 |
         
|
While White House correspondent Jake Tapper was in Paris covering Barack Obama's trip to commemorate D-Day, he landed a dynamite interview with Lakhdar Boumediene. Boumediene, a native Algerian, was a worker at the Red Crescent charity in Sarajevo in 2001. At the time, Bosnian authorities were investigating a suspected bomb conspiracy targeting the city's Embassy Row. They detained Boumediene for questioning and released him for lack of evidence.
Then Boumediene's tale of woe began. He was seized by the US military, shackled and hooded, flown to Cuba and imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay internment camp. Boumediene told Tapper that he was interrogated--but never about the alleged Sarajevo conspiracy: "Instead they demanded information he did not have about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda." Asked Tapper: "Do you think that you were tortured?" "I do not think. I am sure."
He was imprisoned without trial for seven years. He recounted abuses including being forced to stay awake for 16 straight days. He was ordered released by a federal judge last November. He arrived in Paris last month "in very poor health" having lost 40 lbs in weight. ABC asked the Pentagon for its side of the story and was given this opaque statement: "All credible allegations of abuse are thoroughly investigated." We were not told whether or not Boumediene's story falls into that "credible" category or, if so, what the results of that thorough investigation might have been.
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
