April 8, 2008   "Why Jordan?" The question puzzled Abu Hamza al-
Tabuki, a Saudi citizen who claims that US agents arrested him
in Afghanistan in December 2001, interrogated him in Pakistan,
and then flew him in a private jet to Jordan.  Because he was
not Jordanian and had no past connection to Jordan, he did not
understand why he was sent there.  "Why wasn't I sent to America
since I was arrested by Americans?" al-Tabuki asked, in a
narrative he sent to contacts in Jordan after he was released.
What al-Tabuki learned was that Jordan offered greater
possibilities for abusive interrogations: it was a place for him
to be questioned "more freely," as one US official put it.
According to al-Tabuki, the Jordanians' methods included "terror
and fear, torture and beatings, insults and verbal abuse, and
threats to expose my private parts and rape me."  Nor was al-
Tabuki alone in facing this abuse.  Based on our investigations
in Jordan and elsewhere, including interviews with several
former detainees, Human Rights