American teenager tortured in Kuwait, presumably at the US's behest.

[Kuya]

WASHINGTON — An American teenager detained in Kuwait two weeks ago and placed on an American no-fly list claims that he was severely beaten by his Kuwaiti captors during a weeklong interrogation about possible contacts with terrorism suspects in Yemen.
The teenager, Gulet Mohamed, a Somali-American who turned 19 during his captivity, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday from a Kuwaiti detention cell that he was beaten with sticks, forced to stand for hours, threatened with electric shocks and warned that his mother would be imprisoned if he did not give truthful answers about his travels in Yemen and Somalia in 2009.

Mr. Mohamed’s case is the latest in a string of episodes over the past year in which Americans have been detained overseas and questioned about their travels to Yemen, where a number of attempted terrorist attacks against the United States have originated. The Obama administration has expanded terrorist watch lists to prevent people who have traveled to Yemen to travel to the United States without additional screening — or detention and questioning.

During the 90-minute telephone interview, Mr. Mohamed was agitated as he recounted his captivity, tripping over his words and breaking into tears. He said he left the United States in March 2009 to “see the world and learn my religion,” and had planned to return to the United States for college. He said he had traveled to Yemen to study Arabic, but stayed less than a month because his mother worried about his safety. He said that he spent five months later that year living with an aunt and uncle in northern Somalia, before moving to Kuwait in August 2009 to live with an uncle and continue his Arabic studies.

He said that after being taken into custody, he had been visited once by an American Embassy official in Kuwait, and that F.B.I. agents visited a week later to tell him that he could not return to the United States until he gave truthful answers about his travels.

“The manner of his detention and the questions asked of Mr. Mohamed indicate to him that he was taken into custody at the behest of the United States,” wrote Gadeir Abbas, a lawyer appointed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Mr. Mohamed said the episode began Dec. 20, when he went to the airport in Kuwait City to renew his Kuwaiti visa, which he had done every three months since he arrived in the country.

He became worried when a normally routine visit lasted several hours, as Kuwaiti officials made him wait in a spartan office. After five hours, he said, two men in civilian clothes entered the office with handcuffs, and soon he was blindfolded and spirited away to a detention site that he estimated was a 15-minute drive from the airport.

Over the next several days, he said, his captors grew increasingly hostile and began beating his feet with sticks and striking him in the face when they asked him about his time in Yemen.

“Are you a terrorist?” they asked, according to his account.

“No,” he replied.

“Do you know Anwar?” his interrogators asked, referring to Mr. Awlaki.

“I’ve never met him,” Mr. Mohamed recalled saying.

“You are from Virginia, you have to know him,” they responded, according to Mr. Mohamed. From 2001 to 2002, Mr. Awlaki was the imam of a prominent mosque in northern Virginia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/wo...n.html?_r=2&hp

Some quotes from Glenn Greenwald, he also had a 50 minute conversation with Gulet that's posted in the website:

He still does not know why he was detained and beaten, nor does he know what is happening to him now. Indeed, although Mazzetti writes that he was detained and beaten by Kuwait captors, Mohamed actually has no idea who was responsible, and told me that at least some of the people interrogating him spoke English. He has been told that he will be deported back to the U.S., but is now on a no-fly list and has no idea when he will be released. American officials told Mazzetti that "Mr. Mohamed is on a no-fly list and, for now at least, cannot return to the United States." He's been charged with no crime and presented with no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Independent of all that, the U.S. Government has an obligation to protect its own citizens. Mohamed described to me how both embassy officials and the FBI expressed zero interest in the torture to which he had been subjected during his detention. The U.S. Government has said nothing about this matter, and refused to comment about Mohamed's treatment to The New York Times.

All of this underscores the rapidly expanding powers the U.S. Government and law enforcement agents within the country are seizing without a shred of due process. For the government to put an American citizen on the no-fly list while he's traveling outside the U.S. is tantamount to barring him from entering his own country -- a draconian punishment, involuntary exile, meted out without any due process. In June, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of several citizens and legal residents who -- like Gulet Mohammed -- have been literally stranded abroad and barred from returning with no hearing, simply by being placed secretly on the no-fly list. Add to that the growing seizures of the laptops and other electronic equipment of American citizens re-entering the country without any warrants -- or even yesterday's ruling from the California Supreme Court that police officers can search and seize someone's cell phone without a warrant when arresting them -- and (even leaving aside the administration's ongoing due-process-free prison camps and assassination programs) these are pure police state tactics.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/gl...ait/index.html

The US is probably the one that requested this given its interests in Yemen and Somalia, but i doubt they explicitly ordered him tortured. It's more likely that the US knows that these States will torture and that is why it prefers to use client States for these sort of things rather than doing it itself. Maybe the US gov did not order this kid's torture, but they probably don't give a shit that he was.

[antihero]

lol

[Blarg]

Why would Obama order another muslim tortured?

[Headspace]

warzone, etc

[Kuya]

Why would Obama order another muslim tortured?

Because that way nobody can say he's a muslim. You gots to use your head, blarg.

[Niiro]

I can't wait to hear all about this on the news.

Spoiler: show

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/4977/69384425.png

[Blarg]

I can't wait to hear all about this on the news.

Speaking about the news, have you seen this homeless man with a great voice??

[Lucavi]

People need to stop "traveling the world". The world is a shitty place. Stay at home.

[Xno Kappa]

Speaking about the news, have you seen this homeless man with a great voice??

Not gonna front, that story got me all teary eyed when they interviewed him on some morning show and he started talking about finally being successful for his mom.

[Demosthenes11]

it's shit like this. I swear, if people like this are ever found out to actually be terrorists, the USA is going to do this a lot more.

[Blarg]

Not gonna front, that story got me all teary eyed when they interviewed him on some morning show and he started talking about finally being successful for his mom.

He is just one of those terrorist anchor babies that was planted here by his al-qaeda muslim mother 50 years ago who was pissed off about the iraq war. I'm not sure what their plan is but it can't be good.

[bigrougabagel]

Only 11 posts to completely derail. Is that a record? Excluding KI of course.

[aurik]

I think the torture is the side point. After all, that's the risk of traveling in to That Part Of The World. The real danger is that the USG can effectively exile people without due process by no-fly listing them when they are abroad.

[Chen]

want to see the world, go to sponsor state of terrorism.

get tortured, really only get slapped around with sticks.

"American teenager" don't hightlight the somilia part.

i'd detain him too, and beat him with sticks, twice. judge me

[Kuya]

lol

[Plow]

Hey guys, I'm off to see the world, learn about history and my religion!

"Where are you going?"

Somalia and Yemen.

[Plow]

Presumably at al Queda's behest.

[Blarg]

Not only did he go to suspect countries but his name is Mr. Mohamed. What kind of shifty-ass person has a first name of Mr? Something is up with this terrorist.

[Plow]

Actually it says his name is Gulet, which is even worse.

[Blarg]

Actually it says his name is Gulet, which is even worse.

I would have learned that if I actually read the articles but when it comes to muslims I don't want facts to get in the way of my opinion of them all being terrorists.