Posted on 06/09/2005 7:44:39 PM PDT by wagglebee
The human rights group Amnesty International - which accuses America of running a "gulag" at Guantanamo Bay - apparently aided in the escape of a key al Qaeda member who's suspected of helping plan the 9/11 attacks.
Just two months after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Amnesty issued one of its "URGENT ACTION" reports on behalf of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, who was then being detained by Jordanian security forces in connection with a planning session for the 9/11 attacks.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amnesty complained that Shakir was being held in "incommunicado detention and is at risk of torture or ill-treatment." Saddam Hussein - the only Mideast leader to publicly praise the 9/11 attacks - also weighed in on Shakir's behalf.
"Pressure from Amnesty and Saddam Hussein worked," the Journal said. "Mr. Shakir was released and hasn't been seen since."
Shakir was present at a January 2000 al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the 9/11 plot was reviewed. Two of the actual 9/11 hijackers were also at the same meeting.
When he was arrested in Qatar not long after the 9/11 attacks, Shakir had telephone numbers for the safe houses of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.
But for the intervention of Amnesty International, Shakir might be in Guantanamo today - undergoing a grilling by U.S. interrogators about al Qaeda's plans for the next 9/11.
I read the WSJ article but don't remember that Amnesty International helped Shakir.
Amnesty should be declared to be a Foreign Terrorist Organization with all appropriate sanctions applied.
Nope!! Forcibly move their headquarters to Gitmo. Any individual resisting the move should be severely beaten and then placed in an ambulance driven by Ted Kennedy.
Did I hear someone say Amnesty International? The Secretary General is a MUSLIM!
Information for Journalists
Irene Khan - Biography
Irene Zubaida Khan joined Amnesty International as the organization’s seventh Secretary General in August 2001.
Taking the helm in Amnesty International as the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to guide the world’s largest human rights organization, Irene brought a new perspective to the organization. As an individual, she brought experience and enthusiasm for putting people at the heart of policy.
Irene took up the leadership of Amnesty International in its 40th anniversary year as the organization began a process of change and renewal to address the complex nature of contemporary human rights violations, and confronted the challenging developments in the wake of the attacks of 11 September.
In her first year in office, Irene reformed AI’s response to crisis situations, personally leading high level missions to Pakistan during the bombing of Afghanistan, to Israel/Occupied Territories just after the Israeli occupation of Jenin, and to Colombia before the Presidential elections in May 2003. Deeply concerned about violence against women, she called for better protection of women’s human rights in meetings with President Musharraf of Pakistan, President Lahoud of Lebanon and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh. She has initiated a process of consultations with women activists to design a global campaign by Amnesty International against violence on women.
Irene has been keen to draw attention to hidden human rights violations. In Australia, she drew attention to the plight of asylum seekers in detention. In Burundi, she met with victims of massacres and urged President Buyoya and other parties to the conflict to end the cycle of human rights abuse. In Bulgaria, she led a campaign to end discrimination of those suffering from mental disabilities.
Interested in working directly with people to change their lives, Irene helped to found the development organization, Concern Universal, in 1977, and began her work as a human rights activist with the International Commission of Jurists in 1979.
Irene joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1980, and worked in a variety of positions at Headquarters and in field operations to promote the international protection of refugees. From 1991-95 she was Senior Executive Officer to Mrs. Sadako Ogata, then UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She was appointed as the UNHCR Chief of Mission in India in 1995, the youngest UNHCR country representative at that time, and in 1998 headed the UNHCR Centre for Research and Documentation. She led the UNHCR team in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia during the Kosovo crisis in 1999, and was appointed Deputy Director of International Protection later that year.
Irene studied law at the University of Manchester and Harvard Law School, specialising in public international law and human rights. She is the recipient of several academic awards, a Ford Foundation Fellowship, and the Pilkington "Woman of the Year" Award 2002.
You got it...
Has any of our tax dollars been given to this Org?
The FBI needs to investigate the funding of this group, Human Rights Watch and Planned Parenthood, as well... oh, and let us NOT forget, that hideous ACLU.
But before leaving this episode, we'd like to remind readers of the case of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir. On November 19, 2001, Amnesty issued one of its "URGENT ACTION" reports on his behalf: "Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of Iraqi citizen Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, who is being held by the Jordanian General Intelligence Department. ... He is held incommunicado detention and is at risk of torture or ill-treatment." Pressure from Amnesty and Saddam Hussein's Iraq worked; Mr. Shakir was released and hasn't been seen since.
Mr. Shakir is believed to be an al Qaeda operative who abetted the USS Cole bombing and 9/11 plots, among others. Along with 9/11 hijackers Khalid al Midhar and Nawaf al Hazmi, he was present at the January 2000 al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was working there as an airport "greeter" -- a job obtained for him by the Iraqi embassy. When he was arrested in Qatar not long after 9/11, he had telephone numbers for the safe houses of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers. He was inexplicably released by the Qataris and promptly arrested again in Jordan as he attempted to return to Iraq.
There remains a dispute about whether this is the same Ahmed Hikmat Shakir that records discovered after the Iraq war list as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Saddam Fedayeen -- the 9/11 Commission believes these are two different people -- and whether Mr. Shakir thus represents an Iraqi government connection to 9/11. But there is no doubt that the Hussein regime, whatever its reasons, was eager to have the al Qaeda Shakir return to Iraq. It was aided and abetted to this end by Amnesty International.
We don't recount this story to suggest Amnesty was actively in league with Saddam. But it shows that, even after 9/11, Amnesty still didn't think terrorism was a big deal. In its eagerness to suggest that every detainee with a Muslim name is some kind of political prisoner, and by extension to smear America and its allies, Amnesty has given the concept of "aid and comfort" to the enemy an all-too-literal meaning.
So if this guy was just an Iraqi nobody, I wonder why Amnesty International was so urgently concerned about springing him. And why did he disappear, never to be seen again?
BTTT
Man, that Fleagle is hauling the bacon!
NewsMax is a joke. "might be in Guantanamo" LOL. Yeah, I am sure Jordan was influenced by AI and not the United States. NewsMax is the best at spinning no news into 'news' with a creative headline.
I think AI are scum, but this claim seems a bit ridiculous.
The 1993 bombers were caught a couple days after the event. Why would this knucklehead still be carrying around the phone numbers of the safe houses they lived in 9 years earlier? Nostalgia? Does he not ever empty his pockets?
Bears repeating.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
AI has become self-parody. They used to be a great "first source" -- where you'd go to find obscure stories that, invariably, checked out. Now, they are a first source for very little, they have, for about 10 years now, focused on free countries, virtually ignoring wholesale slaughter and have a disturbing connection to Islamic terror.
bumps
Could be a PDA or cell phone. I have very old phone numbers. Also, the safe houses may still have been in use, with Shakir not knowing that their location was known by law enforcement. It's not clear by this story.
The time is short. The reasons are many.
Amnesty International needs to be expunged from the United States. Any member who remains on our shores needs arrested, detained and charged with treason. If I'm not mistaken, we can hang for treason.
They let mugabe kill, they let killings occur in Darfur, they ignore pretty much anything that doesn't involve the United States. They have become persona non grata.
Clean 'em out. Clean 'em out now.
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