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The Ordeal of Muhammad Saad Iqbal

By possum

The stories of detainees held by America in the past few years are beginning to come to light little by little.  The front page of our local edition of the New York Times has another in the ongoing series of these articles just this morning.

When Muhammad Saad Iqbal arrived home here in August after more than six years in American custody, including five at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he had difficulty walking, his left ear was severely infected, and he was dependent on a cocktail of antibiotics and antidepressants.

Mr. Iqbal was never convicted of any crime, or even charged with one.

The Bush administration offered no substantive explanation for his detention or his subsequent release saying only

he was no longer considered an enemy combatant

That Iqbal was ever an enemy combatant at all remains in serious doubt.

Iqbal was guilty of talking too much if anything at all.  He was arrested

after boasting to members of an Islamic group that he knew how to make a shoe bomb

There is not one shred of evidence he aimed to produce such a bomb or even had the knowledge to do so in the first place.  Loose lips put him into detention.

Iqbal went through the same gamut so many report.

...two days after his arrest, he said, the Central Intelligence Agency transferred him to Egypt. He was later shifted to the American prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and ultimately to Guantánamo Bay.

Mr. Iqbal said he had been beaten, tightly shackled, covered with a hood and given drugs, subjected to electric shocks and, because he denied knowing Mr. bin Laden, deprived of sleep for six months.

While much of the story cannot be confirmed by independent sources the tale is so like the stories of so many others there remains little or no room for doubt.

Quoting Iqbal

It's easy for the United States to say no charges were found.  But who is responsible for the seven years of my life?

Who indeed?

Who will take responsibility for the abuse and torture of uncounted hundreds if not thousands in recent years?  Will the truth ever be known?  Can any real measure of justice ever be applied to the situation?

jemstaht, Flickr, Creative Commons

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on January 06, 2009 (boomark / email).