9/11 Detainee Released After Nearly Five Years

[Mr_Spock]

TORONTO (Aug. 13) - The date was Sept. 12, 2001, but Benemar "Ben" Benatta was clueless about the death and destruction one day earlier.

About a week before, Canadian officials had stopped Benatta as he entered the country from Buffalo to seek political asylum. On that Sept. 11, he was quietly transferred to a U.S. immigration lockup where a day passed before sullen FBI agents told him what the rest of the world already knew: terrorists had attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

It slowly dawned on Benatta that his pedigree - a Muslim man with a military background - made him a target in the frenzied national dragnet that soon followed. The FBI didn't accuse him of being a terrorist, at least not outright. But agents kept asking if he could fly an airplane.

-snip-

The veiled accusations and vehement denials would continue for nearly five years - despite official findings in 2001 that he had no terrorist links and in 2003 that authorities had violated his rights by colluding to keep him in custody.

-snip-

Prison guards, he said, dispensed humiliation in steady doses - rapping on his cell door every half hour to interrupt his sleep, stepping on his leg shackles hard enough to scar his ankles, locking him in an outdoor exercise cage despite freezing temperatures, conducting arbitrary strip searches.

-snip-

"Now I'm not the same person," he said. "When I came to the United States, I was optimistic. I had so much energy. That's not the case now."

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/911-detainee-released-after-nearly-five/20060813130409990006

Stories like this make me sick to my stomach. He was in the Algerian air force and he became disillusioned by the abusive nature of Algerian soldiers. He came here for training so he could desert & seek political asylum in Canada. Unfortunately for him he decided to seek asylum in Canada on September 11, 2001. :( 5 years. :(

[ixion]

1. yeah, it makes me nauseous as well

Five years of this man's life wasted, and he is now forever a different person because of the experience.

This kind of crap simply should not be tolerated. Not one bit. :grr:

[Mr_Spock]

4. I wish there was some way of getting back at these sons-of-bitches

This sort of thing should not go un-punished. :mad:

[ixion]

6. There is: it's called the ICC

and would result in the lot of them being thrown into a cell in a Hague, for life.

[Mr_Spock]

9. Love to see some US citizens prosecuted there

:eyes: :(

[magellan]

2. I remember reading about him!

Good lord, 5 years. The poor guy is just another example of how this country has let fear override any sense of justice or morality. I hope he's able to get on with his life and be happy.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Yeah, sorry or whatever." - George AWOL Bush

"As long as the detention and release of the proles does not disturb my luxurious vacation, then whatever...There is TERRA TERRA TERRA out there, and we cannot let any of you proles wander around, potentially spoiling my golf outings."

- Kommander AWOL & Vice pResident Dick "Five Deferments" Cheney

[Subdivisions]

5. That so ...

pisses me off. Poor guy comes to the US thinking he'll be safe and ends up in the clutches of the tyrant and loses five years of his life...FUCK! It makes me want to scream!

[Mr_Spock]

11. Tell me about it

I had to go back and kick this one again.

This says as much as anything about the disgraceful times in which we live.

[Ezlivin]

7. This story makes me feel pretty damned good

About the people here on DU. I'm glad to see the outrage which I also feel. I'm glad to see the distress which I also feel.

I'm glad to know that there are other truly patriotic and informed citizens still here in the US. We know that this is not right and it is not representative of the country we love.

Now let's get the bastards who are trying to trash the Constitution and ruin our country!

[Gregorian]

10. Man! That is exactly how I feel.

Bravo. You said it. I'm over here cheering. I felt so lucky to find this place. And it was because after all of the decades of disappointment, I found all of you who feel the same way. And you have facts to prove that it's not just whining.


Yes, this man should never have been unjustly held. This is a high outrage. I just spent a year in hell after moving to a place where I had interrupted sleep. Even the sleep part of his story is a huge deal. We must return to sanity. Thanks to all of the people on DU for being on the side of justice, truth, the Constitution, love.

[lumpy]

8. ".......with liberty and justice for all"

Tragic stories like this is why I can no longer repeat those words. My first clue that something was terribly wrong in this nation of freedom, liberty and justice was during the Japanese-American internment (concentration) camps in WW2. Those words have become more hollow as time has passed and have become a lie.