US says Egypt vows to treat Guantanamo inmate well

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it received assurances from Egypt's government that an Egyptian man sent back from Guantanamo Bay would be treated humanely, but rights activities feared he would be tortured.

The Pentagon disclosed over the weekend that the man, identified by human rights lawyers as wheelchair-bound 49-year-old teacher Sami Al Laithi, had been sent to Egypt from the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He had been held without charges at Guantanamo for more than three years.

"The United States has made it clear that it does not expel, return or extradite individuals to other countries where it believes that it is more likely than not that they will be tortured or subject to persecution," said Cmdr. Flex Plexico, a Pentagon spokesman.
.....
Court papers filed by his lawyers stated Al Laithi is confined to a wheelchair as a result of a spinal injury caused when Guantanamo personnel stomped on his back, fracturing two vertebrae.

The Pentagon offered a different account. Continued ...

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=9817707&src=rss/ElectionCoverage

[Solly Mack]

1. the policy of extraordinary rendition tells us otherwise

The White House is lying - as usual.

[mike_c]

2. more lies-- these guys are pathological....

NEVER tell the truth when you can lie. Does anyone really believe this shit? :puke:

[struggle4progress]

3. U.S. returns Guantanamo detainee to Egypt

BY CAROL ROSENBERG
Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT) - <snip>

Sami al-Laithi, 48, was repatriated despite pending motions to ban Guantanamo prisoners from being sent to Egypt for fear they would face human rights abuses, said the New York Center for Constitutional Rights, which champions Guantanamo cases, in a statement issued Monday.

Amnesty International had likewise championed his case, describing Laithi as a former teacher who "is confined to a wheelchair as a result of a spinal injury which he says was caused when U.S. officials at the Guantanamo Bay hospital stomped on his back, fracturing two vertebrae."

Bush administration officials had shielded the prisoner's identity, but said in an announcement over the weekend that he was one of several dozen Guantanamo prisoners ordered released through a Defense Department process called Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The tribunals studied the captives' classified files and found 38 prisoners who did not meet the Pentagon's minimum standards for indefinite detention.

New York attorney Tina Foster, who coordinates the captives' civilian lawsuits, slammed the repatriation as "outrageous under the circumstances - he is not an enemy combatant, yet he was transferred to Egypt against his will and faces a substantial risk of torture." <snip>

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/12808958.htm