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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Kenyan Anti-Rendition Campaigner Missing |
| 2007-08-26 |
| The family of a Kenyan Muslim who campaigned against the international transfer of prisoners with alleged terror links said Saturday that he has disappeared. Farah Mohammed Abdulahi, 26, was last seen on August 19 leaving a mosque in Nairobi's Eastlands district, being led into a car by three men in civilian clothing, said his father Mohammed Abdulahi. "We have tried calling him (Farah) on his cell phone. It rings and nobody speaks. ... We have gone to all police stations, but we cannot trace him," Mohammed said. Earlier this year, an Associated Press investigation into the transfer of prisoners over international borders - known as "rendition" - forced U.S. officials to acknowledge a secret program of transferring terrorism suspects arrested in Kenya to Ethiopian prisons. Farah Abdulahi became a vocal critic after his 19-year-old brother Abdi was arrested and imprisoned in Ethiopia in January. Those released from jail say they were interrogated by U.S. security agents on terror related issues. The CIA began an aggressive program in 2002 to interrogate suspected terrorists at an unknown number of secret locations from Southeast Asia to Europe. Prisoners were often arrested in one country and imprisoned in another, where a cooperative intelligence service would hold them incommunicado. U.S. government officials contacted by the AP acknowledged questioning prisoners in Ethiopia, but they said American agents were following the law and were fully justified in their actions because they were investigating past attacks and current threats of terrorism. His father said before his disappearance, Farah was campaigning for his brother Abdi's release. Abdi was arrested on the Kenya-Somali border earlier this year after the collapse of the Somali Islamic Courts Union in an Ethiopian-led offensive. According to flight manifests, Abdi was deported to Somalia and then Ethiopia along with 17 other Kenyan Muslims. Abdi's father said Fatuma Ahmed Chande, a Tanzanian Muslim, said she met Abdi in Ethiopian jail. "She told me that she was released after Tanzania intervened. Ugandans and other prisoners were also set free when their governments intervened," said Abdi's father. Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said police were investigating Farah's disappearance and Criminal Investigation Department officer Isaiah Osugo denied they were involved. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #4 Kenyan Anti-Rendition Campaigner Missing Rarely—if ever—has a headline been so completely self-explanatory. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-08-26 14:10 |
| #3 Here's hoping for the day when it can be rendition to the space side of the airlock hatch... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-08-26 13:27 |
| #2 heh. Let's play Where's |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-08-26 10:27 |
| #1 The moonbats are gonna have a field day with this story. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2007-08-26 02:24 |