The story, pieced together here by two bloggers, by Mary on TheLeftCoaster and by Marcy at Emptywheel, is that of a detainee who initially cooperated and gave valuable information when he was interrogated under conventional methods.
But the higher ups weren't satisfied, because he was not admitting a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda. So they rendered him to Egypt, where he was tortured -- and eventually told them what they wanted to hear. Egypt returned him to us and he later on retracted his statement, saying he had made it up under the duress of torture. Bush nevertheless used it in his Cincinnatti speech, making the case for invading Iraq -- even after al-Libi had retracted it and it had been otherwise debunked.
When this came to light, they blamed al-Libi for "giving bad intelligence." And then it appears they "disappeared him." When they brought the "worst of the worst" detainees to Guantanamo, he was not among them.
Last month, when the Red Cross began questioning the detainees at Guantanamo, they began asking what happened to al-Libi. Now we know he had been sent to Libya, where he was seen briefly by a Human Rights Watch representative.
Human Right Watch researcher Heba Morayef told Reuters in London that she saw Fakhiri [aka al-Libi] on April 27 during a visit to the Libyan capital’s main Abu Salim jail. She said Fakhiri appeared for just two minutes in a prison courtyard. He look well, but was unwilling to speak to the Rights Watch team, she said. "Where were you when I was being tortured in American prisons?" she quoted him as saying.Last weekend, it was reported that al-Libi was found dead in a Libyan prison of suicide.
Here's what the known facts link up:
1. al-Libi was tortured, seemingly to get specific information about an Iraq and Al Qaeda link, which he repeatedly denied until they did torture him. Then he confessed it but later said it was not true.
2. The Bush administration used the evidence anyway to make the case for invading Iraq.
3. al-Libi was "disappeared" in 2006 and held in Libya without access to Red Cross workers. Last month, they discovered where he was and a Human Rights Watch researcher spoke with him briefly.
4. At the same time, torture memos and reports are being released in the U.S., raising the heat about what happened that has been kept secret. It would seem that al-Libi would be a key person any investigator would want to find out more about and talk with. Equally, it would seem that there are some people who definitely did not want him to talk to any investigator.
5. Suddenly, he is found dead in prison, and it is called a suicide.
Suspicious? You bet.
Am I accusing anyone of murder? Not yet. But it certainly strengthens the case that we must have a thorough investigation of the whole torture program carried out by and for the Bush administration.
And don't forget the large number of detainees who have died in prisons, both our own and those we rendered them to in other countries.
Read the fuller description on
Ralph
It has just been reported that Marcy Wheeler, one of the bloggers cited above who writes TheEmptyWheel, has been awarded the Hillman Award for her investigative blogging.
ReplyDeleteShe was cited for her work on the CIA leak case, her live blogging of the Scooter Libby trial, her reporting on Gonzales and wiretapping, and her reporting on waterboarding which the New York Times picked up and ran on page one.
Marcy is one of the best investigative journalists working today. She just happens to do it as a blogger.