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119 Comments
- profgiles, on 02/19/2009, -10/+76Mr. Bashmilah: There is nothing I can say that would adequately serve as an apology for what my country did to you. I can only say that most Americans did not know what was happening to you and all decent Americans are appalled and ashamed at what our so-called leaders did. Peace to you and your family.
- JenniferInMO, on 02/20/2009, -8/+49I don't care where the investigations go. I don't care if they take us to every member of Congress. We MUST demand investigations, hearings and prosecutions. This is a profound national shame. These crimes occurred in our names. Now that we know more about them we are complicit in them if we do not demand the truth.
- Misinformant, on 02/20/2009, -11/+34Bush & co. are traitors and should be tried as such.
Oh, and waterboarded, since it's 'not torture.' - kingsbridge77, on 02/20/2009, -7/+27I hope that the pertinent agencies in the Obama administration investigate these events and prosecute those who violated the Convention Against Torture. I don't care if it's Congress, the DOJ, Erick Holder or whoever. Someone serve justice to this man and all the innocent people savaged by these Neanderthals.
- maz2331, on 02/20/2009, -2/+17In theory, you are correct. In reality a "damn good reason" is simply that someone just lied, or ***** up punching the name into a system somewhere. Or got two numbers in the Social Security Number transposed because she's worked 10 hours of overtime in the past 3 days and wants to get out of there.
***** DOES happen. - eco57, on 02/20/2009, -8/+23This is a national shame and it should be taught as such in schools. What have we learned from the WWII Japanese-American internment camps? Absolutely nothing. In fact, this is worse since torture was added to the mix.
- jpsoraire, on 02/20/2009, -5/+18Plain and simple. The President of the United States of America said it perfectly. No one is above the law
- Demand911Truth, on 02/20/2009, -7/+17This is not the America that patriots have died for. The Bush Administration must be investigated.
- Eupatorus, on 02/20/2009, -2/+11Coming to save the *****' day, yeah!
- adikt, on 02/20/2009, -1/+10Why did you repost the entire article? That was retarded.
- jeffbw, on 02/20/2009, -2/+11Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah is a 38-year-old Yemeni national who lived with his wife Zahra in Indonesia, where he ran a small clothing store with his uncle. In October 2003, the couple traveled from Indonesia to Jordan to visit Bashmilah’s ailing mother. Upon arrival in Amman, Bashmilah’s passport was seized after officials questioned its failure to reflect his entry into Indonesia or his exit from Yemen. Despite his explanation that the passport had been lost and replaced while in Indonesia, he was told to report to the Jordanian General Intelligence Department where it would be returned.
On or about October 21, 2003 after he told GID officials that he had visited Afghanistan three years prior, Bashmilah was handcuffed, taken into custody and tortured by Jordanian intelligence. After four nights and five days in custody he was turned over to agents who beat him and then flew him to a secret U.S. interrogation and torture facility at the Bagram air base.
etcetera. It's called Google. - treehugger87, on 02/19/2009, -9/+17I wish I could digg you a 1,000 times. Very well said.
- Misinformant, on 02/20/2009, -5/+12Oh wow. Alien life really does exist.
Because clearly you're not on the same planet as the rest of us. - Jaang, on 02/20/2009, -3/+9The evidence suggests that the US Government DOES abduct completely innocent people and fly them all over the world.
The primary evidence is that the man was released without any charges of any kind, and is now a free man.
The secondary evidence is that the US Government refuses to say why the man who they released without charges of any kind, was kidnapped in the first place.
If you have ANY evidence at all that the man is even guilty of having even a parking ticket.... then perhaps you could share it with the rest of us. - lhbaker, on 02/20/2009, -0/+6Dude, in this country, people are executed for crimes they never committed, and that's after a ***** trial. This guy never was never even CHARGED. He was tortured, was unable to contact his family, and never even WENT to trial. What is it you don't understand?
- Pirataholic, on 02/20/2009, -2/+8
1984 - Jaang, on 02/20/2009, -3/+9You say the story is one-sided?
Ok.... so, please provide the US Government's side.
Tell us what reasons the US Government has given for kidnapping this man, torturing him, and holding him without charges for years.
I'm all ears, and heck, I'm pretty sure that the guy who was kidnapped and held by his kidnappers for years would LOVE to know why it all happened.
The guy's name is right at the top of the article, so it should be easy-as-pie for you to google up what the charges were against him.
Once you've figured out why he was (1) kidnapped, and then (2) tortured, and then (3) held for years, and then (4) **released**.... then you could let us all know that "second side of the story".
So, when did you figure you were gonna be giving us that information? - lhbaker, on 02/20/2009, -0/+5fatrandy: Amnesty Internation has had his case since 2005. They visited him, and others like him, in prison. Wikipedia has more information.
- Swivelstick, on 02/20/2009, -5/+10You sir are a disgraceful moron.
- Bidger, on 02/20/2009, -0/+5Native Americans, Africans , Mexicans, Germans , Japanese, Communists, now Arabs/Muslims - Seems like business as normal. No justice, no accountability, just a bully doing what it wants to anyone it chooses.
- lhbaker, on 02/20/2009, -0/+5Those people suggesting that people in this country aren't rounded up without just cause should probaly read thier history books. Or, if you know a Japanese American, just ask them.
- k3rfuffl3, on 02/20/2009, -4/+9You'd vote against funding troops? TRAAAAAIIIIIITTTTTTTOOOOOORRRRRRRRR
/Republican - Misinformant, on 02/20/2009, -3/+7Half of us voted against him.
- TheShad0w, on 02/20/2009, -3/+7I can't even guess where to start to tear apart your ridiculous comment. So I guess I'll go in a linear fashion.
"Most smoke pot, hate police and at the same time talk about peace all the while electing a new President who promises to send more troops to Afghanistan to "finish the job"; a term that usually means more missile strikes on weddings and other innocent civilians. They are confused, lost souls who have no grip on reality."
Really? Is that so? Show me the proof. I want stats and graphs that shows that the 67% of the people that voted for Obama smoke pot and hate police. You know why we may very well go into Afghanistan? Because Obama's predecessor decided it was a great idea to invade the wrong country for the wrong reasons. So now we have to go and either work directly with the country that is truly the problem or invade them. Do I agree with either? Absolutely not but that by no means that its Obama's fault. Bush started these events in motion and its unfortunate that everyone else after him will have to clean up his mess.
"America is at war, and you fell onto the radar in Jordan ... a country that is not your own. If you were innocent, the lesson learned is don't run around a foreign country during a time of war acting suspicious. I told my 10 year old that "nothing good happens after midnight"; they understand so why shouldn't you? Use common sense and perhaps you won't find yourself getting an old school rendition next time."
Yes. America is at war. Again by no fault of the current executive administration. Who are you to tell people where they can and can't go? I can go to Canada, I can go to Mexico. Hell if I wanted to I could go to Europe. Not because I'm a ***** American but because I can. You are the purest symbol of what is wrong with this country. We Americans are no better than any other Human being. We have no right to dictate how other countries conduct themselves; so much as they're affairs don't directly endanger American lives or soil. You're comment is so thick with macho-elitism. What an arrogant ass you are. What if I were to tell you that because of you're obviously flawed and retarded comment that you shouldn't come around my neighbourhood? We have a severe dislike of bigotry and idiocy
You know why most of the world hates us? Because of people like YOU! Small, simple minded people that couldn't be bothered to read into a subject but instead regurgitate your faux news indoctrination. For once in your pitiful life why don't you stand up and be an individual. Open a book for gosh sakes. Learn something on your own that hasn't been biased or twisted to an agenda. It is so hard to carry hatred for people like you when I really only feel pity and shame. - Jaang, on 02/20/2009, -4/+8So, why don't you google his name (it was at the top of the article), and tell us about the circumstances of the guy's capture.
Since you feel so strongly about the information being left out of the article and all... maybe you can look it up and share the info with us. - insanebrain, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4How do you now my bank account password ?
- lhbaker, on 02/20/2009, -1/+5This is first person account from the person it happened to. It's not an op-ed.
- inactive, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4Sorry for what happened, September 11 changed everything and everyone. This doesn't excuse it nor justify it anymore than our war with Japan justified Manzinar and others. But for what it's worth, sorry.
- jeffbw, on 02/20/2009, -3/+7Are you effing KIDDING ME??? Where the hell have you been for the past seven years, imbecile? We have abducted and tortured dozens and dozens of completely innocent people. Half the people in Guantanamo have been released without any charge whatsoever, most of whom were only ever picked up because we were PAYING PEOPLE to turn people in. So they turned in people they didn't like or didn't know to collect the ransom. Remember the guy from Canada?? They just pick up anybody for no particular reason and hold them for years without charges and torture torture torture them. One of the first guys to have been tortured to death in Afghanistan was just a cab driver who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; nobody had anything remotely like a charge on the guy. But they tortured him to death anyway.
Here's the bio on the guy in the article:
Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah is a 38-year-old Yemeni national who lived with his wife Zahra in Indonesia, where he ran a small clothing store with his uncle. In October 2003, the couple traveled from Indonesia to Jordan to visit Bashmilah’s ailing mother. Upon arrival in Amman, Bashmilah’s passport was seized after officials questioned its failure to reflect his entry into Indonesia or his exit from Yemen. Despite his explanation that the passport had been lost and replaced while in Indonesia, he was told to report to the Jordanian General Intelligence Department where it would be returned.
On or about October 21, 2003 after he told GID officials that he had visited Afghanistan three years prior, Bashmilah was handcuffed, taken into custody and tortured by Jordanian intelligence. After four nights and five days in custody he was turned over to agents who beat him and then flew him to a secret U.S. interrogation and torture facility at the Bagram air base.
Do your ***** homework, ***** for brains. - lhbaker, on 02/20/2009, -0/+4Fox presents its content as news, when much of it is false. Huffington Post doesn't pretend to be "Fair and Balanced." If you go there, you know what you're getting. If you don't like it, don't go. It's really simple.
- TheOneTrueGod, on 02/20/2009, -0/+3Would you follow me please, Mister Buttle?
- jeffbw, on 02/20/2009, -5/+8The hell they don't, dumb *****. We have abducted and tortured dozens and dozens of completely innocent people. More than half the people in Guantanmo were released without any charges whatsoever. Remember the guy from Canada?? They just pick up anybody for no particular reason and hold them for years without charges and torture torture torture them. One of the first guys to have been tortured to death in Afghanistan was just a cab driver who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; nobody had anything remotely like a charge on the guy. But they tortured him to death anyway.
Here's the bio on the guy in the article:
Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah is a 38-year-old Yemeni national who lived with his wife Zahra in Indonesia, where he ran a small clothing store with his uncle. In October 2003, the couple traveled from Indonesia to Jordan to visit Bashmilah’s ailing mother. Upon arrival in Amman, Bashmilah’s passport was seized after officials questioned its failure to reflect his entry into Indonesia or his exit from Yemen. Despite his explanation that the passport had been lost and replaced while in Indonesia, he was told to report to the Jordanian General Intelligence Department where it would be returned.
On or about October 21, 2003 after he told GID officials that he had visited Afghanistan three years prior, Bashmilah was handcuffed, taken into custody and tortured by Jordanian intelligence. After four nights and five days in custody he was turned over to agents who beat him and then flew him to a secret U.S. interrogation and torture facility at the Bagram air base.
Do your ***** homework, ***** for brains. - apocalypselater, on 02/20/2009, -0/+3Abducted, bagged, tortured in secret prisons...
The military is a terrorist organization. - boulder555, on 02/20/2009, -0/+3Government is inherently inefficient or most of us WOULD be in jail.
It is a mistake to believe that only the Left has been stampeded into wanting the government to protect them at any cost (as was demonstrated by our recent farce of an election). Almost half the Country voted for a crazy guy who wanted perpetual war, while a little more than half voted for a guy whose policies and philosophy mandate an even LARGER nanny-state.
Our Founding Fathers recognized that centralized power (government) was the PROBLEM not the solution -- and they warned us about it in the strongest possible terms. But who is listening? - dreamygal90, on 02/20/2009, -1/+4You make a good point, but I think we can all agree that it doesn't excuse the government's behavior. Sure, people are going to get hurt in an investigation as the one being proposed, but I think we can agree that it would pale compared to what people such as Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah went through.
- treehugger87, on 02/20/2009, -1/+4@poprocks. You are just a sad, hateful person. I would pity you if you weren't making the rest of us look so bad.
- cyberapox, on 02/20/2009, -6/+9Next time I hear someone seriously saying "The is America, Country of freedom !!" I'll slap him.
- bluetigerbc, on 02/20/2009, -1/+4This is further reason to push for the party next election that has "Open source government" as it's main campaign slogan. Vote in the guy who will make it transparent for all the going ons. If you can't say to the rest of your comunity what you do for a living (i.e. torture people and all that jazz) then you shouldn't be doing it.
Can't say torture is ever needed other then for the guards to get off on. Doesn't serve a purpose really. It's more humane to just execute someone instead of torturing them. I can't think of any information useful enough to warrant that. The price is simply too high.
You start having open voting online for policy and administration and then the regular layer of govt senators and the prez on that then you'd have a real gem of a website!
vote on how to deal /w problems, proposed bills, former laws need revoking, outdated laws still around, all the junk they have no time for down at capital hill.
they get 98-99% acurate polls (not hampton polls whitewashed to one side or the other) then you got a real collective voice as to how it should all be run. :)
I believe online poll voting would be more accurate then the diebold closed source rigged election boxes currently in use today. :P
online polls could be tracked easily enough. email, cookie, ip, username already voted. then pay some techs to secure it good (gov/military techs, it's yer vote/voice after all!). so that's 99% accuracy if i ever saw it.
and for the crooked govt that doesn't want the masses to have a voice (certain people, not the whole govt mind you) remember that you dont gotta ACT on the polls, just there to show what the public wants from the govt...like fair treatment for everyone, ESPICIALLY your enemy! how better to show you are above them in oh so many ways?
feel bad about false positives like this case here. i always think of that when i think of our marvelous system we have, what happens when it's no longer working for the people it's trying to make a better life for...
someone on slashdot said it nicely...
"any government powerful enough to give you anything you want is powerful enough to take anything from you".
the same as how the states has minimum sentences for crimes, so should they have maximum punishments allowed by law and HARSH punishments for any soldier/guard/secret police that feels they can disgrace their fellow man by following dishonourable tactics like this.
course that should be voted on on gov record by it's citizens online. - lhbaker, on 02/20/2009, -0/+3Look at all the douche bags who write comments on Digg without even reading the article.
- boulder555, on 02/20/2009, -0/+2Ever been arrested?
Ever dealt with an officious bureaucrat?
Ever noticed the law doesn't seem to apply to those vested with police-powers?
Even paranoids have enemies and neither the government nor the people of America are what they once were. - apocalypselater, on 02/20/2009, -0/+2Dugg for the "Brazil" reference. *Perfect* reference.
- eir574, on 02/21/2009, -1/+3Don't assume that they've been forgotten just because people don't want to give into fear.
- buckrogers1965, on 02/21/2009, -0/+2There are going to be a lot of these stories in the coming years.
- x88justy, on 02/25/2009, -0/+2A plain regular blog post by a survivor of U.S. torture and rendition. His family suffered extremely. Many others are still where this man was, as dismantling the U.S. system of secret prisons depends on political will. Obama declared in his speech last night (Feb 24 speech) that torture was over, but the secret prisons are still out there.
- lhbaker, on 02/20/2009, -0/+2From Wikipedia: Bashimilah travelled to from Indonesia to Jordan with his wife in October 2003 and was arrested on October 21, 2003 after telling Jordanian officials that in 2000 he had been to Afghanistan. Bashimilah was subsequently beaten and threatened by the General Intelligence Department until he finally agreed several days later to sign a confession without ever reading it. On the morning of October 26 he was transferred to the CIA, which chained and hooded him, and then flew him to Kabul, Afghanistan.
- boulder555, on 02/20/2009, -0/+2While there MAY be evidence, no one who will talk has seen it.
You seem to be under the impression the government is actually working for you and keeping you safe but as a Republican and a Constitutionalist I want the law obeyed. Unfortunately this Administration AND the last one appear to feel they are above the law -- while passing MORE legislation to gut the Bill of Rights (our protection against out-of-control government). - aletoledo, on 02/20/2009, -2/+3yeah right. You're not appalled nor ashamed enough to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so your comment is merely an attempt to assuage your own guilt. In the next couple years you'll be apologizing again for more flights from Afghanistan and claiming yet again that you didn't know.
Enough is enough, you're complicit and you're not innocent in any way, shape or form. - moxley, on 02/23/2009, -0/+1Nobody has forgotten anything, people are just tired of these things being used as excuses to take away our rights and ruin our image in the world.
On top of that, 9/11 most certainly didn't go down the way they claim, so anybody with half a brain wants to know what the ***** happened - a lot of people have a lot of ideas, and some are probably right. - thecheatah, on 02/20/2009, -3/+4to tell you the truth, what I did when I did not know is something you cannot blame on me, but my lack of action for what I did eventually know is something you can certainly blame on me.
- aletoledo, on 02/20/2009, -1/+2You seem to be assuming that Obama isn't part of the whole system. If he was really an outsider, he wouldn't be increasing the war in Afghanistan and bombing civilians in Pakistan.
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