A man once considered a top al Qaeda operative escaped from a U.S.-run detention facility in Afghanistan and cannot testify against the soldier who allegedly mistreated him, a defense lawyer involved in a prison abuse case said Tuesday.
Omar al-Farouq was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in the summer of 2002 and turned him over to the United States.
A Pentagon official in Washington confirmed Tuesday evening that al-Farouq escaped from a U.S. detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, on July 10. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
An Army lawyer for Sgt. Alan J. Driver, a reservist accused of abusing Bagram detainees, asked Tuesday where al-Farouq was and what the Army had done to find him in time for Driver's court proceedings.
Capt. John B. Parker, a prosecutor, said al-Farouq and three others escaped from the Bagram detention center and have not been found.
"If we find him ... we will make him available," Parker said.
That smells like complete bullshit to me, but fuck it, lets take the Pentagon's word at face value. That means that somewhere in the US military is a person that ran a prison which allowed "one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants" escape. That seems like a pretty demotable offense to me. Who is this person and what punishment has been meted out to this individual? I say this person must be named so the entire nation can shame him or her. Also, why wasn't the public notified that this dangerous figure is now at large? I could have walked right by Omar al-Farouq and not recognized him with my Omar al-Farouq card sitting at home in the captured pile.
That's Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon folks, so mismanaged that they have to fabricate a fuck-up to cover up a fuck-up.
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