Canadian sues U.S. military for alleged torture
Robair @ Tue May 04, 2004 9:24 am
$1:
Canadian sues U.S. military for alleged torture
CTV.ca News Staff
A Canadian man who claims he was falsely imprisoned and tortured last year by the American military shortly after the invasion of Iraq is suing the U.S. army for $350,000 US.
Hossam Shaltout, 57, an aerospace engineer and a former resident of Toronto, filed his suit on April 30 with the U.S. Army Claims Office.
Shaltout was born in Egypt and moved to Canada in 1971, Shaltout told The Canadian Press Monday in an interview from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he works. He became a Canadian citizen but then moved to Los Angeles in 1984. He still holds a Canadian passport.
Shaltout says he went to Iraq before the war on behalf of a group called Rights and Freedom International, hoping to persuade Iraqi leaders to step down.
He alleges he was arrested by U.S. troops April 9, 2003 and taken to Camp Bucca, a detention site in southern Iraq. He says U.S. authorities there accused him of being a speech writer and "right-hand-man" of deposed president Saddam Hussein.
Shaltout says he was detained three days in an armoured personnel carrier and beaten. He said he also saw Iraqis being tortured.
He says his brother informed Canadian authorities of his detention but "they did nothing."
Shaltout says he was freed and eventually taken to Egypt. He says he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and can't work properly.
Shaltout's accusation come in the wake of a larger scandal involving alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Photographs of Iraqi prisoners published last week show prisoners being stripped naked, hooded and tormented at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Six U.S. soldiers have been reprimanded and a seventh admonished in connection with the alleged abuse. An investigation has also been called into whether the prisoner abuse was condoned or encouraged by the U.S. military.
Shaltout alleges that one of his tormentors is one of three soldiers who have already been discharged for allegedly abusing prisoners in a separate incident at the Camp Bucca detention centre.
CTV.ca News Staff
A Canadian man who claims he was falsely imprisoned and tortured last year by the American military shortly after the invasion of Iraq is suing the U.S. army for $350,000 US.
Hossam Shaltout, 57, an aerospace engineer and a former resident of Toronto, filed his suit on April 30 with the U.S. Army Claims Office.
Shaltout was born in Egypt and moved to Canada in 1971, Shaltout told The Canadian Press Monday in an interview from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he works. He became a Canadian citizen but then moved to Los Angeles in 1984. He still holds a Canadian passport.
Shaltout says he went to Iraq before the war on behalf of a group called Rights and Freedom International, hoping to persuade Iraqi leaders to step down.
He alleges he was arrested by U.S. troops April 9, 2003 and taken to Camp Bucca, a detention site in southern Iraq. He says U.S. authorities there accused him of being a speech writer and "right-hand-man" of deposed president Saddam Hussein.
Shaltout says he was detained three days in an armoured personnel carrier and beaten. He said he also saw Iraqis being tortured.
He says his brother informed Canadian authorities of his detention but "they did nothing."
Shaltout says he was freed and eventually taken to Egypt. He says he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and can't work properly.
Shaltout's accusation come in the wake of a larger scandal involving alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Photographs of Iraqi prisoners published last week show prisoners being stripped naked, hooded and tormented at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Six U.S. soldiers have been reprimanded and a seventh admonished in connection with the alleged abuse. An investigation has also been called into whether the prisoner abuse was condoned or encouraged by the U.S. military.
Shaltout alleges that one of his tormentors is one of three soldiers who have already been discharged for allegedly abusing prisoners in a separate incident at the Camp Bucca detention centre.
I dunno. Do you believe him, or does he just want 350,000 dollars?
AdamNF @ Tue May 04, 2004 10:39 am
I want $350,000
AbeLincoln @ Tue May 04, 2004 3:30 pm
I don't know if it's true, but it's definitely worth looking into. My question is if this happened a year ago, why come out with your story now? If he had complained a year ago he could have saved a lot of people from abuse.
But is the U.S. military going to give him one cent? NO.
Rev_Blair @ Tue May 04, 2004 4:02 pm
The US military, and the rest of the government, is going to be facing a lot of suits like this. Some will be real and some won't, but they've been detaining, torturing, and generally abusing people for quite some time, both in the US and abroad. This makes two Canadians suing them for sure...Maher Arar and Hossam Shaltout. There are going to be suits launched for all over the world (a couple of those British citizens who locked up in Guantanamo Bay are taking legal action too. You can bet the guys who had their pictures taken being tortured in Iraq are going to want some cash too. A bunch from Afghanistan as well.
The US government may refuse to join the civilised world in signing on to the ICC, but that does not make them immune to lawsuits. People have had enough of this kind of bullshit, now the US is going to have to pay the piper.
The next US President should sign on to the ICC. There is no statute of limitations on war crimes or crimes against humanity. After signing on, the US should open the books. Those involved in crimes need to be locked up. They are little better than rabid animals.
jacker_the_mooch @ Tue May 04, 2004 6:42 pm
heh, he's challenging them in the american language of suing....but yeah, that does seem a bit late doesn't it....
karra @ Wed May 05, 2004 7:23 pm
Do you always believe everything you read?
You, as usual, seem to be in a major hurry to convict any and all Americans for any offense real or imagined. Care to enlighten us all as to where and how this hate was birthed?
Perhaps you're not cognisant of the fact(s) that in a war, bad things happen. Did you know that? People get killed, maimed, dismembered, slightly injured, beaten, abused and sometimes their cadavers are dragged through the streets to the sounds of cheering and applause.
Yup, that's the kinda stuff that occurs during a war. . . .
Zenfisher @ Thu May 06, 2004 12:49 am
Hmmmm...I thought George declared the war over a year ago.
When you take someone prisoner you are taking the out of hostilities. It does not allow you to do whatever you want to them. It took years to get treaties in place that guaraneteed fair treatment of prisoners. Bush skirted this issue in Guantanamo. Is it any wonder, some of his troops feel they should be able to do whatever they want. This is nothing but a criminal act.
Rev_Blair @ Thu May 06, 2004 4:31 am
I would go further than that, Zen. When stress and duress techniques are used...lesser forms of torture, but still torture according to international standards...and prisoners are routinely shipped to countires known to practice torture, it sends a pretty strong message that torture is okay, even encouraged.
The intelligence people working in the jail encouraged this type of behaviour. Some of them are private contractors for the CIA...mercenaries and nothing more...but they have more power than those in the immediate military command. The military command knew about it and did little to stop it even while it was being investigated.
Look at the pictures that were released. Those aren't the faces of people afraid of getting caught.
feeko @ Fri May 07, 2004 8:14 pm
you can see em commingout of the woodwork now....all lined up to pass go and collect....and you wonder why rummy wanted to keep a lid on it....
Rev_Blair @ Fri May 07, 2004 8:22 pm
I don't wonder why at all, Feeko. War criminals are seldom open and honest.
neverdiplomatic @ Wed May 12, 2004 3:54 pm
You know, karra, you are absolutely correct. These things do happen in war. So do concentration camps, genocide, etc. I suppose the "I was following orders" spiel should be acceptable this time around, unlike Nuremburg. Of course, we're talking about the Americans here, not Nazi Germans. Americans can't be expected to buck orders after all, no backbone, Oh, wait a sec! They're the ones WITH the backbones; I totally forgot.
We are living in the 21st Century. We do not follow the same codes of conduct in civilian life that we did 100 or even 50 years ago; should we follow the same code of conduct in war? I think not.