Official Allegedly Hinted at Saudi Torture of VA Man

[MountainLaurel]

Wow, just think. Twenty years from now, they'll be talking about George's torture chambers. Yes, we are officially as bad as all those evil regimes in the Middle East.

There needs to be an investigation, and it needs to happen now.


A federal prosecutor in Alexandria made a comment last year suggesting that a Falls Church man held in a Saudi Arabian prison had been tortured, according to a sworn affidavit from a defense lawyer that was recently filed in federal court in Washington.

The alleged remark by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg occurred during a conversation with the lawyer, Salim Ali, in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, according to Ali's affidavit. The document was filed Oct. 12 in connection with a petition by the parents of the detained man, Ahmed Abu Ali, who are seeking his release from Saudi custody.

The lawyer stated in the affidavit that he asked Kromberg about bringing Abu Ali back to the United States to face charges so as "to avoid the torture that goes on in Saudi Arabia."

Kromberg "smirked and stated that 'He's no good for us here, he has no fingernails left,' " Salim Ali wrote in his affidavit, adding: "I did not know how to respond the appalling statement he made, and we subsequently ceased our discussion about Ahmed Abu Ali."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60916-2004Nov18.html

[shrike]

1. I'm going to have to start taking Sy Hersh's word as gospel

He talks about all this in his book, Chain of Command.

[MountainLaurel]

2. I need to read that book

But thus far haven't managed to work up the courage. I'm afraid that after reading it I'll need to go downtown and immolate myself in front of the White House, or commit some other act that'll get me a 40-year vacation at St. Elizabeth's.