[Muslim Matters] International Day in Support of Victims of Torture — Help Ahmed Abu Ali

I am posting the article below a little late even though I am not happy with the author's apparent assumption that the USA is so superior to Saudi Arabia in the matter of torture.

Yet the outrageousness of case of Ahmed Abu Ali definitely gives cause to send a letter to President Obama. Here are some relevant reports:

• [Cassel] The Strange Case of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali: Troubling Questions about the Government's Motives and Tactics
• [Cassel] The Shocking Trial of American Citizen Ahmed Abu Ali: Statements Procured Under Duress in a Saudi Prison Are Now Being Used by U.S. Prosecutors in a U.S. Court

Bush administration Neocon Zionists probably targeted Ahmed Abu Ali because he had been valedictorian of the class of 1999 at the Islamic Saudi Academy, which has long been the victim of racist Jewish Zionist anti-Muslim incitement.

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture — Help Ahmed Abu Ali

Guest post by John Halliwell (slightly modified)

On the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (Friday, June 26), I wanted to ask my fellow Americans to simply sign and fax a letter (pasted at bottom of entry) to President Obama (202-456-2461) to help one of our fellow Americans who has been convicted on evidence produced under conditions of torture.

Ahmed Abu Ali was a young Arab-American studying abroad in Saudi Arabia in 2003 when he was abruptly arrested by Saudi security forces and held for twenty months, during which time he was interrogated – notably not only by the Saudis, but also FBI agents.

In the past, I have written about the much more well-known case of Sami Al-Arian and the overzealous and overly right-wing prosecutor named Gordon Kromberg who is hounding him. When Abu Ali’s lawyer approached Kromberg in 2005 to ask for help to have his client extradited to the US (Kromberg is the Assistant US Attorney for Virginia, whence Ahmed hails), Kromberg infamously retorted, “He’s no good for us here, he has no fingernails left.”

In any case, Ahmed was in fact extradited, only to be indicted with a conspiracy to assassinate then-President Bush. The government just had one little problemo: the only “evidence” they could muster was Ahmed’s confession, which he gave while in Saudi custody, which he claims was a result of torture (oh yeah, he also wasn’t read his Miranda rights or given access to a lawyer). Lucky for the government, presiding Judge Gerald Lee didn’t think that this torture stuff and denial of basic civil rights was really relevant either, arguing that Ahmed was outside the US after all.

[To read the entire article, click here.]

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