Suleiman Abdullah Salim

Suleiman Abdullah Salim is a citizen of Tanzania who was held in extrajudicial detention, for five years, in secret CIA black sites.[1][2] Salim was one of the individuals the United States Senate Intelligence Committee's inquiry into the CIA's use of torture identified as having been subjected to the most brutal torture. According to James Risen, in the New York Times CIA interrogators tortured him, even though he was a black African man, and the Suleiman Abdullah Salim they had intended to capture was an ethnically Arab man from Yemen.

Life prior to capture

Salim was born in Stone Town, Tanzania.[1] He took his first job, as a fisherman, when he was a young teenager. He worked in a clothing store, in Dar es Salaam. He later worked in Mombasa, as a water porter. He had to leave a job as a harbor pilot, in Kismayu, Somalia, due to resentment from the local warlord's militiamen. In 2003 he was working as a driver for an employee of Mohammed Dheere, a Somali warlord. Dheere's men accused him of owing Dheere money, and when he refused to be shaken down, they handed him over the CIA.

CIA custody

When the CIA first reported his apprehension they said he was a Yemeni, named "Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed".[3][4] Salim said that, when he was first turned over to the Americans they accused him of finding a way to alter his appearance.[1]

Post-release

On October 13, 2015 the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the psychologists who designed the interrogations, James E. Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, on behalf of Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and the estate of Gul Rahman.[2][5] On July 28, 2017, U.S. District Judge Justin Lowe Quackenbush denied both parties motions for summary judgment, noted that the defendants are indemnified by the United States government, and encouraged the attorneys to reach a settlement before trial.[6]

References
  1. James Risen (2016-10-12). "After Torture, Ex-Detainee Is Still Captive of 'The Darkness'". New York Times. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Retrieved 2016-10-12. Mr. Salim was one of 39 men subjected to some of the C.I.A.'s most brutal techniques — beatings, hanging in chains, sleep deprivation and water dousing, which creates a sensation of drowning, even though interrogators had been denied permission to use that last tactic on him, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the agency's classified interrogation program.
  2. Harriet Alexander (2016-04-23). "Former CIA detainees to sue American contractors who designed torture programme". New York City: The Telegraph (UK). Retrieved 2016-10-12. Mr Salim, who is now back home in Tanzania, said he was held for five years and tortured. "You can't sleep, you can't eat, you can't smell," he told The Guardian. "Flashbacks come anytime, so much they make you crazy."
  3. Desmond Butler (2003-06-14). "5-Year Hunt Fails to Net Qaeda Suspect in Africa". New York Times. Retrieved 2016-10-12. The man, who Kenyan officials say was wanted for involvement in the embassy bombings and is now in American custody, is Suleiman Abdalla Salim Hemed, known as Issa. Said to be a Yemeni in his mid-20s, Mr. Hemed is one of a number of suspected Qaeda members whose faces appear on illustrated playing cards being distributed by the American agents in Somalia.
  4. "Kenya Hands Over Al Qaeda Suspect to U.S. Officials: Authorities in Nairobi say he took part in the 1998 bombings of American embassies". Los Angeles Times. Nairobi, Kenya. 2003-03-27. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
  5. McLaughlin, Jenna (October 13, 2015). "Former U.S. Detainees Sue Psychologists Responsible For CIA Torture Program". Intercept. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  6. Fink, Sheri (29 July 2017). "2 Psychologists in C.I.A. Interrogations Can Face Trial, Judge Rules". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
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