Disappeared in the Name of National Security

Disappeared in the Name of National Security

www.huffingtonpost.com

From October 2003 until May 2005, I was illegally detained by the U.S. government and held in CIA-run "black sites" with no contact with the outside world.

On May 5, 2005, without explanation, my American captors removed me from my cell and cuffed, hooded, and bundled me onto a plane that delivered me to Sana'a, Yemen.

I was transferred into the custody of my own government, which held me -- apparently at the behest of the United States -- until March 27, 2006, when I was finally released

(visit the link for the full news article)

Mohamed Farag Bashmilah, a Yemeni citizen was apprehended in Jordan while on a family visit in 2003.

He talks about what he went through and what he'd like to see happen to have some justice, and the truth about these CIA "black sites" and operations revealed to the American people.

I was transferred into the custody of my own government, which held me -- apparently at the behest of the United States -- until March 27, 2006, when I was finally released, never once having faced any terrorism-related charges. Since my release, the U.S. government has never explained why I was detained and has blocked all attempts to find out more about my detention.

What's the explanation for this? They held and tortured this man for almost 2 years and then just release him without any charges? So if they didn't think he was a terrorist, then why was he even held and tortured?

During my detention, I agonized constantly about my family back in Yemen, knowing they had no idea where I was. They never once received information about who had taken me, why I was taken, or even whether I was alive. They were never contacted by the U.S. government or the International Committee of the Red Cross. My mother and wife were in such anguish that they had to be hospitalized for illness, stress, and anxiety. My father passed away while I was disappeared and I am still distraught thinking that he died without knowing whether I was dead or alive. I continue to suffer from bouts of illness that medical doctors attribute to the treatment I experienced in the "black sites."

I consider myself an Obama supporter but if he doesn't support an investigation into these sites and operations he's just as guilty as the people who ordered and ran them.

It doesn't bode well for Obama and this Administration as they cited "state secrets" privilege to dismiss an appeal by a group of people who were illegally imprisoned and tortured. Mohamed Farag Bashmilah was one of those people who brought the lawsuit.

www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Found a little more information about his story and details of his imprisonment and treatment here

The nightmare started for him back in fall 2003. Bashmilah had traveled to Jordan from Indonesia, where he was living with his wife and working in the clothing business. He and his wife went to Jordan to meet Bashmilah's mother, who had also traveled there. The family hoped to arrange for heart surgery for Bashmilah's mother at a hospital in Amman. But before leaving Indonesia, Bashmilah had lost his passport and had received a replacement. Upon arrival in Jordan, Jordanian officials questioned his lack of stamps in the new one, and they grew suspicious when Bashmilah admitted he had visited Afghanistan in 2000. Bashmilah was taken into custody by Jordanian authorities on Oct. 21, 2003. He would not reappear again until he stepped out of a CIA plane in Yemen on May 5, 2005.

Bashmilah's apparent innocence was clearly lost on officials with Jordan's General Intelligence Department. After his arrest, the Jordanians brutally beat him, peppering him with questions about al-Qaida. He was forced to jog around in a yard until he collapsed. Officers hung him upside down with a leather strap and his hands tied. They beat the soles of his feet and his sides. They threatened to electrocute him with wires. They told him they would rape his wife and mother.

It was too much. Bashmilah signed a confession multiple pages long, but he was disoriented and afraid even to read it. "I felt sure it included things I did not say," he wrote in his declaration to the court delivered Friday. "I was willing to sign a hundred sheets so long as they would end the interrogation."

A federal trial judge ruled in favor of the Bush administration last year and dismissed the suit. The ACLU appealed to the 9th Circuit, arguing that the men should be given the opportunity to prove their case without classified material.

At one point during the hearing, Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, a Clinton appointee, told the government's lawyer that he was not convincing.

"So any time the executive branch of the government says the fact is classified, it means it cannot be examined?" Hawkins asked Letter.

Letter, noting that national security was at stake, told the court it should "not play with fire" by permitting the suit to go forward.

"Nor should the government in asserting [secrecy] privilege," Hawkins shot back.

Judge Mary M. Schroeder, a Carter appointee, said the court had not yet read the classified information about the government's case and noted that the law "may really preclude" the court from permitting the case to go to trial.

Well there doesn't appear to be much written about why they suspect this person other than a lack of stamps on his passport.

I guess the rest must be bundled up in the classified documents? Considering Obama's oath to openness and transparency, that better be some mighty bad stuff!

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? Alex Jones is freaking out about Obama, calling him worse than Bush and lying about virtually everything he promised in the campaign trail.

Well that really sucks, not that I’m the least bit surprised. Anyone who thinks that the USA gov is even the least bit just or moral is incredibly naive. Just remember that whatever they can do to another, they can do to you and yours. Whatever is effecting a fellow citizen’s life now will effect yours eventually.

Here’s a link to my experiences with the globalists.

www.abovetopsecret.com...'

You know...I'm not sure I'm inclined to believe him. Not because I deny that the CIA does this, but because I've seen the Huffington Post write garbage before. It goes from story, to moral implication, to promotion of Obama, to further political conclusion at the end.

This was a political piece, in my eye, by the anti-war people. Being an anti-war person myself, I believe the truth speaks for itself. And there's plenty in the truth to make convictions that fudging the truth or outright lying is really not necessary. And makes us all look bad.

Again, it isn't that I deny that the CIA does this, I know they do, it's that I don't believe this article was written by who they say it was.

Edit to add:
www.abovetopsecret.com...


[edit on 19-2-2009 by projectvxn]

Originally posted by projectvxn
You know...I'm not sure I'm inclined to believe him. Not because I deny that the CIA does this, but because I've seen the Huffington Post write garbage before. It goes from story, to moral implication, to promotion of Obama, to further political conclusion at the end.

There's a bit of a flaw in that theory though. If you know the Huffington Post's reputation then you'd also know that they are pro-Obama.

Why would they want to bring light into this matter when apparently the Obama Administration has tried to make it go away by asking to dismiss a lawsuit of which Bashmilah's part of?

Again, it isn't that I deny that the CIA does this, I know they do, it's that I don't believe this article was written by who they say it was.

So, you don't believe his story or that this particular article was written by him? Because those are two distinct things.

According to that Salon article from December 2007 that I linked, Bashmilah had already told his story.

On Friday, Bashmilah laid out his story in a declaration to a U.S. district court as part of a civil suit brought by the ACLU against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing accused of facilitating secret CIA rendition flights.

And does it really matter if he wrote the article, or had help writing the article, if his story is real?

Even if the article wasn't written by Bashmilah, does that make it less important and urgent the need for an investigation into the these sites, operations and rendition policies?