Interestingly, Azar was never charged as a dangerous terrorist, only with conspiracy to commit bribery for wiring $106,000 in kickbacks to a U.S. employee's bank account in hopes of getting $13 million in unpaid bills okayed.
For this comparatively trivial white collar crime, Azar's lawyers said when arrested he was stripped naked, hooded, and subjected to a body cavity search. What's more, according to an article by Scott Horton, writing on "Common Dreams, Azar claims a federal agent showed Azar a photo of his wife and four children and told him to confess or else he might "never see them again. Azar confessed, and pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.
Azar alleged he was shackled to an office chair for seven hours, put in an unheated metal shipping container and given only a thin blanket despite near freezing temperature, denied sleep and food for 30 hours, had his ears covered by earphones and blindfolded during his plane ride from Kabul, Afghanistan, to the U.S., Horton reported. Court records indicate Azar was shackled at the ankles, waist, and wrists.
"These procedures---particularly the blindfolding and shackling---correspond to standard Bush-era enhanced interrogation techniques, which President Obama declared banned immediately on his arrival in office, Horton noted.
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