Monday, March 19, 2007
CIA Kidnapping Leaves Ex- Terror Suspect a Broken Man - Der Spiegel
Radical imam Abu Omar was kidnapped by the CIA in Milan four years ago and taken to a prison in Egypt. There, he was tormented with electric shocks and suspended from the ceiling for days on end. ...
Abu Omar breathes heavily at the top of the four flights of stairs to his three-room apartment, like an old man. As soon as he's inside, he immediately bolts the door and pulls the curtains shut. Groaning, he drops onto one of the simple, gold-dyed armchairs in the tiny living room, illuminated by the cold light from a neon tube on the ceiling. "I feel like an old man," the 46-year-old says. "Every movement hurts my back, and my joints are still sore from being constantly restrained in prison." His release from jail may have been a "gift from God," but his life has been left in ruins and it is unlikely he will ever be able to put it back together, he says.
Indeed, there's not much left of the man Italian intelligence dossiers describe as a fundamentalist Muslim agitator and a fiery advocate of jihad. Abu Omar sits in the cramped, corridor-like apartment with his veiled wife Nabila and his son Mohammed. His brother pays the rent. Egypt has banned Abu Omar from preaching in the country, but it's the only profession he knows. "My only diversion is the walk to a little mosque. Apart from that, I just sit here all day," he says. ...
Radical imam Abu Omar was kidnapped by the CIA in Milan four years ago and taken to a prison in Egypt. There, he was tormented with electric shocks and suspended from the ceiling for days on end. ...
Abu Omar breathes heavily at the top of the four flights of stairs to his three-room apartment, like an old man. As soon as he's inside, he immediately bolts the door and pulls the curtains shut. Groaning, he drops onto one of the simple, gold-dyed armchairs in the tiny living room, illuminated by the cold light from a neon tube on the ceiling. "I feel like an old man," the 46-year-old says. "Every movement hurts my back, and my joints are still sore from being constantly restrained in prison." His release from jail may have been a "gift from God," but his life has been left in ruins and it is unlikely he will ever be able to put it back together, he says.
Indeed, there's not much left of the man Italian intelligence dossiers describe as a fundamentalist Muslim agitator and a fiery advocate of jihad. Abu Omar sits in the cramped, corridor-like apartment with his veiled wife Nabila and his son Mohammed. His brother pays the rent. Egypt has banned Abu Omar from preaching in the country, but it's the only profession he knows. "My only diversion is the walk to a little mosque. Apart from that, I just sit here all day," he says. ...
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