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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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November 10th, 2006 - Egyptian
Claims Torture after CIA Kidnap in Italy |
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Egyptian Claims Torture
after CIA Kidnap in Italy By Phil Stewart Reuters November 10, 2006 Rome - Electric shocks,
beatings, rape threats and genital abuse are among the types of torture
alleged by an Egyptian prisoner at the centre of Europe's biggest CIA
"rendition" case. The torture claims are the
darkest chapter in the so-called rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a
terrorism suspect who prosecutors say was grabbed off a Milan street in 2003,
driven to a U.S. airbase and then flown to Egypt. An 11-page handwritten note
from Nasr detailing his accusations of abuse has been added this week to the
evidence being used by Italian prosecutors looking to indict U.S. and Italian
agents, legal sources said on Friday. "In the beginning, the
guards took off all of my clothes, threatened to rape me, gave me shocks with
an electric wand. One had my private parts and he squeezed them if I didn't
speak," Nasr wrote, according to excerpts published in Corriere della
Sera newspaper. The details of the account
were confirmed to Reuters by three legal sources who have seen the document.
But the sources could not vouch for the precise wording in Corriere following
its translation from the original Arabic. Nasr, also known as Abu
Omar, mentioned nicknames guards used for their instruments of torture, like
"The Bride" and "The Mattress". "They stretched me out
on a iron door that they call 'The Bride'. Here I got kicked, electric shock
... meanwhile they threw cold water at me," he wrote. "The Mattress" was
equally brutal, according to the account. Hands and feet bound, Nasr sat on a
soaking wet mattress that was rigged to an electric current. One torturer
would perch on top of him in a wooden chair while the other applied the
shocks. "I was always scared
and often passed out," he said. The U.S. government
acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries, but
denies torturing suspects or handing them to countries that do. Nasr, who Italian
investigators suspect has ties to al Qaeda and recruited militants for Iraq,
said once in Egyptian custody an official there offered to free him if he
"collaborated" with them, presumably as an informant. Nasr refused. The decision to enter Nasr's
account of the abuses as evidence in the case, along with other documents,
delays the Milan prosecutors' ability to request indictments by another three
weeks, a well-placed judicial source said. Prosecutors have already
issued preventative arrest warrants against 26 Americans and suspect that
prominent Italian spies, including Sismi chief Nicolo Pollari, helped them
kidnap Nasr. If a judge authorises a
trial, it would be the first criminal prosecution anywhere in the world for
"renditions", one of the most controversial aspects of U.S.
President George W. Bush's global war on terrorism. (c) Reuters 2006. All rights
reserved. External link:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1667682006 |