Torture victim sues Obama administration over `Kafkaesque nightmare'

[unhappycamper]

A detainee is shown resting inside his cell in Camp Delta at Guantanamo in June 2004.


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.

[Bluzmann57]

1. Why would he sue Obama?

It seems to me that since Obama wasn't the President at the time, he probably shouldn't be held responsible for what allegedly happened to that guy.

[eShirl]

3. he's not; he's suing the U.S. government

[democrank]

2. "Justice" Department should start with

Junior Bush and his sidekick Cheney.