American Muslim Who Claims He Was Tortured Abroad Sues FBI

Yonas Fikre, who says he was abused in the United Arab Emirates at the direction of the US government, filed suit in federal court Thursday.

<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=68939158">idiz</a>/Shutterstock

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Yonas Fikre, an American Muslim who claims that he was tortured in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the US government, sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department on Thursday. Fikre, whose story was first reported by Mother Jones in April 2012, claims he was abused by local authorities in the UAE after refusing to become an informant for the FBI.

As Mother Jones reported in 2011, the US government has acknowledged that the information it shares with foreign governments about American terrorism suspects sometimes results in the arrest, detention, and interrogation of those suspects. The FBI has also acknowledged that FBI agents occasionally “interview or witness an interview” of American terrorism suspects detained abroad. Fikre’s lawsuit contends that he was a victim of this practice, commonly known as proxy detention, and seeks $30 million in damages as well as injunctions to prevent the government from treating anyone else the way he claims he was treated.

Fikre’s claims are not unique—indeed, they are remarkably similar to the accounts of other American Muslims who say they were detained and interrogated by foreign security forces at the behest of the US government. Fikre’s story echoes those of Naji HamdanAmir MeshalSharif MobleyGulet Mohamed, and Yusuf and Yahya Wehelie. All are American Muslim men who claim that, while traveling abroad, they were detained, interrogated, and in some cases abused by local security forces; the US government, they say, used this process to circumvent their legal rights as American citizens.

Several FBI officials have confirmed to me (on the condition that they not be named) that the bureau has for years used some of its elite international agents—known as legal attachés, or “legats”—to coordinate the detention of American and foreign terrorism suspects at the hands of American allies. And although the FBI maintains that foreign governments that detain American terrorism suspects are told not to abuse them, many of the countries in question have long histories of abusive detentions.

Fikre’s lawsuit also seeks injunctions that would end the practice of proxy detention for good. There are complications, however. Fikre is currently in Sweden, seeking political asylum. He is on the no-fly list, and would likely have problems returning to the United States even if he wished to do so. He also has legal problems: Two weeks after he went public with his story, federal prosecutors charged him and two others with violating federal laws regarding the transfer of large amounts of money over international borders. Fikre denies the charges; in his lawsuit, he alleges they were filed in retaliation for his decision to go public

Even if the suit moves forward, the government holds a trump card: the state secrets privilege, a rule that allows the feds to quash a case when they claim that it might infringe on national security. The privilege has been invoked by both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations in cases that involve the government spying on Americans, or in which America’s relationships with foreign governments that torture people might have been revealed.

You can read the lawsuit here:

 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate