In a story that is yet to be covered by the Australian mainstream press, al Jazeera has published an excerpt from Mamdouh Habib's memoirs which details in horrific details how when Habib had been "rendered" to Egypt for torture, "At one point, his interrogator slapped him so hard that his blindfold was dislodged, revealing the identity of his tormentor: Suleiman.". Habib then went on to describe how "Frustrated that Habib was not providing useful information or confessing to involvement in terrorism, Suleiman ordered a guard to murder a shackled prisoner in front of Habib, which he did with a vicious karate kick.". Mamdoub Habib was in Egupt after being sent to the U.S. through its "extraaordinary rendition" program which involved people being kidnapped and sent to to countries to be tortured for intelligence purposes. What does the Australian government have to say about U.S. attempts to have Suleiman installed as Mubarak's replacement and why is the Australian press virtually silent on this shocking Australian connection? The answers reveal the levels of both U.S. and Australian duplicity, hypocrisy and violence in its relations to the Arab world whilst they dare to talk of democracy and human rights.
Excerpt from Al Jazeera article "Suleiman:The CIA's man in Cairo"
Suleiman the torturer
In October 2001, Habib was seized from a bus by Pakistani security forces. While detained in Pakistan, at the behest of American agents, he was suspended from a hook and electrocuted repeatedly. He was then turned over to the CIA, and in the process of transporting him to Egypt he endured the usual treatment: his clothes were cut off, a suppository was stuffed in his anus, he was put into a diaper - and 'wrapped up like a spring roll'.
In Egypt, as Habib recounts in his memoir, My Story: The Tale of a Terrorist Who Wasn’t, he was repeatedly subjected to electric shocks, immersed in water up to his nostrils and beaten. His fingers were broken and he was hung from metal hooks. At one point, his interrogator slapped him so hard that his blindfold was dislodged, revealing the identity of his tormentor: Suleiman.
Frustrated that Habib was not providing useful information or confessing to involvement in terrorism, Suleiman ordered a guard to murder a shackled prisoner in front of Habib, which he did with a vicious karate kick. In April 2002, after five months in Egypt, Habib was rendered to American custody at Bagram prison in Afghanistan - and then transported to Guantanamo. On January 11, 2005, the day before he was scheduled to be charged, Dana Priest of the Washington Post published an exposé about Habib’s torture. The US government immediately announced that he would not be charged and would be repatriated to Australia.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201127114827382865....
