President Obama came into office with a promise: to end the official policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration, including rendition and the outsourcing of torture to third party nations. Has he kept that promise?
The answer is mixed: yes and no. On January 22, 2009...two days after taking office...the President signed Executive Order 13491, revoking the Executive Order issued by Bush and ensuring lawful treatment of detainees. Instead of ending the practice of rendition, the order specified the following:
(ii) ...to ensure that such practices comply with the domestic laws, international obligations, and policies of the United States and do not result in the transfer of individuals to other nations to face torture or otherwise for the purpose, or with the effect, of undermining or circumventing the commitments or obligations of the United States to ensure the humane treatment of individuals in its custody or control.
What the President failed to understand, though, is that evil will find a way. Just ask
Yonas Fikre, a 33 year old American Muslim man from Portland, Oregon. Mr. Fikre, who was born in Eritrea and moved to Sudan as a child before moving to the United States with his family, recently returned to Sudan on a business trip. He was contacted by the US Embassy and asked to come in to discuss safety and security concerns for Americans traveling abroad. Upon arrival at the Embassy, however, he was pulled into a room and interrogated by the FBI...not about his business in Sudan, but about his mosque and its imam back in Portland. They wanted information, and they wanted Mr. Fikre to agree to be an informant for them against his mosque. They told him he was on a US no-fly list, and they could get him off of it if only he would cooperate. He refused.
Continuing his business trip, Mr. Fikre traveled to Abu Dhabi, a member state of the United Arab Emirates. On June 1, 2011 he was arrested by security forces and taken to a prison, where he was tortured for 106 days, with his tormentors bragging that they were doing so at the behest of the American FBI. The demand of his interrogators: information on his mosque and his imam in Portland.
Americans imprisoned abroad have a right to see a representative from the local US Embassy. The State Department did send someone to see Mr. Fikre, on July 28, almost 2 months after this nightmare began. He was warned by his captors that "hell would break loose" if he told his representative of his treatment there. Turns out there was nothing to worry about: the representative was unconcerned, not even noticing his attempts to signal her that he was under duress. The torture would continue until he was finally released on September 14, 2011. Mr. Fikre, who like so many others had an American Dream, has now applied for asylum in Sweden, terrified of his adopted nation...the United States.
So the President's Executive Order effectively ended the practice of the US transferring prisoners to foreign governments where they may face torture. It did not address the possibility that a US agency, such as the FBI, could request the government of a foreign nation to arrest and torture a visiting American. Since the FBI did not arrest Mr. Fikre and transfer him to Abu Dhabi, the letter of the law was obeyed. The spirit of the law, however...along with the dreams of Mr. Fikre...was shattered.
I believe that American Muslims will continue to support Mr. Obama and will vote for him in November. I am urging them to do so, because while things may not be changing as fast as we would like, they are changing. Our best hope for achieving our dreams lies with the Democratic Party and President Obama. That said, Mr. Obama needs to address the loopholes exploited by the FBI in this case and amend his Executive Order accordingly.