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We think it's commendable that U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has consistently fought for the release of one of her constituents from Dover, former Lebanon To Go restaurant owner Amer Fakhoury, who has been held captive in Lebanon for his alleged torture of prisoners while serving an Israeli-backed Lebanon militia in the late 1990s.
A military investigative judge on Tuesday announced from Beirut that Fakhoury had been charged with murder and torture while working as a senior guard at the militia's notorious Khiam prison during Israel's occupation of South Lebanon.
He was detained in September after he returned to his native Lebanon from Dover. Lebanon's intelligence service says he confessed during questioning to being a warden, according to an AP story published today.
The notorious prison was little more than a torture chamber, according to reports, where prisoners routinely had frozen water splashed on them as they slept on grates in cells that were kept pitch black 24 hours a day. Other tortures included the placement of electrodes on their chest and genitals, which would have them writhing and screaming in pain, according to human rights groups and investigative journalists.
Fakhoury has admitted he served in the militia but that he never tortured anybody, and Shaheen has been front and center in his defense, saying as a U.S. citizen, he must be immediately released by Lebanon authorities.
We sympathize with the Fakhoury family, and we think it's great that a longtime, influential senator with the stature of Shaheen is willing to fight for one of her constituents. After all, Fakhoury, himself, became a U.S. citizen last year.
But Sen., Shaheen, we would ask you this. Why would you not consider fighting for a native son of Rochester who is a decorated Marine, who protected diplomats in Baghdad during the most dangerous days of the Iraq War and who, himself, is wrongly imprisoned in the so-called Nisoor Square Massacre of 2007, BY HIS OWN GOVERNMENT?
If you're not familiar with what happened in Nisoor Square, Evan Liberty and his security detail were sent to the square to assist another security unit that was transporting a diplomat to the Green Zone of Baghdad.
As they took up position in the square, a white Kia that was ordered to stop, continued to roll forward against orders. Because it presented an imminent threat - a bulletin on a white Kia and suicide bomber had been reported earlier in the day - a Raven 23 sharpshooter killed the Kia's driver. Then Raven 23 came under attack from insurgents dressed as Iraqi policemen.
The prosecution countered that Raven 23 just opened up with their automatic weapons because they panicked, but that's not likely given their experience. In fact, there are many flaws in the prosecution's theory, which are all in full display in the transcripts of the trial and appeal process, which continues as this column is written.
But most of all, consider the pedigree of Evan Liberty, who enlisted in the Marines during his senior year at Spaulding High, served as a U.S. Embassy Guard in Egypt and then became a Blackwater security guard to further serve his country.
Evan has spent the last five years of his life at a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
His parents, Debra and Brian, also of Rochester, are heartsick that their son continues to be locked up wrongly due to a horrific miscarriage of justice, a miscarriage that took seven years to bear tainted fruit after a trial fraught with prosecutorial misconduct, witness tampering by the government and the withholding of exculpatory evidence, all proved. If you don't think it's proved, read the appeals transcripts.
All of these prosecutorial flaws have been exposed in the appeal process, which saw his original 30-year sentence tossed for being "cruel and unusual" punishment.
The Rochester Voice wanted to bring your attention to this travesty of justice in June, extending an outreach to you and your staff as well as others in the New Hampshire delegation for comment and input.
But you'd think I was trying to get a comment on the wrongful imprisonment of Adolf Hitler, himself. After weeks of leaving phone messages, emails and pleading with your communications staff, I gave up.
I presumed you were just too busy with affairs of state to respond to a digital daily out of Rochester.
The past few months I have been impressed with your vigorous attempts to free Fakhoury, attempting to bring the whole weight of the U.S. government to bear to hold those who have imprisoned him accountable.
Wouldn't it be nice if Evan Liberty had a real fighter like you in his corner!
Won't you help another constituent wrongfully imprisoned?
Won't you help this hero from Rochester?
Below are links to several of the many articles produced since 2016 regarding the plight of Evan Liberty and his family.
http://www.therochestervoice.com/in-iraq-in-2007-this-was-an-everyday-thing-cms-5273
http://www.therochestervoice.com/as-evan-liberty-waits-for-justice-the-days-come-and-go-cms-6475
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