A message and appeal to my dear fellow Muslims: Before it is too late.

Respect and credibility are earned, not granted. Before we complain about the world community's hypocrisy and double standard in how it remains indifferent to the barbaric gulag in Guantanamo Bay, murderous US drones, racist and brutal Israeli apartheid against Palestinians, & genocidal actions against Burmese Muslims in Myanmar, let's challenge our community's and Ummah's own hypocrisy.

Why do we expect others to do what we ourselves are not doing? We lack self-respect and credibility when we complain about injustices incurred by "others", but then deliberately ignore the many injustices committed by those who claim to be Muslim. Until we stop identifying injustice solely on the basis of its perpetrator, we should not expect our credibility and effectiveness to improve.  Until we change ourselves, we must not expect for the change from Allah/God to come. 

Our list of injustices that need to be condemned and challenged should also include the racist and inhumane mistreatment of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia or UAE, the shooting of peaceful protesters (not just by Israel, but also by the governments of Bahrain, Syria, Bangladesh, Egypt,...), lack of religious and political freedom in most Muslim-majority countries, torture and abuse of political detainees (not just in Gitmo and Israel, but also in prisons in Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, and many other places, and the unfair and systemic mistreatment of women and minorities in many Muslim-majority countries (and not just the mistreatment of Muslims in Europe and the US). The list can go on and on. 

Islam teaches us that justice, freedom, and truth are indivisible, non-negotiable, and the divine right for all. Without practicing and striving for justice, we would be turning our faith into a ritualistic and empty practice. Basically, without justice, there is no Islam or true Muslims. Let's make a serious effort to change, before it is too late.

"O You who believe! stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest You swerve, and if You distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that You do" (Quran 4:135)

"O ye who believe! stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do" (Quran 5:8)

Khutba/sermon: "Don't Forget Palestine"

Khutba by Hussam Ayloush on May 11, 2012 at IIOC in Anaheim, titled: "Don't Forget Palestine".

Khutbah: A Muslim Response to Conspiracy Theories

Who is behind the Arab Spring? Who is behind Islamophobia? 
Who helps dictators stay in power?  Who is plotting all the world's conspiracies?

And how shall we respond to all those conspiracy theories?

Well, I tried to deal with much of that in this Khutbah/sermon.


"A Muslim Response to Conspiracy Theories" by Br. Hussam Ayloush from Islamic Institute of Orange Cty on Vimeo.

Libya's Pharaoh Has Fallen

All praises are due to Almighty God.  The psychotic dictator of Libya who has repressed and terrorized the Libyan people for 41 years has met his just fate.Qadhafi is the longest serving Arab dictator and one of the most brutal ones.

I congratulate the Libyan and all freedom loving people on this great victory.

In the Holy Qur'an, Allah (God Almighty) says: And do not ever assume that Allah is unaware of what the unjust do; But He gives them respite up to a day in which the eyes will become fixed, staring. [Ibrahim 14:42]

As the Libyan people turn a page on the brutal era of Qadhafi, I pray and I am confident that the Libyan people will succeed in establishing a democratic state that respects the rights and aspirations of all its people. Libya's revolution has an opportunity to set a new standard for democracy and human rights in the Arab World.  People living under dictatorships, especially around the Arab World, are praying for Libya's stability, success and leadership.

Hamza El Khatib story on CNN's AC360 5/30/2011

Ten anticipated impacts of the fall of the modern-day Pharaoh

It would be hard to underestimate the importance and impact of the current popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The fall of Egypt's modern-day Pharaoh, Mubarak, and the establishment of a true democracy will likely shape that volatile part of the world more than anything since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

These events not only affect the entire Middle East, but will have a tremendous impact on US foreign policy as well. Decades of brutal dictators oppressing and controlling their people is coming to a forced end, and the United States’ long-standing support for these autocracies must end as well.

This change is historic because it is not driven by any specific ideology. It is not driven by nationalist, Islamic, socialist, or political motivations. It is truly a popular movement that is bringing together poor and rich, young and old, religious and non-religious, Muslim and Christian, and political and non-political. It is a movement of the masses, of people seeking freedom, rights, honor, dignity, self-determination, economic prosperity, and a recognition of their humanity.

The fall of the Egyptian government and its repressive policies would be a catalyst for many changes. Here are the top 10:

1- A stronger push for democracy, freedoms, and human rights among the people in the rest of the Arab world.

2- A self-reassessment and public challenge of the repressive practices of Arab dictators and puppet regimes. The prospect of reform is a wake-up call that it is possible to change the status quo and that the "Arab Street" is not in a coma.

3- A end to the inhumane siege on Gaza and its people.

4- A greater chance for peace when more pressure is exerted on Israel to give the Palestinians more of their rights.

5- A major blow to the US-Israel bloc of client-states and allies, leading to more popular and stable democracies. (Tunisia and Egypt were among its leading members).

6- A shift in the Palestinian Authority's current policy of shamelessly ceding the Palestinian people's moral, legal, and human rights under heavy pressure from Israel's closest Arab ally/protectorate, Egypt (US and Saudi pressure will surely remain).

7- A weakening of religious extremism and terrorism, which is greatly fueled by political repression by dictators such as Mubarak (as well as ongoing occupations in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan)

8- Improved social and economic justice for the people when corrupt and greedy government officials and their cronies lose their ability to embezzle and squander the resources of their countries.

9- An easing of the tension and polarization between the West and large Muslim populations in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, which is a result of the US and a few other Western nations imposing, supporting and funding brutal autocracies.

10- On a lighter note, this will also create new job opportunities as our intelligence agencies and State Department will have to go back to the drawing board to remap new US policies and strategies in dealing with a new democratic Arab and Muslim-majority countries and peoples.

Like all people, Egyptians have the right to live in freedom, pursue self-determination, and enjoy democracy and respect. The US needs to let go of our addiction to dictators and puppets who do our bidding in the world under the guise of protecting stability or the immoral excuse of serving our national interest at the expense of other people’s lives and freedom. The political map is changing... in Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Palestine, and many other places.

Shortly after he was elected, President Obama promised that he would support political reforms, freedom, democracy, justice, and human rights in the Middle East. Now he has a golden opportunity to put his words into action. So far, he has made it clear that he intends to do so with regard to the Egyptian uprising.

In solidarity with my Palestinian brothers and sisters' right of return to Palestine - Song by Ahmad Qaabour: "They call me a refugee"

لاجيء سموني لاجيء

أحمد قعبور

My apologies for the lack of English translation. I am tight on time these days.
May be one of the blog visitors can volunteer to send the translation and I will then post it.

Torture Memo Author John Yoo on Jon Stewart

It is all about how do you define "torture" and who is subjected to that torture and when!!

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Contrary to Mubarak, Congressmen Baird and Ellison fight to lift Israeli blockade on Gaza

Al Jazeera's Todd Baer caught up with two US Democratic congressmen, Ellison and Baird, whose efforts to lift the Israeli blockade on Gaza are being met with stiff resistance.
(In the meanwhile, Egypt's Mubarak implements harsher measures to strangle the people of Gaza)

Time Magazine: Does Israel Mistreat Palestinian Child Prisoners?

By Tim McGirk / Jerusalem Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2009
Time Magazine

Walid Abu Obeida, a 13-year-old Palestinian farm boy from the West Bank village of Ya'abad, had never spoken to an Israeli until he rounded a corner at dusk carrying his shopping bags and found two Israeli soldiers waiting with their rifles aimed at him. "They accused me of throwing stones at them," recounts Walid, a skinny kid with dark eyes. "Then one of them smacked me in the face, and my nose started bleeding."

According to Walid, the two soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed him, dragged him to a jeep and drove away. All that his family would know about their missing son was that his shopping bags with meat and rice for that evening's dinner were found in the dusty road near an olive grove. Over the course of several days in April last year, the boy says he was moved from an army camp to a prison, where he was crammed into a cell with five other children, cursed at and humiliated by the guards and beaten by his interrogator until he confessed to stone-throwing...

Walid's story is hardly unusual, judging from a report on the Israeli military-justice system in the West Bank compiled by the Palestine office of the Geneva-based Defense for Children International, which works closely with the U.N. and European states...

The report states that "the ill-treatment and torture" of Palestinian child prisoners "appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized, suggesting complicity at all levels of the political and military chain of command."...

The Geneva organization's report alleges that under Israeli military justice, it is the norm for children to be interrogated by the Israeli police and army without either a lawyer or a family member present and that most of their convictions are due to confessions extracted during interrogation sessions or from "secret evidence," usually tip-offs from unnamed Palestinian informers. If so, the practice may violate the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which Israel ratified in 1991...

According to the Israeli human-rights group Breaking the Silence, a few Israeli soldiers are alarmed by their own troops' behavior. The group cites the testimony of two officers who complained before a military court that during an operation last March in Hares village, soldiers herded 150 male villagers, some as young as 14, into a schoolyard in the middle of the night, where they were kept bound, blindfolded and beaten over the course of more than 12 hours.

A U.N. Committee Against Torture, which met on May 15 in Geneva, expressed its "concern" over Israel's alleged abuses of Palestinian child prisoners...

Israel's treatment of Palestinian children and teens as combatants perpetuates the cycle of hatred. After a spell in an Israeli jail, it's hard for a young Palestinian to stay uninvolved. Walid says he never cared much for anything aside from his school friends and family before his incarceration. Now he bears a radioactive hatred towards Israelis. "The soldiers' curses and insults, I'll carry them to my grave," he says.

MUST READ: Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli occupation?

My note:
For the record, I personally and proudly know many Jews who are very outraged by the brutal and racist actions of Israel. More importantly, those brave Jews are not just being outraged, but are rather doing something to challenge such actions and promote justice and peace.

However, Mr. Loewenstein raises many valid questions. It is worth reading.

----

Why aren't Jews outraged by Israeli occupation?
By Antony Loewenstein
Antony Loewenstein is a New York-based journalist and author of My Israel Question.
Haaretz; 6/17/2009


During this year's AIPAC conference in Washington, Executive Director Howard Kohr warned the 7,000-plus crowd that the global movement to "delegitimize Israel" was gathering steam.

"These voices are laying the predicate for an abandonment," he said. His sentiments were almost apocalyptic: "The stakes in that battle are nothing less than the survival of Israel, linked inexorably to the relationship between Israel and the United States. In this battle we are the firewall, the last rampart."

The age of Barack Obama has unleashed a global wave of Jewish unease over Israel's future and the Diaspora's relationship to the self-described Jewish state. It's a debate that is long overdue.

Zionist organizations in Australia campaigned loudly in May against the allegedly "anti-Semitic" play Seven Jewish Children, a ten-minute think-piece written by an English playwright accusing Jews of complicity in violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

A Jewish columnist for The New York Times, Roger Cohen, argued in June that the key word among Palestinians now is "humiliation."

"It's not good for the Palestinians, the Israelis or the Jewish soul," he wrote. The Jewish Week editor chastised him for such views - for "the anger, blame and one-sidedness of his argument" - and wondered "whose heart?has grown brutal?"

An upcoming academic conference at York University in Toronto exploring the "one-state, bi-national solution" to the conflict was slammed last week by Gerald M. Steinberg, chair of the Department of Political Science at Bar Ilan University, for fueling "the vicious warfare and mass terror" against Israelis and Palestinians.

The decades-old ability of Zionist groups to manage the public narrative of Israeli victimhood is breaking down. Damning critics has therefore become a key method of control.

But, writes Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald, a leading Jewish-American blogger, "whereas these smear tactics once inspired fear in many people, now they just inspire pity. They no longer work."

He may be overly optimistic, but alternative Jewish voices are rising who are less concerned with being accused of "self-hatred" or treachery. They see it as their duty to damn what is wrong and not simply support Israeli government policies.

A thinking, more enlightened Judaism is emerging, a necessity in the face of apartheid realities. The cause is human rights, not Zionist exclusion.

Obama's recent speech in Cairo reflected the new Jewish consciousness. American Jews were certainly an intended audience because if it this group that must challenge their conservative spokespeople to undo years of following Likudnik thinking. As a candidate in 2008, the then Illinois senator said that, "there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you're anti-Israel and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel."

Many Jews in the Diaspora have never imagined anything else; it's been an imagined Israel in their minds for decades. Lawless behavior in the occupied territories is ignored through willful ignorance. Tellingly, the most reliable information about these truths in the West is found online, through blogs and activist Web sites, and not generally in the mainstream media. The gate-keepers are clinging on to the Exodus myths for dear life.

Defining a humane Judaism in the 21st century means condemning the brutal military occupation in the West Bank and resisting the ongoing siege of Gaza.

Jewish-American blogger Phil Weiss, who recently returned from the Strip, quoted a young Gazan saying in dismay: "We are being experimented on."

The Palestinian narrative is routinely ignored or dismissed in the U.S. and beyond. This must change quickly for any chance of peace to break out in the Middle East. However, peace without justice is guaranteed to fail.

After Obama's speech in Cairo, where which he almost acknowledged the Palestinian "Nakba" without mentioning it by name, most major Jewish-American groups reacted with caution.

The Anti-Defamation League said it was "disappointed that the President found the need to balance the suffering of the Jewish people in a genocide to the suffering of the Palestinian people resulting from Arab wars."

This was code for "Nakba"-denial, as pernicious as Holocaust revisionism.

But the liberal J Street lobby, still clinging to the delusion of a viable two-state solution and a "democratic, Jewish homeland," praised Obama's "active diplomacy" and claimed that the "overwhelming majority of American Jews" supported an end to the West Bank colonies.

Consistent polls suggest they are right, but the devil is in the detail. Is there real will to back the necessary steps, namely the removal of hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers in the West Bank?

Co-Author of The Israel Lobby, Stephen Walt, said recently that he couldn't understand why more American Jews didn't realize the cliff Israel was running toward. Did they not see that repression in the occupied territories had defined Israel in the eyes of the world? Perhaps apartheid didn't bother them. Out of sight and out of mind. Benjamin Netanyahu's recent speech at Bar-Ilan University suggested he wasn't too fussed, either.

I recently attended the Salute to Israel parade in New York; picture 100,000 American Jews marching to celebrate the state, waving flags in praise of the IDF. It was a thoroughly depressing affair. Palestinians didn't exist; they were invisible. The world's biggest public display of pro-Israel feeling had no room for 20 percent of the Israeli population (let alone the millions in the West Bank and Gaza.)

These events are actually a sign of desperate projection, not strength. Mainstream Zionism wants to completely shield Jews from the uncomfortable facts of the Israeli occupation and Palestinian self-determination. Jews were a proud people, a clever people and a victimized people. There was no time to indulge in frivolous Arab trivialities.

But facts have an uncomfortable way of seeping back into view. Colonel Itai Virob, an IDF brigade commander in the West Bank, recently told an Israeli court that, "a slap, sometimes a punch to the scruff of the neck or the chest, sometimes a knee jab or strangulation to calm somebody [a Palestinian] down is reasonable."

Where is the Jewish outrage over this?

Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape' of women and boys

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent and Paul Cruickshank
28 May 2009
The Guardian Newspaper

A previous image of Iraq prison abuse

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published...

Among the graphic statements, which were later released under US freedom of information laws, is that of Kasim Mehaddi Hilas in which he says: “I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s ***…. and the female soldier was taking pictures.”

The translator was an American Egyptian who is now the subject of a civil court case in the US.

Three detainees, including the alleged victim, refer to the use of a phosphorescent tube in the sexual abuse and another to the use of wire, while the victim also refers to part of a policeman’s “stick” all of which were apparently photographed.

IDF probing whether troops forced Gaza man to drink urine

By Anshel Pfeffer
Haaretz, May 13, 2009

The Military Police are investigating allegations that Israel Defense Forces soldiers assaulted, abused and stole from a Palestinian man detained during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. The police are investigating a number of complaints of thefts from Palestinians during the recent war...

It states that Qanoa, from the Atatara neighborhood of Gaza City, was detained by the IDF on January 4, along with family members. They were released the following day, but he was transported, bound and blindfolded, to another location, where he was kept for two more days. During that time, he said soldiers denied him water, beat and kicked him, and on three occasions forced him to drink urine.

He says soldiers also stole his cell phone as well as $1,000 and NIS 2,500 in cash. He also said he was forced to tell an individual presented as a foreign journalist that he was being treated well...

Last weekend, two soldiers from the Givati reconnaisance unit were arrested on suspiciion of stealing a credit card from a home in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza and using it to withdraw NIS 1,600 in central Israel. One of the two confessed on Tuesday and was remanded for six days. The other was released.

Obama blocks abuse image release

Al Jazeera English, May 13, 2009

Barack Obama, the US president, is to appeal a legal ruling ordering the release of dozens of images depicting abuse of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama, who had previously supported the release of the photographs, acted on advice from military commanders that publishing them could endanger US troops overseas, the White House said on Wednesday.

"The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger," Obama told journalists on Wednesday...

The US department of defence was to release the images by May 28 in response to legal action filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The photographs come from more than 60 criminal investigations between 2001-2006 and are of military personnel suspected of abusing detainees, officials said in April...

The ACLU was quick to condemn Obama's decision.

"The decision to not release the photographs makes a mockery of President Obama's promise of transparency and accountability,'' said Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer...

No amnesty for torturers

A MESSAGE FROM DEMOCRATS.COM

This Thursday, we will deliver our Special Prosecutor petitions to Attorney General Eric Holder. We will join with the ACLU and 185 other groups which oppose immunity for torturers.

Nearly 25,000 of our readers have signed our petition - but you have not. Could you sign right now so we can deliver your signature on Thursday? No Amnesty for Torturers:
http://democrats.com/no-amnesty-for-torturers?cid=ZGVtczU0NDU0NGRlbXM=

Torture is utterly immoral and un-American. Despite Dick Cheney's lies, it produced absolutely no useful intelligence. In fact, it recruited terrorists responsible for at least half the U.S. deaths in Iraq. And it endangered every U.S. soldier who may be captured in the future.

And torture is absolutely illegal. The U.S. ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which prohibits torture and requires prosecution of torturers. In 1947, the U.S. prosecuted a Japanese officer for waterboarding. No lawyer can "legalize" what is illegal.

Congress must take the following actions:

1. Demand the appointment of a Special Prosecutor by Attorney General Eric Holder for torture, warrantless wiretapping, and other heinous crimes of the Bush Administration. (Thanks to Rep. Jerrold Nadler for leading the way!)

2. Prohibit the use of any taxpayer dollars to defend government officials who committed such crimes against lawsuits, or to pay for judgments against them.

3. Impeach Judge Jay Bybee, the torture memo author who serves on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California.

4. Protect human rights by restoring Habeas Corpus and the Fourth Amendment (search and seizure), including repeal of the Orwellian-named Protect America Act, U.S.A. Patriot Act, the FISA Amendments, and Military Commissions Act.

5. End secret government by prohibiting use of "State Secrets," "Sovereign Immunity" and "Signing Statements."

Sign our Petition: No Amnesty for Torturers
http://democrats.com/no-amnesty-for-torturers?cid=ZGVtczU0NDU0NGRlbXM=

Through your patience and persistence, we are moving ever closer towards the restoration of the Constitution and the Rule of Law in the nation we love.

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

Jon Stewart: "We Don't Torture"

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Surprise! Surprise! Under Bush, the CIA practiced torture!

As if anyone had any doubts, the Red Cross concluded that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives "constituted torture". Of course, one should also consider the CIA's version of the story, except that the CIA conveniently destroyed 92 videotapes of its interrogations of detainees.

The use of torture is undoubtedly a form of terrorism, regardless who practices it.


---

Red Cross Described 'Torture' at CIA Jails
Secret Report Implies That U.S. Violated International Law
By Joby Warrick, Peter Finn and Julie Tate
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 16, 2009

The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives "constituted torture," a finding that strongly implied that CIA interrogation methods violated international law, according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document.

The report, an account alleging physical and psychological brutality inside CIA "black site" prisons, also states that some U.S. practices amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." Such maltreatment of detainees is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

The findings were based on an investigation by ICRC officials, who were granted exclusive access to the CIA's "high-value" detainees after they were transferred in 2006 to the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The 14 detainees, who had been kept in isolation in CIA prisons overseas, gave remarkably uniform accounts of abuse that included beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and, in some cases, waterboarding, or simulating drowning...

Many of the details of alleged mistreatment at CIA prisons had been reported previously, but the ICRC report is the most authoritative account and the first to use the word "torture" in a legal context...

"On a daily basis . . . a collar was looped around my neck and then used to slam me against the walls of the interrogation room," the report quotes detainee Tawfiq bin Attash, also known as Walid Muhammad bin Attash, as saying. Later, he said, he was wrapped in a plastic sheet while cold water was "poured onto my body with buckets." He added: "I would be wrapped inside the sheet with cold water for several minutes. Then I would be taken for interrogation."..

President George W. Bush acknowledged the use of coercive interrogation tactics on senior al-Qaeda captives detained by the CIA in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but he insisted that the measures complied with U.S. and international law. Former CIA director Michael V. Hayden confirmed last year that the measures included the use of waterboarding on three captives before 2003.

President Obama outlawed such practices within hours of his inauguration in January. But Obama has expressed reluctance to conduct a legal inquiry into the CIA's policies.

The report gives a graphic account of the treatment of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, better known as Abu Zubaida, a Saudi-born Palestinian who was the first alleged senior al-Qaeda operative seized after Sept. 11 -- a characterization of his role that is disputed by his attorneys, who describe him as having a different philosophy of jihad than bin Laden.

Abu Zubaida was severely wounded during a shootout in March 2002 at a safe house he ran in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and survived thanks to CIA-arranged medical care, including multiple surgeries. After he recovered, Abu Zubaida describes being shackled to a chair at the feet and hands for two to three weeks in a cold room with "loud, shouting type music" blaring constantly, according to the ICRC report. He said that he was questioned two to three hours a day and that water was sprayed in his face if he fell asleep.

At some point -- the timing is unclear from the New York Review of Books report -- Abu Zubaida's treatment became harsher. In July 2002, administration lawyers approved more aggressive techniques.

Abu Zubaida said interrogators wrapped a towel around his neck and slammed him into a plywood wall mounted in his cell. He was also repeatedly slapped in the face, he said. After the beatings, he was placed in coffinlike wooden boxes in which he was forced to crouch, with no light and a restricted air supply, he said.

"The stress on my legs held in this position meant my wounds both in my leg and stomach became very painful," he told the ICRC.

After he was removed from a small box, he said, he was strapped to what looked like a hospital bed and waterboarded. "A black cloth was then placed over my face and the interrogators used a mineral bottle to pour water on the cloth so that I could not breathe," Abu Zubaida said.

After breaks to allow him to recover, the waterboarding continued.

"I struggled against the straps, trying to breathe, but it was hopeless," he said. "I thought I was going to die."

In a federal court filing, Abu Zubaida's attorneys said he "has suffered approximately 175 seizures that appear to be directly related to his extensive torture -- particularly damage to Petitioner's head that was the result of beatings sustained at the hands of CIA interrogators and exacerbated by his lengthy isolation."...

Danner said the organization's use of the word "torture" has important legal implications.

"It could not be more important that the ICRC explicitly uses the words 'torture' and 'cruel and degrading,' " Danner said in a telephone interview. "The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, and when it uses those words, they have the force of law."

He discounted the possibility that the detainees fabricated or embellished their stories, noting that the accounts overlap "in minute detail," even though the detainees were kept in isolation at different locations...