Al Qaeda Recruiter Reportedly Tortured

Washington Post Foreign Service ^ | Friday, January 31, 2003 | Peter Finn

[DanDan]

Al Qaeda Recruiter Reportedly Tortured (Ex-Inmate in Syria Cites Others' Accounts)

CASABLANCA, Morocco -- In January 2002, Driss bin Lakoul, a 38-year-old Moroccan committed to jihad, was arrested in Syria after unsuccessfully attempting to reach Afghanistan, where he wanted to fight against U.S. forces. For three months, the soft-spoken, bearded man with glasses recounted in an interview here, he was held in Damascus at the Far' Falastin detention center run by Syrian military intelligence.

In the prison, inmates spoke of a German citizen held in the rat-infested basement, a warren of lightless cells each barely three feet long, three feet wide and less than six feet in height, bin Lakoul said. The prisoner was taken out of the cell only for interrogation and torture, according to prisoners.

[SaudiDuck]

Maybe I missed something here...can you believe the story of a 6'2" 300# guy who didn't get starved down below fighting weight? Not consistent with the stories of most tortured individuals or prison camp survivors that I've seen.

[Grampa Dave]

Anything the Washington Compost or NY Slime prints about terrorists or what Saddam will do or anything re the Islamofacists just isn't believeable.

This is a plant to make the thugs of Syria look like they are also against al Qaeda thugs. If anyone believes that, I have several bridges around San Francisco to sell them.

[HHFi]

Trying!...So!...Hard!...To!...Care!!

Nope, sorry. Nothing. Just can't feel it. Carry on, Syria.

[FreedomPoster]

No one is arguing that Egyptian prisons would not be a truly unpleasant experience. However, your assertion that they are run by the U.S.A., which is what "supervision" implies, begs for some proof, or clarification of your intent.

[piasa]

Do you think they would write:

"For three months, the sensitive, soft-spoken, mustached artist, with a wretched cough from exposure to mustard gas in WWI..."

or

"For three months, the soft-spoken, bearded cannibal ..."

or

"For three months, the soft-spoken, bearded terrorist..."

"For three months, the soft-spoken, bearded Gestapo agent..."

Just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Heck, I've never even heard the press use such sensitive lines when refering to the "good guys," who are for the most part soft-spoken. Has anyone here ever heard a presstitute say "The soft-spoken George Bush/Reagan/Rice/Cheney/etc..." or the "soft-spoken Republican...?"

Of course, if we were going to go in and bomb Syria, a terrorist country if there ever was one, then the press would quickly jump to the defense of Syria.

What they never say though, is that the people we turn over to these countries also happen to be citizens of these same countries, or are wanted in those countries for earlier crimes and so, they BELONG in those countries.

[sneakypete]

Good points!

[goldstategop]

I feel so sorry for the broken dirtbag. Go cry me Ground Zero.

[DanDan]

Maybe you did not read the article entirely.

The "soft-spoken, bearded man with glasses " is NOT the scumbag Al Qaeda recruiter. He's a moroccan that was in the Damascus jail at the same time who was released after 3 months. "He felt lucky to have been beaten only on the soles of his feet with cable wires".

Nowhere in the article does the author describe Zammar in "sensitive lines" as you call them.

[wretchard]

"Note that what goes around comes around on this question of whether the US countenances torture, even if only by a wink and a nod while handing a prisoner off at the airport to the waiting Lear Jet."

It went around a long time ago. A CIA officer kidnapped in Beirut was tortured for a prolonged period by the Hezbollah. The DEA agent Kiki Camarera was kept alive by a drug cartel doctor specifically to prolong the torture. These are the cases we know about, but they are probably the tip of the iceberg. In general, if you are an American combatant (or noncombatant) kidnapped by the Islamists, you will face torture. And no, Amnesty International will not come for you.

Does this mean that torture is justified? Not necessarily. But it does mean that any argument against torture must derive from our own sense of values and the fear that the acceptance of these practices may poison our culture rather than out of any apprehension that it may "come around".

[piasa]

Maybe you didn't read my post correctly. I never referred to Zammar. I was referring to the Moroccan named Lakoul, who is, according to this article, a devoted jihadist.

If he is a jihadist, he too is a scumbag, albeit a lesser one than Zammar. How can I tell? He was allegedly on his wat to Afghanistan to fight US forces. On whose behalf was he doing this? For what purpose? Not for the sake of Afghans' freedom of course. Jihadists have nothing to do with individual freedom and everything to do with stripping religious freedom from those they deem insufficiently Islamic in order to reduce the competition their particular group fears. On the other hand- since he was arrested by Syria, a terrorist state, I have to give him the benefit of the doubt- he may not be a jihadist at all.

In January 2002, Driss bin Lakoul, a 38-year-old Moroccan committed to jihad, was arrested in Syria after unsuccessfully attempting to reach Afghanistan, where he wanted to fight against U.S. forces. For three months, the soft-spoken, bearded man with glasses recounted in an interview here, he was held in Damascus at the Far' Falastin detention center run by Syrian military intelligence.