more American murders, torture for hire

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   Assalamu alaikum,
More evidence of American barbarism:
IN U.S. REPORT, BRUTAL DETAILS OF 2 AFGHAN INMATES' DEATHS
Tim Golden, New York Times, 5/20/05
 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse .html?hp&ex=1116561600&en=8701738ac057aebe&ei=50 94&partner=homepage

Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers
continued to torment him.

The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was
hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around
2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he
arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his
legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb.
He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the
previous four days.

Dilawar was an Afghan farmer and taxi driver who died while in custody of
American troops.

Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators,
Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he
punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled
weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The
soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully
into Mr. Dilawar's face.

"Come on, drink!" the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the
prisoner gagged on the spray. "Drink!"

At the interrogators' behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his
knees.
But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no
longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after
they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the
guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.

"Leave him up," one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.

Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar.
By
then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. It would be many months before
Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators
had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the
American base at the wrong time.

The story of Mr. Dilawar's brutal death at the Bagram Collection Point - and
that of another detainee, Habibullah, who died there six days earlier in
December 2002 - emerge from a nearly 2,000-page confidential file of the Army's
criminal investigation into the case, a copy of which was obtained by The New
York Times. (MORE)

ALSO SEE:

DEFENSE: DOCTORS CORROBORATE TORTURE CLAIMS IN TERROR CASE
Matthew Barakat, Associated Press, 5/19/05
 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050519-1325-saudi detainee-bushplot.html

ALEXANDRIA, Va. � Two doctors who examined a Virginia man accused of joining
al-Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush have concluded that he was
tortured while in Saudi custody, according to defense lawyers.

The torture resulted in Ahmed Omar Abu Ali giving a false confession to Saudi
authorities, according to the lawyers, who are seeking to have the statement
thrown out.

"The physical and psychological abuse that Abu Ali suffered over a two-year
period critically impaired his capacity for self-determination and overcame his
will," wrote defense lawyer Ashraf Nubani. "It resulted in him making
involuntary, false statements to alleviate his suffering and appease his
interrogators."

Federal prosecutors have consistently denied that Abu Ali was tortured.

Nubani also accused the U.S. government of complicity in the Saudis' alleged
torture of Abu Ali.

The court filings do not include details of the doctors' examinations of Abu
Ali, who has said he has the scars on his back as proof of whippings.

But a defense motion indicates that the doctors hired by the defense � Allen
Keller, a professor at New York University and director of the Bellevue/NYU
Program for Survivors of Torture; and Lynne Gaby, a psychiatrist at George
Washington University � concluded that Abu Ali had been physically and
psychologically tortured.

Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church, is accused of joining al-Qaeda while attending
college in Saudi Arabia in 2001. The government contends that he discussed
numerous possible attacks, including plans to assassinate Bush or members of
Congress.