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Suit Charges U.S. Using Other Countries To Indefinitely Hold Terror Suspects
The ACLU is today filing a suit alleging that the Bush administration has asked other countries to hold terror suspects whom the U.S. lacks the evidence to charge.
The poster boy for the case is Naji Hamdan, an American Muslim, who, reports McClatchy, has been held for nearly three months in the United Arab Emirates without charges, access to a lawyer, or contact with his family.
"If the U.S. government is responsible for this detention and we believe it is, this is clearly illegal because our government can't contract away the Constitution by enlisting the aid of other governments that do not adhere to the Constitution's requirements," an ACLU spokesperson told McClatchy.
An FBI spokesman said: "The FBI does not ask foreign nations to detain U.S. citizens on our behalf in order to circumvent their rights."
Hamdan served on the board of a Los Angeles mosque, and had originally been questioned by the FBI about possible ties to Osama Bin Laden as early as 1999. He moved with his family to the UAE in 2006, and was arrested by local law enforcement in August of this year.
Hamdan's family, which is bringing the lawsuit, says he's no friend of OBL. "Naji hates war. He hates what happened on September 11. He hates terrorism," his wife told McClatchy.













We are going to be hearing more and more about such sleazy tactics as housecleaning proceeds. It's going to be worse than we thought, I predict.
November 18, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
An FBI spokesman said: "The FBI does not ask foreign nations to detain U.S. citizens on our behalf in order to circumvent their rights."
You gotta love the old non-denial denial. There are so many ways this statement could be technically true and still not deny the facts of the story:
- It's not the FBI, it's some other agency.
- We don't ask foreign nations, we demand it.
- "... at least we don't know 100% that they are U.S. citizens ..."
- And it's not on our behalf, it's for the other countries' own good.
- Oh, we're doing it alright, it's just not (solely) to circumvent their rights. We've got other devious purposes.
November 18, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
A lot of the "other intelligence activities" referred to by Al Gonzales and Robert Mueller and the "other enhanced" interrogation methods are being discussed in detail at Larson Media and in a letter to Senator Russ Feingold uploaded to www.larsonmedia.net/special_access/documents.htm
November 19, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink