is ali shalal the hooded man on the box?

the perdana global peace organisation (PGPO) conference which is taking place now at the putra world trade centre, KL. on day 2, i.e. 6 feb. one of its programme include a live testimony from ali shalal qaissi, detailing how he was tortured as the man in the hood (picture) by US soldiers in iraq.

now when this PGPO conference was posted by jeff ooi, a commenter then posted a post by maobi (ah my old friend, loyar buruk, from beritamalaysia) dated 8 jan.,  where we get to read that ali shalal is NOT the man in the hood. the actual man in the hood is identified by the IHT  (in May 2006) as "abdou hussain saad faleh".

now after reading that piece by maobi, i google for the name of ali shalal and found several articles, esp. from the new york times about him. i had taken the opportunity to copy and paste the articles in my ‘mentaljog extra’ for you to read (because you need to be a member to access new york times articles… but it is free) so as to make your own conclusion if ali shalal qaissi is the man in the hood or not. read especially the article from the international herald tribune (which was linked in maobi’s post).

i, for my part, like maobi, had conclude that he is not. so hundreds (or thousands?) of people tomorrow, including several bloggers, are going to listen to a fraud telling his story tomorrow?