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Canadian sues US Army, claiming torture in Iraqi jail
With the White House Wednesday under heavy fire over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, a Canadian businessman is claiming he endured daily torture by American soldiers after being seized in Baghdad. Hossam Shaltout, 57, an Egyptian-born Canadian who lives in Los Angeles, is demanding damages of 350,000 dollars, in a complaint filed with the US Army. He says his five-week ordeal which ended when he was deported to Egypt, left him suffering from depression, flashbacks, and an obsessive desire for death. Imagine that, an Islamic with a death wish. Shaltout says he was arrested by US soldiers outside his hotel in Baghdad during a riot in April 2003, and taken to the Bucca detention facility in Umm Qasr, southern Iraq. He had traveled to Iraq on behalf of his peace group "Rights and Freedom International" in a bid to convince Iraqi leaders to step down to avoid a war with the United States. After he was taken to Bucca in an armored personnel carrier, Shaltout claims he was subjected to a daily diet of interrogation and torture. "Mr. Shaltout was accused of being both a speechwriter for Saddam Hussein as well as his âright-hand man," said Shaltoutâs Portland, Oregon-based lawyer Thomas Nelson in the complaint lodged with the US Army last week. "When Mr. Shaltout refused to confess, he was beaten in a variety of ways â he was hit with open hands, fists, shoes, and gun butts. The most alarming form of torture was when the interrogators put gun muzzles at his head or body, which put Mr. Shaltout in great fear of imminent death." He is claiming 350,000 dollars in damage, claiming he now suffers depression, post traumatic stress disorder and other physical and mental ailments. Shaltout is also claiming compensation for loss of property and the damage to his business while he was in detention. Canadaâs Prime Minister Paul Martin meanwhile weighed into the controversy over pictures of abuse by US soldiers of Iraqi prisoners, which have sparked a political firestorm in the United States â and hammered American credibility in the Arab world. "This is an issue which has horrified civilized people around the world,â Martin said in parliament. "It is absolutely ghastly and is totally unacceptable. There is no doubt that in the fight against terrorism, weâve got to remember that our values are why weâre fighting terrorism, and that this kind of thing just must not happen." Martin met Bush at the White House last week. Why weâre fighting??? Posted by: Jake 2004-05-08 |
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