Yonas Fikre, American Muslim, Alleges FBI Had A Hand In His Torture Overseas

Mother Jones:

Last June, while Yonas Fikre was visiting the United Arab Emirates, the Muslim American from Portland, Oregon was suddenly arrested and detained by Emirati security forces. For the next three months, Fikre claims, he was repeatedly interrogated and tortured. Fikre says he was beaten on the soles of his feet, kicked and punched, and held in stress positions while interrogators demanded he

Read the whole story at Mother Jones

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Comments

[SueZbell]

11:13 PM on 04/18/2012

IF this occurred and IF it was under Bush/Cheney and before Obama/Biden, it's not "news" or particularly surprising. Since Bush/Cheney will likely never face criminal court for what they auhorized, perhaps he should consider a civil court?

Obama has said, at least publically, stop torture as an interrogation technique, so,
IF--big if--this occurred under Obama this would be yet another Bush/Cheney idea Obama stupidly kept as his own and another defendant or two should be added to his lawsuit.

[ttsgw]

10:10 AM on 04/18/2012

Secret assassinations and torture have become as American as apple pie.

[Cindbird]

02:40 AM on 04/18/2012

This story is too close to another that ended with the person admitting to terrorist leanings. Even the lawyers for another case thought the guy was just parroting what their client had said. There's no way to prove any of it and the fact that the details are almost exactly the same as another person who is ALSO suing the government makes his claims fishy.

[Roy Blodgette]

01:02 AM on 04/19/2012

So now everybody who claims similar events is a terrorist sympathizer? Maybe the FBI simply uses the same tactics in multiple cases, which would result in similar claims. Similar claims generally indicates repetition of events, not similar motives of the alleged victim. Logic is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

[Cindbird]

01:32 AM on 04/19/2012

First, I never said the man was a terrorist sympathizer. What I AM saying is that this case is very close to another case and this one was NOT brought to light until the other case was filed. Nor has this man ever allowed Physicians for Human Rights (Of which I am a member) to investigate the case, as they have done with 90% of ALL torture cases. The case to which I keep referring WAS investigated by PHR and found to be credible. This man's case has NOT been investigated nor are the claims different in fact from the original case. That is why I am suspicious of this specific claim.

[Cindbird]

01:37 AM on 04/19/2012

This link will take you to the PHR report, "Broken Laws, Broken Lives" which chronicles the torture of prisoners by American forces and by civilian interrogators. https://s3.amazonaws.com/PHR_Reports/BrokenLaws_14.pdf
I do not assume any muslim is a terrorist just because they are muslim, and I am very aware of the torture that has occurred under the umbrella of the American War on Terror.

[grandpaMark]

09:18 PM on 04/17/2012

Let 'em torture Nugent!

[bassboatboy]

11:35 AM on 04/17/2012

you would think the CIA would call them out... it's out of the FBI's jurisdiction.

[realitytrumpsbull]

10:13 AM on 04/17/2012

Maybe, In The Future, warfare will be changed and restricted to be very 'hands-off', and will involve more 1,000lb aerial bombs, overwhelming force of numbers, and less B.S. And, if there IS any torture, it won't be 'torture lite'(article). And, the part where people are traveling overseas from the US can be fixed, also, by closing some airports. Want to get there from here? Better brush up on your sailing skills and nautical terminology. Arrr!

[shankapotomus]

09:38 AM on 04/17/2012

Why to go Obama keep following Bush's lead.

[CognitoErgoSum]

12:09 AM on 04/18/2012

Fikre was outside U. S. jurisdiction, where we cannot extend contitutional protections without violating some other nation's sovereignty, and it was the Emiratis who detained and tortured him, NOT the U. S. Fikre was NOT abducted in the U. S. and rendered to some black facility, which is what the Bush administration would've done to him.

[SueZbell]

11:16 PM on 04/18/2012

Since I do not always believe what I read, I repeat this info with the clear warning that it is "hearsay":

I read that there is supposedly a "black" site at the airbase in Somalia where US has its own people aiding interrogation.

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

08:56 AM on 04/17/2012

OK. So we have one person's story...a story he cannot in any way corroborate. It isn't like "police" in Middle-Eastern countries don't already abuse prisoners just because that is what they without any outside influence.

[nonChristian]

08:43 AM on 04/17/2012

Instead of all this drama, he could have just co-operated with FBI first. Considering that you go to a terrorist Mosque it is but natural you would be interrogated. If you have nothing to hide, why not just tell them that and end the matter.

Muslims constantly whine about their "rights" taken away, but then it is their duty to help the law enforcement, which they don't seem to do. If they would concentrate less on whining and more on catching the terrorists amongst them, they wouldn't be treated like one themselves.

[AxisV]

05:20 PM on 04/17/2012

" If you have nothing to hide, why not just tell them that and end the matter. "

LOL @ you for thinking it's that simple.

"it is their duty to help the law enforcement, which they don't seem to do. "

Most "terrorist" plots dismantled lately were due to cooperation with the Muslim community. However, putting the proverbial gun to a person's head and demanding they become an informant violates I don't know how many laws.

[nonChristian]

08:26 AM on 04/18/2012

The man actually tried to run away for FBI. There was certainly he was hiding. What do you want? A terrorist to have all his lawful rights or lives of hundreds, possibly more of Americans to be saved?

[Fungi]

07:56 PM on 04/17/2012

guess you dislike American freedom... that's just sad.

[nonChristian]

08:23 AM on 04/18/2012

I hate to sound like the fear mongering GOP people, but somewhere in my mind, I have contemplated. Exactly how "American" are Muslims here?

[Ukridge]

08:34 AM on 04/17/2012

I think we can safely say where the Mother Jone's allegiances lay, not the truth, our patriotism, but with people like this guy, whom they actually blamed the US about.

Journalists SOHRAB AHMARI
Today, after deliberating for less than ten hours, a federal jury found Tarek Mehanna guilty of the most serious charges leveled by federal prosecutors against him, including providing material support to terrorists, conspiring to kill in a foreign country, and lying to counterterrorism officials. He faces a possible life sentence.
As I reported in the July 25 issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Mehanna, a young Egyptian-American pharmacist who self-radicalized shortly after 9/11, gained notoriety as an English-language al Qaeda propagandist who helped plan multiple terror attacks. Mehanna’s dreams of waging physical jihad against the United States never materialized—mostly thanks to the incompetence of Mehanna and his terrorist cohort.
Misguided Boston leftists had come to view Mehanna as some sort of authentic Muslim civil rights activist. Here was a young man who took joy in the 9/11 attacks, celebrated Osama bin Laden as his spiritual father, and called for moderate and liberal Muslims to be brutalized for daring to challenge Islamism in their communities. "

[Doug Sandlin]

07:58 PM on 04/17/2012

It's easy to go for the smear-attempt, but Mother Jones' coverage of the FBI, related to terrorism cases, was a year-long investigative journalism project, conducted in conjunction with the University of California, Berkeley.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/08/terrorism-fbi-informants

I'd encourage everyone to read the coverage, and make up their own minds.

[Mikey456]

08:18 AM on 04/17/2012

Always did like the FBI. Keep up the good work...........

[Trustfunded1]

08:02 AM on 04/17/2012

What hasn't the Oligarchs Secret Police done?

[First Blast]

08:02 AM on 04/17/2012

Sounds like lawfare.

[dui]

07:49 AM on 04/17/2012

I wonder if progressives will be screaming for BHO's arrest now.

[Ukridge]

08:31 AM on 04/17/2012

Well, are there pictures, and eye witnesses or anything one could reasonable even slightly use to verify the veracity of these charges?

[CognitoErgoSum]

12:12 AM on 04/18/2012

For what? We cannot legally extend constitutional protections to people in foreign countries, since they have to obey the laws of those countries. The Emiratis arrested and tortured him while he was in THEIR country, NOT the U. S.

[mass maritimer]

07:43 AM on 04/17/2012

This HAS to stop. I am sickened by the actions of my government in the name of our freedom.

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

08:58 AM on 04/17/2012

Way to run to the presumption that everything he is saying is truth.

Did you also know that everyone in prison in the US is innocent?

[mass maritimer]

10:07 AM on 04/17/2012

Converesly, to deny this is happening on a wide scale is absolutely naive

[CognitoErgoSum]

12:14 AM on 04/18/2012

It was the EMIRATIS who arrested him the the UAE, which is NOT in the United States, thus our constitution does not apply to them.