Police say a Bangladeshi man held for five years at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay has been flown back home after investigators there found no evidence he was a terrorist.Witnesses are all dead, y'see...
They say Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashem, 32, has been flown to Dhaka on a special flight by US officials and handed over to local law enforcement officials for more interrogation. Airport police chief Abdul Malek says the man has protested his innocence and complained of being given a "hard time" at Guantanamo. "He was picked up by plain-clothes intelligence officers from the Pakistani city of Peshawar while he was saying prayers at a mosque in late 2001," he said. "He was a madrassa student from the capital, Dhaka, and his father is a chief cleric at a city mosque. He told us that he went to Pakistan to do higher studies in a madrassa there.
"So you see, it was all perfectly innocent..."
"But while studying at a madrassa, he travelled to Kabul with his friend and fellow student, who was from Afghanistan. He was picked up days after he returned to Peshwar from Kabul."
"Honest. We met these two chicks at the market, an' they said come over to Kabul for the weekend, the 'rents are outta town, so we party hearty all weekend, and then we get back to Peshawar and what happens? It's 'stick 'em up, yer goin' to Gitmo!' Now, how righteous is that?"
The police chief says Mr Abul Hashem is being interrogated to know whether he belongs to any Islamic militant group and the "actual reason" for his visit to Pakistan.
"I tol' you, man! These two chicks, Fatimah and Miryam, like, they had these really slinky burkas, y'know?"
"He could be released tomorrow provided his answers satisfy us," the police chief said.
"Those ain't the answers that'll do it, but he should be able to come up with something."
But the former detainee's father, Abul Hashem, says his son's life has been "destroyed".
"His career as a holy man has been ruined! Now he'll have to become a CPA. Oh, the shame!"
"My son is innocent," he said. "He is neither a Taliban, nor a militant. He is a victim of the American war on terror. Why did they arrest him? His life is finished. They destroyed his life for nothing. In the name of fighting terror, Americans are in fact fighting Muslims like my son. I want justice. But where shall I get justice?"
Go to your nearest shariah court and take a number.
So, how much weight did he gain? Prolly literate, now, too. I agree Pops: his life is forfeit.