Mamdouh Habib

(6th post in a series on the House GOP's attempt to legalize "Extraordinary Rendition". Links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.)

Summary
Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was arrested in Pakistan on October 5, 2001, and sent to Egypt for interrogation shortly after that. Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, told the Australian TV show SBS Dateline that Habib was sent to Egypt on U.S. orders and in U.S. custody: "The US wanted him for their own investigations. We are not concerned where they take him," Hayat said. Hayat also stated that Egypt had never requested Habib’s extradition.

The Australian government has accused Habib of attending Lashkar and Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan. An Australian TV program, Four Corners on the ABC network, has reported that a raid on Habib's home in Sunday had uncovered "notes from a terrorist weapons training course", that he told a friend he planned "to go to Afghanistan to live an Islamic life in the bin Laden camp," and that he had contacts with two men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Mahmud Abouhalima and Ibrahim El-Gabrowny. Sheik Mohammed Omran, a fundamentalist Muslim cleric in Melbourne, has said that he banned Habib from his mosque for trying to recruit people for jihad.

Habib’s family and lawyers deny all these charges. His wife says he traveled to Pakistan to look for an Islamic school for their children.

Habib’s lawyers say he was imprisoned for six months in Egypt and tortured with beatings, electric shock, and drug injection. Dr. Najeeb Al-Nauimi, the former Justice minister of Qatar, told the Dateline TV program that these accusations were true, though it is not clear how he knew this. From an unofficial transcript:

DR HAJEEB AL-NAUMI, FORMER MINISTER OF JUSTICE, QATAR: They said he will die.
REPORTER: Tell me more specifically what you were told from your sources about what happened to Mamdouh Habib in Egypt.
DR HAJEEB AL-NAUMI: Well, he was in fact tortured. He was interrogated in a way which a human cannot stand up.
REPORTER: And you know this absolutely?
DR HAJEEB AL-NAUMI: Yes. We were told that he - they rang the bell that he will die and somebody had to help him.
REPORTER: And again, did your sources tell you what kinds of things he was saying in Egypt to his torturers, to his interrogators?
DR HAJEEB AL-NAUMI: My sources did not say exactly what dialogue but they say that he accepted to sign anything.
REPORTER: So he was talking lots?
DR HAJEEB AL-NAUMI: Yes - "Whatever you want, I will sign. I'm not involved. I'm not Egyptian. I'm Egyptian by background but I'm Australian." But he was really beaten, he was really tortured.
REPORTER: Do you think...
DR HAJEEB AL-NAUMI: They tried to use different ways of treating him in the beginning but in the end of that they thought he was lying and that's why they were very tough.

Sometime in the spring of 2002, most likely in May, the U.S. brought Habib from Egypt to Guantanamo Bay. Ian Kemish, a spokesman for Australia’s foreign affairs department, told Dateline SBC that 10 days after he arrived in Guantanamo Habib "made some serious complaints about maltreatment during his time in Egypt" to visiting Australian officials.

This July, three British detainees released from Guantanamo Bay, Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, and Rhuhel Ahmed, gave a long public statement about conditions there. It contained these allegations about Habib (on page 108):

Habib himself was in catastrophic shape – mental and physical. As a result of his having been tortured in Egypt he used to bleed from his nose, mouth and ears when he was asleep. We would say he was about 40 years of age. He got no medical attention for this. We used to hear him ask but his interrogator said that he shouldn’t have any. The medics would come and see him and then after he'd asked for medical help they would come back and say if you cooperate with your interrogators then we can do something.

Habib is still imprisoned in Guantanamo, and has not yet been charged before a military commission.

Sources

1. "The Trials of Mamdouh Habib," Dateline, SBS Television, July 7, 2004. Unofficial transcript available here. This is the first & still the most complete report on the Habib case.

Excerpt:

On October 4, 2001, Mamdouh Habib came here to Quetta bus station. He was on his way home. It was here he met two German nationals - Ibrahim Diab and Bekim Ademi. Dateline has seen copies of the interviews these two men gave German police when they returned home. They said they met Mamdouh here and upon discovering they were all trying to get to the city of Karachi to fly out, agreed to travel together.

BEKIM ADEMI: He talked to us because we were Europeans. We found out we had the same way as far as Dubai. We bought a ticket to Karachi. The Australian lent us the money.

The two German men were fleeing from Afghanistan. While in their police interviews they both gave frank admissions about their time spent in al-Qa'ida training camps, neither of them said they saw Mamdouh Habib in Afghanistan. Under intensive questioning, they did not incriminate him in any terrorist-related activity.

GERMAN POLICE INTERROGATOR: What could you tell us about the Australian?
BEKIM ADEMI: First I know he's called Habib. Later I know Mamdouh. He comes from Sydney and has four kids. He said he had great problems in Australia and he wanted to immigrate to Pakistan. The trip was about seeing whether it was suitable for the family to come. He said he liked Pakistan.

600km into the journey, the bus was stopped at the town of Khuzdar. Pakistani police arrested all three men. Dateline asked the Pakistani Interior Minister why Mamdouh Habib was arrested.

REPORTER: Was he arrested because he was under surveillance, or was he merely caught by chance?
MAKHDOOM SYED FAISAL SALEH HAYAT, PAKISTANI INTERIOR MINISTER: We've gone through a long process of investigation as far as this was concerned. And without any doubt, let me confess and share with you that there is certainly a very strong linkage of this gentleman and, 1as I already mentioned to you, some other people also who were actively involved with this gentleman, in assisting the extremist element, the terrorist element, at that point in time.

But despite the assertion of terrorist links, later in the interview the Minister suggests that Habib was arrested merely for being in the restricted province of Baluchistan without the correct visa documents.

MAKHDOOM SYED FAISAL SALEH HAYAT: If you are not allowed to go to Baluchistan, if you haven't got visa to visit Baluchistan, obviously you become a suspect. That is a non-denying fact.
REPORTER: So foreigners in Baluchistan in 2001 were automatically considered suspects?
MAKHDOOM SYED FAISAL SALEH HAYAT: Yes, certainly, yes.

As I said, this is an unofficial transcript. I haven't found an official one, but I have found several wire stories that quote from the TV show and the quotes match up.

2. Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, and Rhuhel Ahmed, "Composite Statement: Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay," statement given to the Center for Constitutional Rights, July 26, 2004. The material on Habib is on page 108.

These are the same detainees involved in the Supreme Court Guantanamo case, Rasul v. Bush. They were released on March 8, shortly before arguments in that case. They also make allegations of abuse at Guantanamo. See this Reuters story for background.

If you cannot open the PDF document, this Australian news radio transcript, "Released British Guantanamo detainees allege Hicks, Habib mistreated," summarizes and quotes from the detainees' allegations about Habib.

3. Trudy Harris, "Terror Notes 'at Habib's Home,'" The Australian, July 19, 2004.

Excerpt:

NOTES from a terrorist weapons training course were found in the Sydney home of Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib, who has also allegedly met Osama bin Laden.

Habib allegedly told a Sydney friend before his arrest that he was a big fan of bin Laden and wanted to live in one of the terrorist mastermind's training camps.

Consequently, the father of four travelled overseas in March 2000, allegedly to train with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LET, which has since been listed as a banned terrorist group in Australia.

"I met him (Habib) in a cafe in Lakemba and he discussed with me that he had plans to go to Afghanistan to live an Islamic life in the bin Laden camp," friend and taxi driver Ibrahim Fraser has told the ABC's Four Corners.

Mr Fraser said he thought Habib had told him, after returning from Afghanistan, that he had met bin Laden there. Mr Fraser said Habib revealed little else about his trip. Habib is detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, along with fellow Australian terror suspect David Hicks.

Leaving Sydney for a second trip in July 2001, Habib told friends and family he was going to search for a suitable religious school for his children in Pakistan. But the Australian Government says Habib went to Afghanistan to train with al-Qa'ida.

In tonight's program, Four Corners says Habib underwent an advanced training course there in surveillance and photographing facilities, the establishment and use of safehouses, covert travel and writing secret reports.

4. Mark Dunn, "Habib Knew bin Laden, Say Clerics," Herald Sun (Melbourne), July 19, 2004.

Excerpt:

Sheik Mohammed Omran, the leader of a Melbourne-based fundamentalist mosque, said he banned Habib from his group's Lakemba prayer hall after he tried to recruit for jihad and raise funds for the Chechen conflict.

Mohammed Omran also described a bizarre meeting at the prayer hall when Habib -- who sometimes wore a bin Laden T-shirt -- arrived dressed in a ninja outfit....

In a program screening tonight, Four Corners reports that Habib was in contact with Mahmud Abouhalima and Ibrahim El-Gabrowny, both convicted over the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.

"He used to imagine that, he used to think that he was a victim, that he was being discriminated against and that everyone was against him," Sheik Hilaly said.

"He felt that there were hidden forces watching him -- that was a delusion."

5. "Ruddock Rejects Terror Trial Charges," SBS TV, World News, September 22, 2004.

Excerpt:

The other Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, Mamdouh Habib, has not been charged or tried.

Comments

[mac]

I watched the program on Dateline which appeared on Link TV channel. In U.S, Dish network Channel#9410.

It has similarities to when Mordecai Vanunu 'spilt the beans' on Israel's nuclear option.

The process of 'extraordinary rendition' has to be the biggest miscarriage of justice pursued by hypocritical Governments. This interview just confirms stories told by former prisoners also accused of aiding Al Qaeda.

I echo the sentiments aired by the former C.I.A legal advisor that the Australian Government is in a precarious legal situation because they failed to protect an Australian citizen from being tortured.

Also with the U.S Government's case against Jose Padilla ( a U.S citizen- accused of being an operative for Al Qaeda) who was arrested on U.S soil. Recently, the US Supreme court has ruled against the U.S Federal Govt's case.

Another complication in U.S law; if it is found that the Government released a suspect to an entity/individual/ organization they know WON'T follow acceptable human-rights laws; then they are also infringing U.S. Federal Law.

It questions their entire role in the situation. If they were informed, present or had custody over him at any point. They are responsible. Like the Abu Gharib scandal in Iraq.

The precense of an Australian during the questioning sessions at Pakistan, Egypt places the entire situation in a new light.

When the Aussie's Attorney General ( who apparently was lying through his teeth- This was observed from his frequent swallowing during the course of the interview and his evasivenes to straight questions, using cookie cutter responses that border on "filibustering".)

E.g. I'm not at liberty to comment on that.
Or, We never confirm or deny intelligence matters when questioned by the correspondent about the case.

He defended the practice of the intelligence service doing 'whatever necessary' to obtain crucial information. He added a disclaimer, that Australia is fundamentally against the use of torture. That international protection which Australia is a signatory.

He avoided the question by the correspondent on the Government's legal methodology of torturing people to obtain information on a regular basis.

The A.G went on to dispute the allegations that Australian officals had any knowledge of Habib being held in Egypt. However a Fax received by Habib's family in Sydney from the Australian Government disclosed to the family; that Habib was in Egypt and they( Aussie Govt.) had no idea of the circumstances of him being there.

That contradicts A.G's statements on Dateline.

Furthermore whe being questioned in Egypt, interrogators asked Habib on details of Phone contacts he used on a SIM card purchased in Australia.

If the Australian Government wasn't aware of his precense in Egypt. How did that knowledge find it's way to their own Fax. Or the phone contacts obtained in Australia. How did this get into Egyptian hands?

When evidence used to incriminate someone, it is prudent to identify the sources of infomation. The Aussie officials have used it against Habib but can't justify, how they obtained it.

Isn't that circular logic? Like the reason to invade Iraq without concrete proof. In essence, 'He said-She said'.

The more the Australian Governemnt denies these charges, the more information is uncovered on their double-standards.

The hypocricy of some Governments to single out minor infractions of international protocol by rogue nations, yet when major breaches are made by 'democratic countries'- everyone from the Politicians to the Free-press, plays dumb.

This behavior does nothing but create generations of more enemies. In a nutshell it just over-turns lessons learnt in Counter Revolutionary Warfare-101 ( That's counter-insugerncy operations in U.S, S.F lingo.)

It all adds up. Australian is closely following the U.S model of foreign policies.

If the Australian Government has the nerve to claim most of East-Timor's disputed oil shelf. Habib's case is just a walk in the park.

Anyone see the parallels of Iraq and East-Timor?