<html>
<body>
<font size=3><br><br>
Washington Times<br><br>
Do secret interrogations continue?<br><br>
By Nat Hentoff<br>
April 30, 2007<br><br>
<br>
Americans know many details of the firing of U.S.
attorneys and Don Imus -- along with the horror at Virginia Tech. But how
many are aware that the FBI has been interrogating terrorism suspects --
including an American citizen -- in secret Ethiopian prisons?<br>
On April 5, the Associated Press reported that
Ethiopia was under pressure "to release details of detainees from 19
countries... including women and children [who] have been transferred
secretly and illegally. An investigation by the Associated Press found
that CIA and FBI agents have been interrogating the detainees." As
John Sifton, a deeply experienced researcher at Human Rights Watch, said
on the national Democracy Now radio and Internet program (April 5), these
suspects would previously have been held as enemy combatants at
Guantanamo Bay or the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. But "the Bush
administration has shifted gears, and now they have the FBI interrogating
people... by local forces, the Ethiopians, the Kenyans... That's why we
call it a sort of outsourced Guantanamo." These interrogations
purportedly are to weed out al Qaeda conspirators and cells in the Horn
of Africa.<br>
The American prisoner, Amir Mohamed Meshal of Tinton
Falls, N.J., held since late January, was questioned several times by FBI
agents as American officials admit without being charged and without
having a U.S. consular official present, or an attorney. But Meshal has a
very active and properly indignant attorney in Jonathan Hafetz of the
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. On April 2, he wrote
to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding that she get the
Ethiopian government to release his client. Also, writing to Miss Rice
was Rep. Rush Holt, New Jersey Democrat, about his constituent, Amir
Meshal: "Our government," Mr. Holt told Miss Rice, "cannot
allow an American citizen to be held by the Ethiopian government in
violation of international law and our own due process." As of this
writing, Miss Rice has not replied to the congressman.<br>
Fortunately, Mr. Holt is chairman of the House Select
Intelligence Oversight Panel. I expect that in addition to finding out
why his constituent was outsourced to Ethiopia, the congressman will also
ask FBI Director Robert Mueller, CIA Director Michael Hayden and other
high-level intelligence officials why they have been directly
responsible, in this case of an American citizen, for working with the
Ethiopian government to violate international law and the very basis of
our system of justice, due process. (If they are not directly
responsible, who's running their shops?)<br>
It also would be very useful and indeed necessary if
our rule of law is to have credibility at home and in the world to find
out from the president and Vice President Cheney how they justify this
outsourcing of an American citizen to an Ethiopian dungeon.<br>
Meanwhile, what's happening to American citizen Amir
Meshal? In a dispatch from Addis Ababa on April 12, The Washington Post
quoted FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko, who "confirmed that there
were no charges against Meshal, and State Department officials said the
FBI told them that no charges were pending." So, Mr. Meshal was set
to be released from the secret prison and flown back to the United States
where, unlike Ethiopia, every citizen is guaranteed due process of
law.<br>
Not so fast. The same Washington Post story revealed
that Mr. Meshal is still imprisoned. (As of this writing, he remains in
his cell.) Why? "State Department officials booking his flight
discovered that his name had been placed on a no-fly list at the request
of the FBI and no airline would take him, U.S. officials said."
Then, on Friday, April 13, Mr. Meshal did get out of that lockup to be
hauled before an Ethiopian military tribunal. The New York Times on April
14 added: "No news media or members of the public were allowed at
the hearing (before the military tribunal), and American officials said
that they, too, were barred from attending. Ethiopian officials did not
disclose details. Ethiopian Foreign Ministry officials said they were not
authorized to talk about it." Did any FBI agent on the scene call
Mr. Mueller? Did any American State Department person there try to reach
Miss Rice?<br>
Last year, the president said that no one was still
being held in CIA secret prisons, although they remain open, as permitted
by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. On what authority has (as
reported by The Washington Post) "the FBI carried out interrogations
of dozens of detainees in Ethiopian secret prisons?"<br>
What of the international treaties against torture and
other abuses by which we are bound? What about American citizen Amir
Mohamed Meshal of Tinton Falls, N.J.? Has his citizenship been
suspended?<br>
<<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/email.php?StoryID=20070429-100046-4854r" eudora="autourl">
http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/email.php?StoryID=20070429-100046-4854r</a>
><br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>