NYT: Algerian Tells of Dark Odyssey in U.S. Hands (CIA Rendition)

[Roland99]

Algerian Tells of Dark Odyssey in U.S. Hands
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/world/africa/07algeria.html?hp&ex=1152244800&en=ac8e2d0a9986852b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

ALGIERS — Two years ago, a motley collection of prisoners spent night after night repeating their telephone numbers to one another from within the dark and dirty cells where they were being held in Afghanistan. Anyone who got out, they said they agreed, would use the numbers to contact the families of the others to let them know that they were still alive.

...

The case of one of them, Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who was held as part of the United States' antiterrorism rendition program, was revealed last year, and German and American officials have acknowledged that he was erroneously detained by the United States. But the tale of the other, an Algerian named Laid Saidi, has never been told before, and it carries a new set of allegations against America's secret detention program.

In May 2003, Mr. Saidi was expelled from Tanzania, where he ran a branch of Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, an international charity based in Saudi Arabia that promoted the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam and has since been shut down after being accused of financing terrorist groups. Tanzanian newspapers reported on Mr. Saidi's expulsion at the time, but nothing was known about where he went.

In a recent interview, Mr. Saidi, 43, said that after he was expelled he was handed over to American agents and flown to Afghanistan, where he was held for 16 months before being delivered to Algeria and freed without ever being charged or told why he had been imprisoned. He acknowledged that he was carrying a fake passport when he was detained, but he said he had no connection to terrorism.

[Drum]

1. Kick n Rec

:kick:

Share this story!

[Roland99]

2. Disgusting tale. Detained 16 mos. over a MISTRANSLATED WORD!

[saigon68]

3. FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH

[Roland99]

4. In handcuffs and shackles.

[Roland99]

5. Kick for a good article on how the "war on terror" is being waged.

[gratuitous]

6. "Sometimes I cry and I shake when I think about this"

Yep, that's what the United States has become under the blood-stained hands of the Bush administration. Chained, starved, deprived of food, light, sleep and exercise. Held for 16 months, then released. But at least they gave him a pair of shoes, so it's all good.

And our government won't comment. When did we change over from the good guys defending the world from oppression (sometimes haphazardly) to being the leading practitioner of oppression?