Just as NY Times chefs cooked up Iraq Shock and Awe a la Neocon served with yellowcake and mushroom cloud frosting, they've just whipped up their latest recipe for disaster, which sugar coats VP Omar Suleiman as the best preparation for "Change with Stability" in Egypt.
Glenn Greenwald's article, Obama's man in Cairo, uncovered the missing ingredient, Suleiman's torture record, the nutty filling left on the cutting board, which the NY Times couldn't squeeze into their candy mold:
Unfortunately, the paper of record wasn't able to find the space to inform its readers about Suleiman's decades-long history as America's personal abducter, detainer and torturer of the Egyptian people, nor his status as Israel's most favored heir to the Mubarak tyranny
Glenn Greenwald quoted sociology Professor Lisa Hajjar of University of California Santa Barbara, from her article, Suleiman: The CIA's man in Cairo/Suleiman, a friend to the US and reported torturer, has long been touted as a presidential successor.
In Egypt, as Habib recounts in his memoir, My Story: The Tale of a Terrorist Who Wasn’t, he was repeatedly subjected to electric shocks, immersed in water up to his nostrils and beaten. His fingers were broken and he was hung from metal hooks. At one point, his interrogator slapped him so hard that his blindfold was dislodged, revealing the identity of his tormentor: Suleiman.
Suleiman worked with the CIA for many years and, like a good Neocon, is highly critical of Islamism and Iran.
Lisa Hajjar explains under Clinton, Suleiman created the rendition program, which at that time involved kidnapping suspects and transporting them out of country to be tried in court for terrorism, which morphed into extraordinary rendition, including torturing them for information, after Bush became US President, with Egypt a major black site torture destination.
According to Former Guantánamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib speaks with WSWS by Richard Phillips, February 9, 2011:
Madni states: "I was handcuffed the whole time and was either suspended from hooks on the wall. I was badly beaten, I was punched, kicked all over my body. I was tortured with electric shocks, which made me bleed from the ears and resulted in me developing a long-term hearing problem... The torture would only end if I agreed to whatever the interrogator wanted me to confess to at the time..."
Madni says he was interrogated by Egyptian, Australian, Israeli and US intelligence agencies. "Omar Suleiman [Egyptian Intelligence Director and now Vice President] and Gamal Mubarak, the son of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, were both present at the same point when I was interrogated and tortured.
"An Egyptian interrogator told me that the Australian intelligence organisation wanted to ask me questions about Mamdouh Habib, the Australian man who was seized in Pakistan and then rendered to Egypt. An officer... asked me how did you know or where did you meet Mamdouh Habib; was it in Pakistan or was it in Indonesia?
It seems from Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni's testimony that Suleiman, along with other Egyptian, Austrailian, American, and Israeli intelligence agents, tortured him to confess what they wanted to hear about Habib and himself, not to procure real intelligence about terrorism.
The torture would only end if I agreed to whatever the interrogator wanted me to confess to at the time..."
The Egyptian people want real change, a democracy with human rights, not the status quo in which Suleiman maintains a sort of stability via torture.
Professor Lisa Hajjar's article contained this U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv cable posted on August 29, 2008 exposed in the Wikileaks documents:
[Israeli defense official David] Hacham said the Israeli delegation was "shocked" by Mubarak's aged appearance and slurred speech. Hacham was full of praise for Soliman, however, and noted that a "hot line" set up between the [Israeli Ministry of Defense] and Egyptian General Intelligence Service is now in daily use. Hacham said he sometimes speaks to Soliman's deputy Mohammed Ibrahim several times a day. Hacham noted that the Israelis believe Soliman is likely to serve as at least an interim President if Mubarak dies or is incapacitated. (Note: We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Soliman.)
It's truly sad that U.S. and Israeli officials support Suleiman and his strong arm tactics instead of the Egyptian people, who are bravely demonstrating in the streets of Cairo for freedom, civil rights, and fair elections. What does that say about our respective democracies?