Egypt-The Sting of the Scorpion http://tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=239265

But while the revolutionaries are rewarded for heroic deeds and derring do with hard won freedoms and liberties, the 100 or so languishing behind the high walls of The Scorpion fear the have been completely forgotten. Their voices remain unheard in the foreboding complex hidden behind an imposing seven meter high wall that is protected by heavily fortified, armor-plated gates.But while the revolutionaries are rewarded for heroic deeds and derring do with hard won freedoms and liberties, the 100 or so languishing behind the high walls of The Scorpion fear the have been completely forgotten. Their voices remain unheard in the foreboding complex hidden behind an imposing seven meter high wall that is protected by heavily fortified, armor-plated gates.

According to the Ikhwan website Al'aqrab was the brainchild of a group of officers who spent five years training in the U.S. under the FBI. On their return the Scorpion and its H blocks were built and opened by May 30 in 1993.

Prison staff have the power to cut off water, light and electricity and close individual windows at the flick of a switch as punishment. Twenty other cells are used purely for solitary confinement. It seems the ‘American idea’ worked so well that the Scorpion model was replicated in the spring of 2002 at the U.S. military base Guantanamo Bay in Occupied Cuba. As I relayed the description of its interior to Moazzam Begg, Director of the London-based NGO Cageprisoners, he winced in recognition. The layout was, indeed, familiar to the former ex-Guantanamo detainee who spent three years in the American version of The Scorpion.