Torture victim sues Obama administration over `Kafkaesque nightmare'

[babylonsister]

Torture victim sues Obama administration over `Kafkaesque nightmare'

BY CAROL ROSENBERG
[e-mail]


In a first for a former Guantánamo captive freed by a federal judge, a Syrian man now living in Europe is suing the U.S. government for damages from what he calls a ``Kafkaesque nightmare.''

The 44-page lawsuit by Abdul Razak al Janko, 32, described a decade-long odyssey of detention -- first in Taliban-era Afghanistan, where he was tortured as an alleged pro-American Israeli spy, and later in U.S. military prisons that ignored or misdiagnosed his history as a torture victim.

In addition, Janko alleges that U.S. soldiers urinated on him on his May 2002 arrival at Guantánamo, where he was subsequently subjected to solitary confinement and sleep deprivation. and beaten by a rapid-reaction force. He said he attempted to commit suicide 17 times in despair.

President Barack Obama's administration had no comment.

``We're reviewing the suit and will respond in court,'' said Dean Boyd, spokesman for the Justice Department's National Security Division.

Federal courts rebuffed an earlier bid by former Guantánamo captives to sue the Bush administration for compensation, a case called Rasul v. Rumsfeld. That case was brought by four men who were released years ago through a diplomatic deal between the United States and Britain's Tony Blair government.

Janko, however, is armed with a June 22, 2009 victory in his habeas corpus petition. It is one of so far just 38 wins since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2008 that the Constitution covers a Guantánamo captive's right to file false imprisonment petitions in federal courts.

Judge Richard J. Leon, a President George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his 13-page decision that the Syrian's detention as a war prisoner ``defies common sense'' in part because he had been held and tortured by the Taliban or al Qaeda in the 18 months prior to his capture by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

snip//

Janko's suit names Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld; two of their deputies; Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and his two predecessors, four Southern Command chiefs, five prison camps commanders and senior guards and intelligence officials.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/09/1865372/torture-victim-sues-obama-administration.html?story_link=email_msg

[thunder rising]

1. This torture crap from the Bush years is truly bizarre

You gotta realize that torture is real work. You really have to enjoy what you're doing to get through a day. And that is the problem, isn't it.

I really don't want to think about it, because it's one of the things that really makes me detest Obama (and I don't want too)

[babylonsister]

2. This has nothing to do with Obama; look at the names of the

people being sued. He's named because he's Prez now.

[thunder rising]

3. It's that "looking forward" shit that has everything to do with Obama

And I told you, I don't want to fucking think about it.

[babylonsister]

5. You apparently don't want to read either. Got it. nt

[the redcoat]

4. The author really needs a better title

Ok, Robert Gates, yes, but don't implicate the entire Obama administration in your headline.

This is the kind of vagueness that makes idiots go "see, Obama is torturing people" without reading that he was brought to Gitmo in 2002.

[babylonsister]

6. The Obama admin is being sued solely because that's who is

in charge, but it's obvious this man is going after the actual torturers, who took such pleasure doing that during the bush years.

[ZombieHorde]

7. This is really interesting. Thanks for posting. nt