American Detained, Tortured in UAE at U.S. Govt's Behest, ACLU Says

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Naji Hamdan Says He Was Beaten Until Losing Consciousness in Abu Dhabi Prison

An American citizen has been detained and tortured in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the U.S. government, according to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed in federal court.

...

Hamdan, who had moved to Dubai several years ago after living in the U.S. for more than 20 years, becoming an American citizen, and raising a family in California, was arrested in August 2008 by state security forces of the UAE. Several weeks before the arrest, FBI agents interrogated Hamdan at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, the lawsuit said.

In a handwritten statement given to the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, Hamdan said he was kept in a frigid cell with blinding lights on 24 hours a day, and only left to be interrogated and tortured and to go to the toilet.

"They sat me on an electric chair; they tied my wrists to it but they did not turn it on," Hamdan wrote in the statement. "He started punching me on the sides of my head, and slapping me straight to my head from the top&. I started to sweat then I lost conscious (sic)&"

He also said in the statement that one person spoke perfect English, and that he believes to be an American, was present at the interrogation: "He said do what they want or these people 'will you up.'"

Hamdan said in his written statement, "I am not a terrorist, I never was, I am a regular American Muslim who's looking to raise his kids and live a comfortable life with his family," but that under the pressure of torture and threats of harm to his wife, he agreed to sign a self-incriminating document in prison.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7782868&page=1

[winyanstaz]

1. No wonder they just want to skip right to killing these people..

that they falsely arrested and then tortured into signing confessions.
Now they are torturing them into signing statements that they just want to be killed. Yah right!
Sheesh..this sucks.
We need trials if only to lay the rumors to rest.
If the government is innocent and has only been doing its job..it has nothing to fear from honest and open trials.
To deny these people their day in court is unamerican.
Please return us to being a Nation of Law Obama. Thank you.

[Iowa]

2. As long as the torturers continue to be shielded, protected, and enabled...

...this country will not move forward. Nor should it. The previous president was a black stain on the soul of the country, and the current president is hell-bent to protecting, nurturing, and preserving that stain.

[Wednesdays]

3. K&R

:kick:

[aquart]

4. This. Is. An. AMERICAN. Citizen.

WE SENT AN AMERICAN CITIZEN TO BE TORTURED!

[EFerrari]

6. Once a government starts torturing, the boundaries are always exceeded.

Always. That's why we have to prosecute -- because until this really stops, we are at risk.

[bdamomma]

7. yea, how many more are being tortured that we don't know about.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R