Al-Abd Al-Aswad
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Al-Abd Al-Aswad (The Black Slave) is the name of a diabolical torture device that was used by the autocratic regime of Hafez al-Assad in order to torture its political opponents. Tom Friedman described it thus:
Whenever a person is tortured, he is ordered to strip naked. Inside the room there is..an apparatus called the Black Slave, on which they force the torture victim to sit. When switched on, a very hot and sharp metal skewer enters the rear [of the victim], burning its way until it reaches the intestines, then returns only to be reinserted.
-- Tom Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem, Hama Rules
