CIA ‘Shocked’ Prisoners They Sent To Libya Were Tortured
Middle East and North Africa, Security and Human Rights, Torture, USA | Posted by: Tom Parker, September 8, 2011 at 4:36 PM

This past weekend has provided a few new insights into what Dick Cheney’s policy of ‘working the dark side’ actually entailed and offered a piquant example of the law of unintended consequences.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) was able to gain access to the headquarters of Libyan Intelligence after the organization’s building in Tripoli fell to rebel control. HRW’s researcher found files detailing the relationship that developed between the CIA and Gadhafi’s external intelligence service in the years after September 11th.

It is worth recalling that Libyan Intelligence had been behind (among other crimes) the murder of a British policewoman in London in 1984, two US servicemen in Berlin in 1986, and the downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, which resulted in 270 fatalities.

Libya also supplied the Provisional IRA with major arms shipments, including AK 47s, heavy machine guns and Semtex explosives, for over two decades.

While Libya’s relationship with the West certainly improved in the 2000s, there was no suggestion that Gadhafi’s dismissive attitude towards human rights had similarly evolved.

President Bush’s Press Secretary Ari Fleischer acknowledged as much in this April 2003 comment on the composition of the UN Human Rights Commission:

“[The] Commission cannot expect to have Libya be its chair, to reelect Cuba, and not have people wonder if they really do stand for human rights.”

Yet, at the same time that Fleischer was criticizing the UN, the CIA was arranging to render terrorism suspects to Libya where they could be jointly interrogated by Libyan and US intelligence officers.

In one memo discovered by HRW, the CIA’s former Deputy Director of Operations Stephen Kappes wrote to the Head of Libyan Intelligence, Moussa Koussa:

“We are eager to work with you in the questioning of the terrorist we recently rendered to your country.”

Seeking to head off criticism at the weekend, US officials claimed that they sought assurances that the human rights of rendered individuals would be protected, and indeed communications between the CIA and Libyan intelligence have language seeking to indemnify the Agency from subsequent allegations of mistreatment.

In essence, the US got lawyered up and is now channeling Claude Rains’ Vichy police chief in the movie Casablanca who closed Bogart’s nightclub for unlicensed gambling, even as he pocketed his winnings from the roulette table, with the immortally cynical line:

“I am shocked, shocked that there is gambling going on here.”

Unfortunately for the US government, a victim of the extraordinary rendition program, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, also went public last weekend with a graphic account of his own experiences, which demonstrate all too vividly just how empty the charade of diplomatic assurances actually was.

And here comes the twist: Belhaj is now head of the Libyan rebels’ military committee for restoring order in Tripoli, a position he holds courtesy of US and NATO airstrikes to oust Colonel Gadhafi from power.

Belhaj is a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which waged a low-level insurgency campaign against Gadhafi in the 1990s. The LIFG was defeated by Gadhafi in 1998 and its leadership fled to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. There are reported connections between LIFG and Al Qaeda in this period. Now, he’s family.

Belhaj claims that in 2004 he was abducted in Malaysia, tortured in a CIA ‘black site’ in Thailand and then rendered to Colonel Gadhafi’s Libya where was held in solitary confinement for 6 years and repeatedly tortured by Libyan officials.

Amazingly, Belhaj doesn’t want revenge – he wants justice:

“If one day there is a legal way, I would like to see my torturers brought to court.”

He may yet get his wish. A British public inquiry into the treatment of ‘suspected terrorists’ overseas has already announced that it will examine Belhaj’s case.

And the CIA might have got away with it too, if hadn’t been for those meddling rebels… …source

cb editor: While FP Chief Ashton’s comments are welcome, she seems to miss the point as do many others, especially in the West, that whether these trials are held in Military or Civilian Courts they are a SHAM, they are trumped up, false charges meant to justify detention and to crush all opposition to a ruling and tyrannical Monarchy. Due process has been absent as warrant-less arrests, beatings and charge-less detentions continue to this day.

It seems either naivety or simply a ruse for anyone to suggest, given the climate of politics and human rights abuse, that any trial in any court bringing charges against the opposition leadership, prisoners of conscience and the arbitrarily detained could ever be fair or just at this point in history. What is absent in the present narrative are the charges against those committing real crimes, the al Kahlifa regime. It’s time for International powers to put coercive pressure on the al Khalifa’s to release all opposition leadership and prisoners of conscience and begin a fair and equitable process for ceding power. Barring this revolution and it’s unpredictable outcome seems inevitable.

EU’s Catherine Ashton hails release of Bahrain medics
By AFP – Published: September 8, 2011

BRUSSELS: EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton hailed Thursday the release on bail of Shiite medics in Bahrain who had been detained during pro-democracy demonstrations this spring in the Gulf state.

While applauding the special court’s decision to release seven doctors and three ambulance drivers, pending the verdict on September 29, she called for the need to use civil courts.

Ashton “again urges the Bahraini authorities to conduct all trials of civilians in civilian courts, with due process and full rights to a fair and transparent trial, as promised by His Majesty King Hamad last month,” a statement from her office said.

She added that she looks forward “the upcoming conclusions of the independent Commission of Inquiry on the events surrounding the unrest earlier this year.”

Some of the released medics had led a hunger strike for more than a week, according to the opposition.

The independent panel of foreign experts set up by Bahrain’s monarch to investigate the crackdown on protesters said more than 100 detainees had gone on hunger strike, 17 of whom were hospitalised after their health deteriorated.

Bahraini authorities have charged 24 doctors and 23 nurses — including several women — from Manama’s central Salmaniya hospital of incitement to overthrow the regime, during the protests in the Gulf kingdom that is ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty.

All the medical staff have now been released pending the verdicts, Bahaini officials said. …source

Bahraini “Sham” Trials Condemned
For Immediate Release: September 8, 2011

Washington, DC – The military trial of 20 doctors and other medics who treated injured protestors during pro-democracy protests resumed this week, further undermining Bahrain’s claim to respect human rights. The remaining doctors who had been in detention – some for many months – were released, but the charges against them still remain. Some are in extremely poor health after 9 days on hunger strike and are need of immediate medical treatment. Despite assurances that these cases would be tried in civilian courts, the cases are slated to proceed in military court and verdicts are anticipated by Sept. 29.

“Trying civilians in military courts that offer inadequate legal protections is a sham process,” said Human Rights First’s Brian Dooley. “It exposes the Bahraini Government’s real intentions to crack down on peaceful activists. The United States Government should publicly condemn these trials and make clear that Bahrain’s decision to prosecute people for peacefully expressing their views will have consequences for the relationship between the United States and Bahrain.”

The Bahraini authorities announced on June 26 that they were transferring all cases from military courts to civilian courts. On August 18, government authorities made an about-face and announced that the doctors would be tried in a military court. Bahrain’s military court does not meet international standards for a fair trial.

Among those on trial is Roula Al-Saffar, the head of the Bahrain Nursing Society, who spent four months in detention before her release last year. She studied at Widener University in Pennsylvania and at the University of North Texas. She also worked for many years as a nurse at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

“In July, I spoke to several of the medics who have been detained, including Roula and others on trial today, “ said Dooley. “I heard credible, detailed and consistent stories from them of torture in detention. The United States should not be aligned with a regime that perpetuates such abuses.” …source

Bahrain job purges linger as protest flashpoint
AP By BRIAN MURPHY -August 8, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One afternoon in May, police in Bahrain led away security guard Mahdi Ali from his job at the Gulf kingdom’s state-controlled aluminum plant. He claims he was blindfolded and beaten so severely that the bruises still have not healed.

His only offense, he insists, is being part of Bahrain’s Shiite majority as it presses for greater rights from Sunni rulers who have Western allies and powerful Gulf neighbors on their side.

The 44-year-old Ali now counts himself among Bahrain’s purged: Hundreds of Shiites — some say thousands — dismissed from jobs or suspended from universities for suspected support for demonstrators.

“My only crime is being Shiite,” said Ali, who claims he has been effectively blacklisted from finding a new job. “I’ve paid for it by being dismissed, arrested, tortured and insulted.”

With Bahrain’s Arab Spring crisis moving into its eighth month, the mass dismissals remain a major point of anger feeding near-daily street clashes on the strategic island — which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The coming weeks could be critical in assessing the chances for any significant reconciliation efforts in Bahrain. The alternative is an increasingly divided and volatile nation where the region’s biggest political narratives intersect: Western security interests, Gulf Arab worries about spillover uprisings and Iran’s ambitions to cast wider Middle East influence.

“Bahrain had these tensions long before the current Arab upheavals. And it may end up as one of the most enduring and most complex dilemmas after the Arab Spring has run its course,” said Sami Alfaraj, director of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies.

Shiites account for about 70 percent of the population of some 525,000 people, but claim they face systematic discrimination by the 200-year-old Sunni dynasty. Bahrain’s rulers, meanwhile, court Western and Sunni Arab backing by raising fears that Shiite power Iran is pulling the strings of the protests as a foothold to undermine other Gulf monarchs and sheiks. …more

The Movement in Bahrain – Still Alive, Regardless of Media Neglect
September 8, 2011 – by NADA ALWADI – Counter Punch

He runs impulsively and courageously, carrying his country’s flag as if he were carrying his own dream. He looks young, athletic, and fearless. He jumps over a bridge’s fence and runs to the place where many of his countrymen were killed not long ago. Then he raises his flag and waves it high, trying to avoid the policemen running to stop him. He was standing in that same spot six months ago, carrying that same flag and living that same dream. Today, his dream is besieged, just like the spot where he is standing. Soon, dozens of riot police rush out from four vehicles, surround him, take him down, and confiscate his flag. There, his punishment awaits him—a brutal beating by the police, who then take him away.

His name is Mohamed Ali Alhaiki, an ordinary young man who was the talk of Bahrain few days ago. On Saturday, Mohamed—who was fired from his job after participating in the anti-government protests—decided to carry the Bahraini flag and walk with it right to the middle of Pearl Roundabout in the center of the capital Manama.

Mohamed’s symbolic action, which was filmed and posted on YouTube, will be remembered by hundreds of thousands of Bahrainis who have participated in pro-democracy protests since February 14th. They will remember this like they remember Ali Jawad Al-Sheikh, the 14-year-old boy who was killed a few days earlier on the morning of Eid—one of two days of celebration for Muslims—while he was participating with his friends in pro-democracy protest in his village.

Although protests have continued on the streets of Bahrain every day since the Saudi-led crackdown on Pearl Roundabout last March, there has been very little coverage of the Bahraini movement in the international media.

There are several reasons for this. First, six months after the movement started, it’s clear to Bahraini activists that the United States is not in favor of any changes. The US wants to protect its interests in Bahrain—most importantly, securing the Navy’s Fifth Fleet—and avoid any direct confrontation with Saudi Arabia, which is calling the shots in Bahrain right now. The US’s posture has played a major role in marginalizing Bahrain in the eyes of the international media. …more