Alex Constantine - February 11, 2011
How to coerce a confession: " ... Mr Suleiman had told him that he wanted him to die a slow death. ... They had taken Mr Habib to another room and then Mr Suleiman had said: 'Now you are going to tell me that you planned a terrorist attack. I give you my word you will be a rich man if you tell me you have been planning attacks.' ... 'Immediately he slapped me hard across the face and knocked off the blindfold; I clearly saw his face,' Mr Habib writes. ... "
By Cameron Stewart - The Australian | February 12, 2011
FORMER Guantanamo detainee Mamdouh Habib says he was tortured by Egyptian Vice-President Omar Suleiman, who is seen as a possible successor to embattled President Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Habib last night told The Weekend Australian it would be a disgrace if Mr Suleiman became leader of Egypt given his personal role in overseeing the torture of terror suspects in the 1990s.
"This guy is an agent for the United States and the CIA. If Australia supports Suleiman, they are supporting torture and crime," Mr Habib said.
Mr Suleiman was head of Egypt's General Intelligence Directorate in the mid-1990s at a time when the US was sending terrorism suspects to third countries for questioning.
Mr Habib, then a terror suspect, says he was sent to Egypt and Mr Suleiman helped torture him. In his book, My Story, Mr Habib wrote that Mr Suleiman had often been present during his interrogations.
"I was sitting in a chair, hooded, with my hands handcuffed behind my back. He came up to me. His voice was deep and rough. He spoke to me in Egyptian and English," Mr Habib writes. "He said, 'Listen, you don't know who I am, but I am the one who has your life in his hands'."
Mr Habib writes that Mr Suleiman had told him that he wanted him to die a slow death: "No, I don't want you to die now. I want you to die slowly. I can't stay with you; my time is too valuable to stay here. You only have me to save you. I'm your saviour. You have to tell me everything if you want to be saved. What do you say?"
When Mr Habib said he had nothing to tell him, he says Mr Suleiman had said: "You think I can't destroy you just like that?"
They had taken Mr Habib to another room and then Mr Suleiman had said: "Now you are going to tell me that you planned a terrorist attack. I give you my word you will be a rich man if you tell me you have been planning attacks. Don't you trust me?"
Mr Habib had replied that he did not trust anyone.
"Immediately he slapped me hard across the face and knocked off the blindfold; I clearly saw his face," Mr Habib writes.
Mr Habib alleges Mr Suleiman said: "That's it. That's it. I don't want to see this man again until he co-operates and tells me he's been planning a terrorist attack."
Mr Habib received an an undisclosed payout last year from the federal government in return for dropping legal action over the commonwealth's alleged complicity in his 2001 CIA "rendition" to Egypt.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/egyptian-vice-president-tortured-me-says-habib/story-e6frg6nf-1226004691814
