On another board I was made aware of the following:
Coerced FBI Confessions for the Innocent at Psychsound.com:
The general public does not read court decisions, and that is a shame, because some of these decisions can be best-sellers. If you consider that some of the most successful authors of the last 20 years are legal fiction writers, it's a shame that some of the court rulings never become widely publicized considering the drama and human depravity that often surfaces through even a single lawsuit over civil rights or some other injustice.
...SNIP...
The long and the short of it was that an Egyptian national, Abdallah Higazy, was staying in a hotel in New York City on September 11 and the hotel emptied out when the planes hit the towers. The hotel later found in the closet of his room a device that allows you to communicate with airline pilots. Investigators thought this guy had something to do with 9/11 so they questioned him. According to Higazi, the investigators coerced him into confessing to a role in 9/11. Higazi first adamantly denied any involvement with 9/11 and could not believe what was happening to him. Then, he says, the investigator said his family would go through hell in Egypt, where they torture people like Saddam Hussein. Higazy then realized he had a choice: he could continue denying the radio was his and his family suffers ungodly torture in Egypt or he confesses and his family is spared. Of course, by confessing, Higazy's life is worth garbage at that point, but ... well, that's why coerced confessions are outlawed in the United States.
So Higazy "confesses" and he's processed by the criminal justice system. His future is quite bleak. Meanwhile, an airline pilot later shows up at the hotel and asks for his radio back. This is like something out of the movies. The radio belonged to the pilot, not Higazy, and Higazy was free to go, the victim of horrible timing. Higazi was innocent! He next sued the hotel and the FBI agent for coercing his confession. The bottom line in the Court of Appeals: Higazy has a case and may recover damages for this injustice.
...SNIP...
Higazy alleges that during the polygraph, Templeton told him that he should cooperate, and explained that if Higazy did not cooperate, the FBI would make his brother “live in scrutiny” and would “make sure that Egyptian security gives family hell.” Templeton later admitted that he knew how the Egyptian security forces operated: “that they had a security service, that their laws are different than ours, that they are probably allowed to do things in that country where they don’t advise people of their rights, they don’t – yeah, probably about torture, sure.”
Higazy later said, "I knew that I couldn't prove my innocence, and I knew that my family was in danger." He explained that "he only thing that went through my head was oh, my God, I am screwed and my family's in danger. If I say this device is mine, I'm screwed and my family is going to be safe. If I say this device is not mine, I’m screwed and my family’s in danger. And Agent Templeton made it quite clear that cooperate had to mean saying something else other than this device is not mine.”
Higazy explained why he feared for his family:
"The Egyptian government has very little tolerance for anybody who is —they’re suspicious of being a terrorist. To give you an idea, Saddam’s security force—as they later on were called his henchmen—a lot of them learned their methods and techniques in Egypt; torture, rape, some stuff would be even too sick to . . . . My father is 67. My mother is 61. I have a brother who developed arthritis at 19. He still has it today. When the word ‘torture’ comes at least for my brother, I mean, all they have to do is really just press on one of these knuckles. I couldn’t imagine them doing anything to my sister."
...SNIP...
That's how they do it, folks. If a foreign national is suspected of terrorist activity, the FBI will threaten to have a brutal foreign government punish his family. And punishment in a place like Egypt is not like punishment here. Punishment here consists of solitary confinement and a very long prison term. Punishment over there is torture.That's disgusting. I am so sad for my country. I am sad because at this point it isn't just a rogue administration made of feckless cowards who talk tough but cowered in their closets when they had a chance to fight in their generations war. I fear that what has gone wrong will not be made right once they are gone. No it is NOT just the Bush administration and it's hand picked minions and cronies who have turned us into a nation of torturers no different from Egypt, or Syria for that matter.
It is on the American People now. It is the still huge component of our society who have been shown the
facts that innocent people are being tortured, rendered, coerced into giving false confessions, and yet their answer is: "Do whatever you want to do, no matter how disgusting or unconstitutional, just keep me safe from Osama Bin Laden. Oh yeah, and don't bother actually trying to catch him. After all the Islamo-fascists are coming to take me away."
It is no longer possible for me to think it is just a product of people being scared. It is no longer possible for me to think it is mere apathy. It is obvious now that a large portion of the American people (and yes I exempt myself and others who
keep speaking out,
keep calling congress,
keep calling the White House) have a blood lust, a brutishness, that revels in the idea of the injustices that they imagine are foisted only on "evil doers." All the while consciously ignoring the
FACT that these horrors are being visited not just on American Citizens and Foreigners who ARE involved in terrorist activities, but on the INNOCENT.
And yes plenty of representatives of these cowards with blood-lust post here on this board. You fight the label but your support of these actions brands you anyway.
I weep for the soul of this once most free nation on earth. We BETTER do something and SOON, or we will be thrust into the role of the once great, but now rabid colossus bear to be feared and if possible put down.
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