Ex-detainee sues the U.S., saying captors tortured him

[jpgray]

Source: Washington Post

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Credit
Thursday, October 7, 2010

A Syrian man released from the prison at Guantanamo Bay last year sued the U.S. military Wednesday, saying that he was the victim of a "Kafkaesque nightmare" in which he was tortured by al-Qaeda after being accused of being U.S. spy, liberated, then tortured by the Americans, who held him for seven more years by mistake.

Abdul Rahim Abdul Razak al-Janko, 32, who has been resettled outside the United States, filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, the court that ordered his release in June 2009. At the time, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon concluded that the U.S. government's case for holding Janko "defies common sense."

...

Janko says that he was urinated on by his American captors, slapped, threatened with loss of fingernails, and exposed to sleep deprivation, extreme cold and stress positions.

Twenty-six current and former top U.S. military officials are named in the suit, which seeks damages and alleges violations of Janko's rights under the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions and a U.S. law that allows non-Americans to sue for violations of the law of nations.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/06/AR2010100606458.html

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Note that the standard procedure for Obama's DoJ was followed so far: they fought Janko's release. The rest will probably follow: his torturers shall be immune, anything that happened to the man is necessarily a state secret, and none of it shall be subject to review.

More here:

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/06/24/why-did-it-take-so-long-to-order-the-release-from-guantanamo-of-an-al-qaeda-torture-victim/

[ixion]

1. what a pathetic country we've become

:(

[No Elephants]

3. We got an early start.

[ixion]

4. As true as that may be

it's still no excuse.

[No Elephants]

8. Who said it was an excuse?

[ixion]

11. I did... wasn't referring to you...

:toast:

Apologies for any mis-communication. :hi:

[No Elephants]

2. We had to urinate on him there so we would not have to urinate on him here.

[Th1onein]

7. Oh. My. God.

That is priceless, as a comeback.

[No Elephants]

9. Thanks--but I'm not proud. I'd take $20.

[fasttense]

5. All of them are criminals from bush to Cheney to Rumsfield.

They are now very powerful and rich because NO ONE has held them accountable for breaking the law.

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. The Guantanamo Guidebook

Torture -The Guantanamo Guidebook

The British Channel 4's programme examines torture in the war on terror by exposing seven volunteers to methods reported to have been used by American interrogators on alleged terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay camp.

The Guantanamo Guidebook reconstructs the regime at the US's Cuban base. For 48 hours, seven volunteers are subjected to interrogation techniques known to be used in the camp, ranging from harassment and abuse to sensory deprivation – with shocking results.

See the video free here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM5YofESNHc&feature=player_embedded