Hossam Shaltout (Image via Summer's Daydreams) LAVoice.org is not LAVoice.com, and never the twain shall meet - without a lease - says Hossam Shaltout.
As our own Perry Crowe pointed out Monday, LAVoice.com resolves to a static page for an Arabic newspaper, Allahab.com. As I pointed out in comments, that domain has belonged to Shaltout since at least 2002, when I first started building this site.
And as Marc Salvatierra pointed out in a later comment, Shaltout might be the same Egyptian-born Canadian citizen who was captured in Iraq by U.S. soldiers, accused of being a speechwriter for Saddam Hussein and then allegedly tortured by U.S. special forces.
Well, he is that man ...
I wrote to the tech-contact email address for LAVoice.com yesterday, and Shaltout e-mailed back confirming his identity.
He also said (quite courteously) that he would only lease the LAVoice.com name to me since he doesn't plan to sell it.
Ah, well. As I said the other day, people don't seem to have any trouble finding us at the dot-org address.
Meanwhile, Googling "Hossam Shaltout" turns up some pretty interesting background on him. I'd be curious to know what LAVoice.org users make of it all:
- His arrest in April, 2003 by U.S. forces. haltout had gone to Iraq before the war on behalf of a group called Rights and Freedom International, hoping to persuade Iraqi leaders to step down but instead he was arrested and taken to Camp Bucca. - His release from detention in April, 2004
- His charges of torture against the U.S. government: 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 travelled 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 armoured personnel carrier, Shaltout claims he was subjected to a daily diet of interrogation and torture.
Right-hand man
"Mr Shaltout was accused of being both a speechwriter for Saddam Hussein as well as his 'right-hand man,'" said Shaltout's 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 - 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."
Shaltout, who is in Saudi Arabia and could not be immediately contacted Wednesday claims that he was kneed in the groin and hit about the face while in leg irons and handcuffs after he launched a hunger strike.
He is claiming $350 000 in damages, claiming he now suffers depression, post traumatic stress disorder and other physical and mental ailments. - And his announcement last July that he is campaigning to become president of Egypt. Hossam Shaltout, an Egyptian peace activist and president of Rights and Freedom International, He announced that he will be running for President of Egypt in the upcoming election. “I think that the time has come for reform in Egypt, and I know that I'm the person to accomplish it, " he said at a press conference ..
Shaltout, a successful businessman, is a 58-year old graduate from Cairo University's Aerospace engineering school. His extensive international experience positions him well to guide Egypt in the future. Shaltout has lived in Canada and the United States, and thus understands Western culture thoroughly. He risked both his financial and his personal health in attempting to prevent America from attacking Iraq in 2003; indeed, as a result he was mistakenly arrested, detained, and tortured by American forces in Iraq.
Shaltout has an aggressive agenda that would pull Egypt out of its economic and political slump. Among his campaign
Shaltout stated that Egypt is in crisis and that new leadership is needed. "It's time for us all to work for a better future for ourselves and, more important, for our children. My presidency will result in that better future," he said during his news conference
Thoughts, anyone?
http://lavoice.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1528
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Just another lying muzzie scum.