COMMONDREAMS – In response to the mass protests of recent days, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak has appointed his first Vice President in his over 30
years rule, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. When Suleiman was first
announced, Aljazeera commentators were describing him as a
“distinguished” and “respected ” man. It turns out, however, that he is
distinguished for, among other things, his central role in Egyptian
torture and in the US rendition to torture program. Further, he is
“respected” by US officials for his cooperation with their torture
plans, among other initiatives.
Katherine Hawkins, an expert on the US’s rendition to torture program, in an email, has sent some critical texts where Suleiman pops up. Thus, Jane Mayer, in The Dark Side, pointed to Suleiman’s role in the rendition program:
Each rendition was authorized at the very top levels of both governments….The long-serving chief of the Egyptian central intelligence agency, Omar Suleiman, negotiated directly with top Agency officials. [Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt] Walker described the Egyptian counterpart, Suleiman, as “very bright, very realistic,” adding that he was cognizant that there was a downside to “some of the negative things that the Egyptians engaged in, of torture and so on. But he was not squeamish, by the way” (pp. 113).
Stephen Grey, in Ghost Plane, his investigative work on the rendition program also points to Suleiman as central in the rendition program:
To negotiate these assurances [that the Egyptians wouldn’t “torture” the prisoner delivered for torture] the CIA dealt principally in Egypt through Omar Suleiman, the chief of the Egyptian general intelligence service (EGIS) since 1993. It was he who arranged the meetings with the Egyptian interior ministry…. Suleiman, who understood English well, was an urbane and sophisticated man. Others told me that for years Suleiman was America’s chief interlocutor with the Egyptian regime — the main channel to President Hosni Mubarak himself, even on matters far removed from intelligence and security.
Suleiman’s role, was also highlighted in a Wikileaks cable:
In the context of the close and sustained cooperation between the USG and GOE on counterterrorism, Post believes that the written GOE assurances regarding the return of three Egyptians detained at Guantanamo (reftel) represent the firm commitment of the GOE to adhere to the requested principles. These assurances were passed directly from Egyptian General Intelligence Service (EGIS) Chief Soliman through liaison channels — the most effective communication path on this issue. General Soliman’s word is the GOE’s guarantee, and the GOE’s track record of cooperation on CT issues lends further support to this assessment. End summary.
However, Suleiman wasn’t just the go-to bureaucrat for when the Americans wanted to arrange a little torture. This “urbane and sophisticated man” apparently enjoyed a little rough stuff himself.
Shortly after 9/11, Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was captured by Pakistani security forces and, under US pressure, torture by Pakistanis. He was then rendered (with an Australian diplomats watching) by CIA operatives to Egypt, a not uncommon practice. In Egypt, Habib merited Suleiman’s personal attention. As related by Richard Neville, based on Habib’s memoir:
Habib was interrogated by the country’s Intelligence Director, General Omar Suleiman…. Suleiman took a personal interest in anyone suspected of links with Al Qaeda. As Habib had visited Afghanistan shortly before 9/11, he was under suspicion. Habib was repeatedly zapped with high-voltage electricity, immersed in water up to his nostrils, beaten, his fingers were broken and he was hung from metal hooks.
That treatment wasn’t enough for Suleiman, so:
To loosen Habib’s tongue, Suleiman ordered a guard to murder a gruesomely shackled Turkistan prisoner in front of Habib – and he did, with a vicious karate kick.
After Suleiman’s men extracted Habib’s confession, he was transferred back to US custody, where he eventually was imprisoned at Guantanamo. His “confession” was then used as evidence in his Guantanamo trial.
Click to continue reading the full article on Egypt’s new VP, Omar Suleiman.
Written by Stephen Soldz, psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher, and faculty member at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He edits the Psyche, Science, and Society blog. Soldz is a founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, one of the organizations working to change American Psychological Association policy on participation in abusive interrogations; he served as a psychological consultant on several Gutanamo trials. Currently Soldz is President of Psychologists for Social Responsibility [PsySR] and a Consultant to Physicians for Human Rights.
© COPYRIGHT COMMONDREAMS, 2011
Photograph by hermmermferm
(The Crypto Jew) Watching the world change – and haivng the capacity and ability to change ourselves.I hope this leads to greater freedom, self-determination and success for the Egyptian people. They truly deserve it. The meek shall inherit .NOTHING. -F. Zappa The Egyptian people deserve nothing The American People didn’t deserve America and its Constitution, they CREATED it what the People DESERVE and what the People GET are two different things and unless the people of Egypt are careful what they’re going to GET is the Muslim Brotherhood, imposing a corrupt authoritarian state upon them, without the benefit of Saudi or Iranian oil wealth in short, pretty much what they have, economically, but much worse in other ways. So can this deserve and hope and change STUFF Hope in one hand, Sh!te in the other see which fills up first .I worry and wonder what will step into Mubarak’s vacuum, Suleiman, as Mubarak Lite, ElBaradei as Kerenski’I, the Ikhwan Muslimeen as the Sunni Mullahs, with the head of the Brotherhood as a Sunni Ayatollah Khomeini? ElBaradei as Jefferson and Suleiman as Washington and a Conservative, Islamic Republic? There is much to fear as there is to hope for and what the people Deserve has little or nothing to do with it what the People demand and strive for is what’s important, not what they Deserve.
That’s understandable that cash can make us free. But what to do if someone doesn’t have money? The one way is to receive the loan and just collateral loan.