TahitiNut]

4. As far as I'm concerned, the mere fact that he was 'detained' for 4 years ...`

... after being kidnapped is more than enough to accept every other allegation he makes as fact beyond a reasonable doubt unless and until clear and convincing proof to the contrary is presented. In the context of such a heinous violation of human liberties, I believe it's reasonable to shift the burden of proof for all other included offenses to the defense. It's a state crime and state criminals don't deserve the 'extra mile' of presumption that individual citizens do, imho.

[ShockediSay]

5. Hasn't this Pres &VP amply demonstrate the need for checks

and something to remedy their imbalance?

Odds on are that these guys are more than likely wrong about anything or anybody!