Rebel military chief says he was tortured by CIA

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Independent

Rebel military chief says he was tortured by CIA

Abdulhakim Belhaj's allegations suggest a close relationship between the US and Gaddafi's regime

By Patrick Cockburn
Friday, 2 September 2011

The overthrow of Gaddafi has brought together strange allies, but few stranger than Abdulhakim Belhaj, the military commander of all rebel military forces in Tripoli, and Nato. An Islamist whom Gaddafi tried to have the US list as a terrorist, Mr Belhaj says he was tortured by CIA agents after being arrested in the Far East in 2004 and later handed over by them to Colonel Gaddafi for further torture and imprisonment in Libya.

Mr Belhaj, the head of the military council for Tripoli, who led an Islamist guerrilla organisation fighting the Gaddafi regime in the 1990s, told The Independent in an interview that he had been directly "tortured by CIA agents" in Thailand after being first arrested in Malaysia.

If true, his story is evidence of the close co-operation between the CIA and Colonel Gaddafi's security services after the Libyan leader denounced the 9/11 attacks. After his stint in the hands of the CIA, Mr Belhaj was kept in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. He says: "I was in prison for seven years during which I was subjected to torture as well as solitary confinement. I was even denied a shower for three years." Other Libyan Islamist prisoners have related how they were sometimes taken from Abu Salim to be questioned by US officials in Tripoli.

Released from prison in 2010, Mr Belhaj, who had military experience from fighting in Afghanistan against the Russians in the 1980s, became one of the most effective rebel military commanders. He is said by diplomats to have played a crucial role in the capture of Tripoli at the end of last month, and is highly regarded by the chairman of the Transitional National Council (TNC), Mustafa Abdul Jalil.






Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebel-military-chief-says-he-was-tortured-by-cia-2347912.html

[marasinghe]

1. now there's one guy who's not gonna be a minister in the new govt..

didn't learn to keep his mouth shut, until the right moment, from his Air America flights.
unless this is one of those triple-play games, the Alphabet city boys have come up with - to seed the new democracy in Libya.

[The Northerner]

2. K&R n/t

[Selatius]

3. A religious fundamentalist is now a high-ranking rebel leader in the NTC. :/

[No Elephants]

5. Shah, meet the Ayotollah?

[No Elephants]

4. It's like Project Runway. "One day you're 'in' and the next day, you're 'out.'"

The Shah of Iran was in one day, then he was out.

Saddam Hussein was in one day, now his neck has rope burn.

Bin Laden was in one day, now he sleeps with the fishes.

Mubarak and Gaddify were in, now they're out.

Maybe moveon.org should open a Middle Eastern branch?


U.S. foreign policy, creating millions of people who hate Americans since 1789. (Only now, they can get nuclear weapons.)