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11/25/2005:

"The Forgotten Prisoner"

A Tale of Extraordinary Renditions and Double-Standards

German Islamic extremist Mohammed Haydar Zammar has been locked in a dungeon in Damascus for the past four years as part of Washington’s post-9/11 “extraordinary renditions” program. By placing the man with suspected ties to the Hamburg al-Qaida cell in Syrian hands, the United States is allowing Damascus to commit torture so that it doesn’t have to.

Syria’s Far-Filastin prison is like an iceberg. The most treacherous part lies hidden beneath the surface.

Its visible part is a white, two-story building in the drab style of socialist prefab construction, about as plain-looking as the former Berlin headquarters of the East German secret police, the Stasi. This unassuming-looking building in the Massa section of the Syrian capital, a five-minute drive from downtown Damascus, is the Syrian military intelligence agency’s nerve center.

But the building’s external appearance is deceptive. A staircase winds downward from the ground floor into dark basement corridors—the prison’s torture wing—lined with cells secured by double metal doors. This underground section makes Far-Filastin one of the world’s most notorious prisons, a blend of Alcatraz and Abu Ghraib. That this is a place to be feared is just as evident above ground, where signs identifying the prison as a military zone and banning photography are an ominous warning to passersby and taxi drivers alike, who prefer to give the place a wide berth.
axisoflogic.com

Syria tortures prisoners for us.