Category: Blog

Qasr el-Nil Police Station: A History of Torture

Posted on By 3arabawy

Located in an old shabby villa in downtown Cairo’s most affluent area, Garden City, lies one of the infamous torture centers run by Mubarak’s pigs.

Qasr el-Nil Police Station have gained notoriety among Egyptian activists because of the involvement of its officers in the crackdowns on Kefaya’s demonstrations in Tahrir Sq, Talaat Harb Sq and Abdel Khaleq Tharwat St. The place has become synonymous with Major Samawa’l Abu Sehla, who helped kidnap leftist blogger Muhammad el-Sharqawi, who was later tortured and sodomized by Abu Sehla and State Security officer Sherif el-Qamati.

But the old building has also a long history of torture and death of detainees in custody, the Torture in Egypt Blog reminds us.

Police Major Samaw'al Mohamed Abu Sehla الرائد سماؤل أبو سحلة

[Above: Police Major Samawa’l Abu Sehla, identified by Sharqawi to be his kidnapper, together with Sherif el-Qamati of State Security’s so-called Counter-Communism Bureau.]

State Security Officer Sherif el-Qamati ضابط أمن الدولة شريف القماطي

[Above: SS Officer Sherif el-Qamati, who sexually abused Sharqawi]

British occupation troops flee from Basra

Posted on By 3arabawy

From CounterPunch…

The withdrawal of British forces from Basra Palace, ahead of an expected full withdrawal from the city as early as next month, marks the beginning of the end of one of the most futile campaigns ever fought by the British Army.
Ostensibly, the British will be handing over control of Basra to Iraqi security forces. In reality, British soldiers control very little in Basra, and the Iraqi security forces are largely run by the Shia militias.
The British failure is almost total after four years of effort and the death of 168 personnel. “Basra’s residents and militiamen view this not as an orderly withdrawal but rather as an ignominious defeat,” says a report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. “Today, the city is controlled by militias, seemingly more powerful and unconstrained than before.”
The British military presence has been very limited since April this year, when Operation Sinbad, vaunted by the Ministry of Defense as a comparative success, ended. In the last four months the escalating attacks on British forces have shown the operation failed in its aim to curb the power of the militias.
The pullout will be a jolt for the US because it undermines its claim that it is at last making progress in establishing order in Iraq because Sunni tribes have turned against al-Qa’ida and because of its employment of more sophisticated tactics. In practice, the US controls very little of the nine Shia provinces south of Baghdad.
The British Army was never likely to be successful in southern Iraq in terms of establishing law and order under the control of the government in Baghdad. Claims that the British military could draw on counter-insurgency experience built up in Northern Ireland never made sense.

Hollywood star ‘wants US soldiers home’

Posted on By 3arabawy

From the BBC:

Hollywood actress Charlize Theron, who is promoting her latest movie at the Venice Film Festival, has said she hopes US troops in Iraq can come home.
The 32-year-old stars in the film, In The Valley of Elah, based on the true story of a soldier who goes missing after serving in Iraq.
“Nothing would give me more joy than to see them back in America,” the Oscar-winning star said.
Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon play the missing soldier’s parents.
Theron said: “[The soldiers] are doing a very, very important job and it’s a dangerous one. Hopefully they can come back and be looked after, that’s the least we can do for them.”