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— Charles Hoy Fort

Friday, December 12, 2008

U.S. Citizen being tortured -ACLU

I just signed a letter of petition over at the ACLU site about the torture of this poor dude... another in a long, long line of special order jobs commissioned by the fascists that have taken America away from us. Hopefully the new admin, which sadly seems to have a bunch of 'em lined up for big jobs, will put a stop to this crap. Here's what the ACLU presented me with when I was done... please add your voice...

Subject: U.S. Citizen being tortured

An American man detained in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the U.S. government has been released from State Security custody, where he was detained incommunicado and in a secret location, and transferred to a prison in Abu Dhabi, but only after suffering severe torture.

Naji Hamdan’s transfer came only one week after lawyers for the ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging that the U.S. government was responsible for his detention.

On December 2, Naji Hamdan, who lived in the Los Angeles area for more than two decades, was allowed a phone call to his brother, Hossam Hemdan, a resident of Los Angeles. Hamdan reported to his brother that officials transferred him to a regular prison on November 26 and that his captors routinely beat him and kept him in a freezing underground room during his months-long detention by State Security forces. The torturers kicked him with their military boots in the location of his liver, knowing that he has a liver condition. On some occasions, they beat him so badly that Mr. Hamdan passed out for extended periods of time and believed he would die. On at least one occasion, they strapped his arms and legs down to an electric chair, while threatening to use it.

Hamdan’s description of the torture and interrogation he endured makes clear that American agents have been involved. Although blindfolded by his torturers, Hamdan reported that some of the interrogators spoke native American English and were not fluent in Arabic. In addition, the agents interrogated Hamdan on topics about which only U.S. federal agents could have knowledge, such as a meeting he had with FBI agents.

The news of Hamdan’s transfer comes after the ACLU filed a habeas corpus petition in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleging that the U.A.E. detained Hamdan at the behest of the U.S. government. Last week, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the government to respond to the petition.

Hamdan, who was born in Lebanon, lived for more than two decades in the Los Angeles area, where he ran an auto-parts business and helped manage the Islamic Center of Hawthorne, a mosque and community center. In 2006, he decided to relocate his family and business to the U.A.E.

Hamdan’s detention in the U.A.E. was the culmination of years of surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). This summer FBI agents traveled from Los Angeles to the U.A.E. to question Hamdan further. Approximately three weeks later he was detained by agents of the U.A.E. state security forces.

Hamdan’s brother and others who know him from his activities at the Islamic Center of Hawthorne have all said that he is a peaceful family man who would never support violence.

If the U.S. government requested or participated in his detention and torture in the U.A.E., the United States government has violated this U.S. citizen’s most elemental constitutional rights.

Take action: Tell your Members of Congress to help in the release of Hamdan. Go to:

http://action.aclu.org/hamdan

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