Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Australian alleges trail of torture in US hands
SYDNEY, FEBRUARY 13: Mamdouh Habib still has a bruise on his lower back. He says it is a sign of the beatings he endured in a prison in Egypt. Interrogators there put out cigarettes on his chest, he says, and he lifts his shirt to show the marks. He says he got the dark spot on his forehead when Americans hit his head against the floor at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
After being arrested in Pakistan in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, he was held as a terror suspect by the Americans for 40 months. Back home, Habib alleges that at every step of his detention —from Pakistan to Egypt to Afghanistan to Guantanamo — he was tortured physically and psychologically.
The physical abuse, he said, ranged from a kick “that nearly killed me” to electric shocks administered through a wired helmet that he said interrogators told him could detect whether he was lying.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he was freed two weeks ago, Habib, a 49-year-old Australian citizen born in Egypt, also described psychological abuse that seemed intended to undermine his identity —— as a husband, a father and a Muslim man. At Guantanamo, he said, he was sexually humiliated by a female interrogator who reached under her skirt and threw what appeared to be blood in his face. He also said he was forced to look at photographs of his wife’s face superimposed on images of naked women next to Osama bin Laden.
Habib’s claims of mistreatment and torture cannot be confirmed, yet many are in line with accounts from other former detainees, as well as from human rights reports and from some agents involved in the detention system. In addition, Australian officials confirm Habib’s movements during his confinement, including his imprisonment in Egypt, where his lawyers say the US sent him for interrogation. —NYT
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=64676
The physical abuse, he said, ranged from a kick “that nearly killed me” to electric shocks administered through a wired helmet that he said interrogators told him could detect whether he was lying.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he was freed two weeks ago, Habib, a 49-year-old Australian citizen born in Egypt, also described psychological abuse that seemed intended to undermine his identity —— as a husband, a father and a Muslim man. At Guantanamo, he said, he was sexually humiliated by a female interrogator who reached under her skirt and threw what appeared to be blood in his face. He also said he was forced to look at photographs of his wife’s face superimposed on images of naked women next to Osama bin Laden.
Habib’s claims of mistreatment and torture cannot be confirmed, yet many are in line with accounts from other former detainees, as well as from human rights reports and from some agents involved in the detention system. In addition, Australian officials confirm Habib’s movements during his confinement, including his imprisonment in Egypt, where his lawyers say the US sent him for interrogation. —NYT
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=64676
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$210.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
In his first interview since returning home, Mamdouh Habib has strongly denied any links to terrorism.
He alleged he was sexually assaulted and smeared with the menstrual blood of a prostitute during interrogation.
The former Sydney taxi driver was freed when US officials said they did not have enough evidence to charge him.
'Electric shocks'
For the first time Mr Habib has publicly revealed what he insisted have been the horrors of the past three-and-a-half years.
He said he suffered constant abuse.
On one occasion he claimed he was beaten by more than a dozen men, who stripped and sexually assaulted him before making him wear nappies.
Mr Habib has insisted that such mistreatment was common.
The 48-year-old said that he endured electric shocks, long spells in isolation and had menstrual blood from a prostitute thrown into his face during questioning.
He signed confessions to save himself from further abuse.
The former taxi driver has categorically denied any involvement in terrorism.
US officials alleged he trained with al-Qaeda and had prior knowledge of the attacks in New York and Washington on 11 September.
Mr Habib was arrested in Pakistan a month later.
The decision to release him from Guantanamo Bay took the Australian government by surprise.
It still regards Mr Habib with suspicion. It has placed him under constant surveillance and has taken away his passport.
Senior government figures have raised doubts about his story. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said no evidence has been found to prove that torture has been used at the camp.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4262095.stm
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock denied that a government official watched Mamdouh Habib, an Australian citizen held as a terrorist suspect by the U.S. for 40 months, being beaten at a military airport in Pakistan.
``On the advice given to me, no Australian witnessed, at any time in Pakistan, allegations of the claimed torture,'' Ruddock told Radio 3AW in Melbourne today.
Habib told Nine Network's 60 Minutes program yesterday that he was beaten, kicked and given electric shocks while he was detained in Pakistan and Egypt. Habib said an Australian official visited him twice in Pakistan and that the official watched 15 men torture him at a military airport in Pakistan.
Habib, 39, was captured in Pakistan in October 2001 and held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The U.S. released him without charge last month and the former cleaner was reunited with his family in Sydney.
Ruddock said Habib remained a ``person of interest'' to the Australian government.
``We have intelligence information we don't make public and he remains a person of interest, of intelligence concern,'' Ruddock said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000081&sid=afHg4a185.80&refer=australia
In a paid interview with the Nine Network's 60 Minutes last night, Mr Habib claimed that shortly after he was arrested in 2001 an Australian official visited him at a military airport in Pakistan and watched as he was tortured.
During the particular episode of abuse, Mr Habib said 15 men stripped him, inserted something into his anus, put him in a nappy and tied him up.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer last night said it was outrageous to suggest an Australian law enforcement officer would have stood by and watched Mr Habib being tortured.
Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock Mr Habib's claim was untrue.
"In part, the information that he provided conflicts with information I have received from departmental officials," Mr Ruddock told Channel Nine.
"The information suggests that it was an Australian official from the Department of Foreign Affairs present when he was tortured in Pakistan, or claims to be tortured in Pakistan.
"(That is) on the advice I have received, untrue."
Mr Ruddock said he would nevertheless look into whether there was anything new in the allegations.
But he claimed it was significant Mr Habib did not deny training with al-Qaeda.
"The other matter that I think is new, is that the only claims I've ever made were that he was in Afghanistan and was believed, on advice from others that were there, that he trained with al Qaeda," Mr Ruddock said.
"They are matters that last night he declined to reject outright and said that he might speak to a judge about.
"That is new information because his representatives have always previously denied that he was in Afghanistan."
Mr Ruddock said Mr Habib could still face Australian charges over alleged past associations with terror groups.
"His time in Afghanistan and his possible training, and time in Pakistan and possible training, might give rise to possible charges, if the training with terrorist organisations was an offence at that time," he said.
His lawyer Stephen Hopper said he was preparing a case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) that he hoped would clear his client's name.
"We haven't said where Mamdouh Habib was after he left Australia until the time he was arrested and there's a good reason for that," Mr Hopper told the Nine Network.
"We're building up a potential legal case. We've already got action filed in the AAT.
"These particulars are part of his case and they will be ventilated in court where they're supported by evidence.
"I've heard his story and I have no doubt about what he says is truthful and what he did was completely lawful.
"We're not confirming or denying any particulars of his movements from the time he left Australia until the time (he was detained)."
The interview is Mr Habib's first in Australia since he returned last month after his release from Guantanamo Bay.
In an earlier interview with The New York Times, Mr Habib threatened to sue the Australian government for failing to protect him.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the government had repeatedly raised allegations of torture with the US.
"They (the US) did one Pentagon inquiry into whether (David) Hicks and Habib had been abused in Guantanamo Bay, and concluded they hadn't," he said.
Mr Downer said Washington had initiated another investigation which was yet to be reported.
Mr Habib was released from the US military prison in Cuba, where he was held for more than two years without charge. He remains a person of interest to Australia's chief spy agency ASIO.
First detained in October 2001 after being picked up in Pakistan, Mr Habib said he was subjected to electric shocks, beatings and use of drugs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10010983