UAE Condemns Royal Sheikh Torture Tape (VIDEO)

UPDATE: The Financial Times reports Wednesday that Abu Dhabi intends to investigate torture allegations against the royal family. According to FT:

The statement said the human rights office of the Abu Dhabi judicial department would conduct a "comprehensive review of the matter immediately and make its findings public at the earliest opportunity".

...
The statement made no mention of Sheikh Issa - who has never held government office - but said "the events depicted on the video appear to represent a violation of human rights".

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A video tape leaked out of the United Arab Emirates last week depicts a member of the royal family, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, beating and torturing another man, and then running over him with a Mercedes. The man is reported to be a grain dealer who had lost a shipment. The incident was first reported by ABC News, who queried the UAE government:

In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.

"The incidents depicted in the video tapes were not part of a pattern of behavior," the Interior Ministry's statement declared.

[WATCH (CAUTION: GRAPHIC CONTENT):]

Democratic Representative James McGovern, outraged over the tape, penned a letter to Secretary Clinton and the State Department following ABC's Nightline report demanding that the US issue a strong response, ABC reports. However, the State Department has not yet followed through with McGovern's preferred tone of response.

This week, the UAE government has issued additional statements, ABC reports, this time condemning the heinous acts seen in the tape -- which has now been thoroughly circulated online.

The video was leaked elsewhere to the Associated Press as well, by a Texas businessman who claims to have been imprisoned and tortured at the hands of the UAE royal family. The following AP video gives a more in depth account of the increasing notoriety surrounding the UAE's royal family, especially with regards to business dealings.

[WATCH (CAUTION: GRAPHIC CONTENT):]

Comments

[lobear00]

Well the bush administration is no better than the saudi's or UAE, these are people of the same mindset. So president Obama you need to sit down along with the Attorney General Holder and see if that tape will change your mindset, or if it's just business as usual.

[lynnn]

So the UAE, would make that guy go days w/out sleeping, naked, take pictures, sexually abuse him.... him that sounds familiar. Did Yoo and Bybee advise the UAE as well?

[souroil]

This Shiekh needs to be brought to justice. If the US or League of Arab nations won't do the deed, then maybe it's time the UN does something. This mean needs to be brought to justice. He is not worthy to walk free. There are millions of people across the gobe who are e-mailing each other about this incident. This matter wilol not be forgotten. Either they bring this Shiekh to justice or the economy of the UAE will begin to falter more than it is. The timing for this shiekh and the beating he inflicted was terrible timing as the whole world is focused in on torture. With this beuing then worst filmed torture we all have to look at right now, no public relations firm in the world will be able to stop the continuous spotlight at this country and this Shiekh who behaved like a petty tyrant.

[Aroon]

GOP and Fox News like to shout against such torture. Normally, those two like to show these videos to say how USA is the ONLY civilized country "in the World". They have lost the right to say this because they have said " this is not a torture" again & again last month. The poor Texas businessman cannot complain to GOP or Fox either. !!

[JosephCharles]

Regarding electro-torture (not used at Guantanamo) Darius Rejali, author of "Torture and Democracy" writes:
“Early 20th-century America was a breeding ground for new ideas in electric torture, many documented by American Bar Association investigators in their 1931 Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement. Between 1922 and 1926, the Seattle police chief got his confessions from a cell with a wall-to-wall electrified carpet. "The prisoner leaps, screaming in agony, into the air....It is not fatal, its effects are not lasting, and it leaves no marks," remarked the ABA report. And until 1929, the police in Helena, Ark., used an improvised electrical chair to extract confessions. At the time, the sheriff testified that the chair came with other office furniture, and he had inherited it from "a long line of former county sheriffs."
But the Amarican public have historically been revolted by such activities when made public. The issue is making constant effots to expose it and stamp it out.. Americans put an end to most domestic torture between 1930 and 1950. We did this, in part, by exposing torture. The American Bar Association's 1931 report transformed American law and policing. The document was cited in court decisions; newspapers and educated the public as to what the modern face of torture was. Police chiefs instituted more checks on police behavior, including clear punishments for violations of the law and regular medical inspections for detainees.

[JosephCharles]

I would encourage anyone interested in torture and its role in life to read 20th century life to read Darius Rejali’s excellent and exhaustive study of contemporary torture:“Torture and Democracy”. Among other things, torture is the unfortunate “dirty little secret” of incompetent law enforcement the world over. Remember the Rodney King beating video? Oh and by the way he was electro-shocked multiple times with a taser during that episode. Many of the SEAR training program torture techniques that came from the former Soviet Union and communist China were themselves picked up by USSR and China from US police departments. These methods were unfortunately quite common in early 20th century US police work and were quite effective in inducing false confessions. Many of these techniques came from (now outlawed) British and American military "field punishments".

[cbates]

This is one of the reasons why this country must learn to live within its means. Just imagine if this culture was imposed in this country because of any reason and or if we wanted to protest these acts we could without penalty. With us so dependent on the Arabs and Chinese all you can do is say you are against this type of act. God Help Us All!

[Koolmorning]

The question is;Was it useful? Did the Prince get actionable intelligence out of that man?
If not, then he needs to tortured himself for making that tape.

[Lynnwood]

Any one surprised by this type of behavior out of that part of the world is simply ignorant of history -- this has been going on for thousands of years, and here has really been no "enlightenment" in the ME society to curtail it -- nor will there be until Muslims find the backbone to follow and institute the truth teachings of Muhammed and Islam -- until that light shines, the ME will always be a place of war and cruelty, and once the oil runs out, it wil be poverty-stricken because their powerful and wealthy have done nothing to improve their society

[rpswartz]

If you are from the United States, you have absolutely no moral authority to criticize people who use torture in the ME. Clean up your own torture first.

[NoScreenNamesLeft]

Wah, wah, wah. What a silly retort. Lynnwood is absolutely right.

[nadin]

the idea that this only happens in the middle east is wrong. However, it is notable that
1)Gulf Countries are among the worst violators of human rights and amongst the strongest supporters and sources of support for the US in the Middle East.
2)That through implicit and explicit support we have turned a blind eye to every egregious human rights violation in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.

[lynnn]

There's a part of the U.S. that isn't that different from over there.

[gschear]

And rpswartz is absolutely right about our lack of moral authority. Squandered and pissed away.

[MsAnn]

Exactly! If the crown prince or his brother jump off of a bridge, will you? Why do I have to write this? I have to explain this to my six year old, but to have to explain it to adults is troubling.

[EuroRant1]

All your anger and disqusts fall on my deaf ears. Why?

Everytime you show up at the service station to fill up those big American trucks, cars, boats, SUVs, etc. You are enabling their dispicable and discusting acts of cruelty and torture to go on and continue as they please.

Your ranting and raving means nothing to their ears. Believe me, that just makes them smile and laugh at your empty words and threats. They will not understand until it effects their pocket books... then and only then will you get their attention. So go on America ... scream and threaten all you want ... they are enjoying the comedy.

(btw I lived in this part of the world ... I refuse to drive for these very reasons.)

[maggiee]

We have no room to talk. We have lost our moral authority. Hopefully countries that bother to prosecute torture will step up and say something since we can't. After all, all the sheik did was put a little sand in the guy's mouth

[Soori]

How about if the Sheikh condemns and agrees that is "torture" but the past is past and we must move forward. This will never happen again! How will everyone respond to this?

[Chubbster]

This is normal in the UAE.

[gschear]

Apparently it was on the way to becoming normal in the USA.

[lynnn]

Apparently people have forgotten even recent U.S. history. We've always had to keep our selves in check. The U.S. invented concentration camps. Now I will say that MOST of the U.S often sees the error of its ways, and we do a good job of moderating ourselves. But again, one part may have ruled by terror, the other IGNORED it for 80 years. The last Northern lynching wasn't that long ago either. We have a tenuous hold on civilization, and we always must watch ourselves, because we have sunk to that depth and lower before.

[RhetoricalHippo]

OMG!!!! Look what Bush has done to the world.

Arabs didn't ever tor.ture before Bush.

But now that the world knows we poured water down KSM's nose, they will all start to tor.ture.

What have we done?

[gschear]

What have we done? We have lowered ourselves to their level and in the process soiled our flag and stained our constitution. Stay in the gutter if you wish but I intend to support my governments efforts to regain some moral high ground. Please feel free to continue your sarcastic sulking. You don't appear to have an adults understanding that just because other people do things doesn't make them OK to do. Thank goodness you and others like you are in the minority and will remain there for a very long time.

[obamagal]

Excellent response.

[COkid]

And why don't you take the high road and quit slammimg people who you consider less then yourself you hypocrite.

[lynnn]

No and America tortured before Bush, mainly its own citizens.