Entries"20th Hijacker" Claims That Torture Made Him Lie
U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban
'War on terror' trials could allow evidence obtained through torture
Salon publishes more Abu Ghraib pictures
New Torture pictures
Another Reason Not to Torture
Another Supporter of Torture
Former CIA Director: Cheney is VP of Torture
Which US Senators Support Torture?
US Transports Detainees to be Tortured
US accused of ˜torture flights"
After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law
US soldier admits Iraq jail abuse
Contract to torture
U.S. Reports 94 Cases of Prisoner Abuse
Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape
Memo on Interrogation Tactics Is Disavowed
Spirited Debate Preceded Policies
Torture Trail
Justice Dept. Memo Says Torture 'May Be Justified'
DOJ Memo on Torture
Memo on Torture Draws Focus to Bush
Working Group Draft Report on Torture
March 3, 2006
"20th Hijacker" Claims That Torture Made Him Lie
TIME.com: Exclusive: "20th Hijacker" Claims That Torture Made Him Lie -- Page 1
Exclusive: "20th Hijacker" Claims That Torture Made Him Lie
Mohammad al-Qahtani, held in Guantanamo and touted by the U.S. as a major informant, is taking it all back, his lawyer says. PLUS: for the first time, TIME.com publishes a secret, 84-page record of his interrogation
By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Friday, Mar. 03, 2006
Of the roughly 500 detainees held at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, none is more notorious than Mohammad al-Qahtani, the so-called "20th hijacker." Only weeks before 9/11, he tried to enter the U.S. illegally in Orlando, Fla., while the plot's leader, Mohammad Atta, waited to pick him up in the airport parking lot. As the Pentagon has said, "Had al-Qahtani succeeded in entering the U.S., it is believed he would have been on United Airlines Flight 93, the only hijacked aircraft that had four hijackers instead of five [and the one that ended up crashing in a Pennsylvania field instead of striking the White House, its widely believed intended target]."Last June, TIME published excerpts from a highly classified, 84-page log minutely detailing al-Qahtani's interrogation at Guantanamo. Now, as an increasing number of detainees mount legal challenges to their incarceration, TIME is making the record of al-Qahtani's treatment available to the public in its entirety (except for some names which have been redacted) for the first time. Back in June 2005, the Pentagon insisted that al-Qahtani had provided vital intelligence, focusing on key al-Qaeda leaders and some 30 fellow prisoners at Guantanamo whom he identified as Osama bin Laden's bodyguards.
Now, in an eyewitness account of al-Qahtani at Guantanamo, his recently appointed American lawyer tells TIME that al-Qahtani has repudiated all of his previous statements — claiming they were extracted under brutal torture. And that repudiation is sure to fuel the growing number of challenges in American courts from the detainees at Guantanamo whom al-Qahtani fingered.
For most of his confinement at Guantanamo, al-Qahtani, like other "enemy combatants," has been in legal limbo, never charged with a crime, unrepresented by legal counsel and without any recourse to U.S. courts. But a source has told TIME that last year his father in Saudi Arabia approached the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based nonprofit organization, which has provided al-Qahtani with a lawyer.
That lawyer, Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, a CCR staff attorney, has already filed a challege in federal court, in the District of Columbia, to al-Qahtani's detention. She has also visited him twice at Guantanamo, first in December 2005 and again in January of this year. After spending more than 30 hours talking with him through an interpreter, she told TIME that al-Qahtani today appears to be a broken man, fearful and at times disoriented — someone who has "painfully described how he could not endure the months of isolation, torture and abuse, during which he was nearly killed, before making false statements to please his interrogators."
When al-Qahtani got off his plane in Orlando in August 2001, he was refused entry to the U.S., deported, and captured in Afghanistan only a few months after 9/11 — as Osama bin Laden fled his mountain sanctuary at Tora Bora. Al-Qahtani was then brought to Guantanamo where, according to the Pentagon, he admitted that he had been sent to the U.S. by Khaled Sheik Mohammed, architect of the 9/11 attacks, and that he had met Osama bin Laden on several occasions. Al-Qahtani also confirmed that he had received terrorist instruction at two al-Qaeda training camps and met with numerous senior al-Qaeda leaders.
But from the standpoint of cases currently under review in U.S. federal courts, al-Qahtani's most significant disclosure was informing on some 30 fellow Guantanamo prisoners. The Pentagon quickly used his statements about those prisoners before special military tribunals to justify their indefinite detention as "enemy combatants."
Lawyers for detainees fingered by al-Qahtani strenuously object to that evidence. And a growing number are challenging the government, claiming that al-Qahtani's information was extracted under torture and is, therefore, unreliable and inadmissible in court.
But in a major case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to be argued on March 22 — a case that many observers believe will ultimately end up in front of the Supreme Court — the government is expected to argue that the reliability of statements like al-Qahtani's should not even be considered.
Instead, government lawyers will seek to apply the Detainee Treatment Act, a controversial December 2005 law sponsored by Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, that would preclude extensive court review of Guantanamo detentions. The Detainee Treatment Act says that " habeas corpus — the right of prisoners to have their detention legally justified to a U.S. court — does not apply to Guantanamo prisoners except on appeal. Detainee lawyers argue that the provision clashes with a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that opened the federal courts to any detainee held by the United States anywhere in the world.
Questions surrounding the Detainee Treatment Act will also come before the Supreme Court on March 28, when lawyers for Salim Ahmad Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's alleged driver, challenge government attempts to put him on trial before a military commission. "The issue in this court case is critically important because if the government has its way, Guantanamo will be returned to a legal black hole," contends Eric M. Freedman, a professor of constitutional law at Hofstra University and legal consultant to detainees, though not al-Qahtani. "It would be an outrage if evidence being used to hold prisoners was extracted by unconscionable methods and that fact did not come to light in a court of law." For the Pentagon's part, a spokesperson told TIME that "it is longstanding Department of Defense policy to treat all detainees humanely." The painfully detailed interrogation log of al-Qahtani seems to make clear that at the very least that policy has not always been followed.
March 2, 2006
U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban
U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban
McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba PrisonBy Josh White and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, March 3, 2006; Page A04Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.
In federal court yesterday and in legal filings, Justice Department lawyers contended that a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, cannot use legislation drafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to challenge treatment that the detainee's lawyers described as "systematic torture."
continue reading:
U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban
for userid/password go to: http://www.bugmenot.com/
'War on terror' trials could allow evidence obtained through torture
Agence France-Presse
March 2, 2006 Thursday'War on terror' trials could allow evidence obtained through torture
GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba, March 1 (AFP) -- US military
officers, breaking with domestic and international legal precedent, said
on Wednesday that "war on terror" military tribunals at the Guantanamo
naval base could allow evidence obtained through torture.The US military officer presiding over the trial of an alleged aide to
Osama bin Laden said he was not ready to rule out such evidence.The officer, who wields power similar to a judge, was asked by the
defense lawyer representing Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul, a Yemeni accused of
plotting terror attacks for bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, if he was ready
to exclude all evidence secured through torture.After a long pause, Colonel Peter Brownback declined to commit to a
blanket ban on evidence obtained as a result of torture."What you and I mean by torture could be different," Brownback told
defense lawyer Major Tom Fleener.He said "a red-hot needle in the eye" constitutes torture but was not
ready to commit to a prohibition in advance of the trial. "My personal
belief is that torture is not good," he added.But he said it would depend on the circumstances and how the prosecution
presented the evidence.Bahlul's lawyer, who has the right to question the tribunal chief
to verify his client will receive impartial treatment, said he asked
the question because he alleged his client had been tortured while
in detention."I believe Mr al-Bahlul was tortured," Fleener said.
He added that "it's going to be an issue" in the trial.
Brownback did say that how evidence was obtained would be a factor in
whether to admit such evidence and how to evaluate it.After the hearing, US officers confirmed that the rules written for the
newly created military tribunals, or commissions, left the question open.
The rules also allow for hearsay evidence and other exceptions to standard
US and international legal norms.Asked about evidence secured through coercion, a spokeswoman for the
military tribunals said the issue would be addressed by the officers
presiding over each trial."I can't speculate on what a presiding officer is going to do in
any situation," Major Jane Boomer told a news conference.Defense lawyers, human rights groups and European governments have
accused the United States of abusing and torturing detainees held at
the "war on terror" prison at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.Brownback's comments are sure to reinforce concerns about how the US
government treats and prosecutes detainees held as part of the "war on
terror."The US military has denied systematic torture has been employed and
insisted that any isolated abuses have been punished.Of some 500 detainees held at Guantanamo for more than four years, Bahlul
is one of 10 detainees formally charged by US military tribunals.Addressing the tribunal in a courteous, articulate manner, Bahlul said
earlier he could not receive a fair trial if he was represented by a
US citizen.Bahlul said the impact of the September 11 attacks, which he said had
left a "deep psychological scar," meant that no US lawyer would be able
to argue effectively on his behalf.It would be "impossible for the counsel to push aside his feelings
as an American," said Bahlul, speaking through an interpreter.He renewed his request to be allowed to represent himself, though
tribunal rules require that he accept a US lawyer, and asked for an
attorney from his native country.He sought to clarify earlier comments that he was a member of Al-Qaeda,
saying that he did not have anything to do with the attacks of September
11, 2001."I had no connection to the events of September 11," he said.
Prosecutors allege he served as a propaganda specialist and bodyguard for
bin Laden in Afghanistan before he was captured in 2001 and transferred
to the controversial US-run detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval
Base in Cuba.The presiding officer rejected Bahlul's request, saying he could have a
foreign citizen as a legal adviser but that the tribunal rules barred him
from representing himself.After several hours, Bahlul chose not to return to the hearing following
a recess.The presiding officer said he would not order Bahlul to be forcibly
taken to the tribunal if he refused to attend the hearing when it
resumed on Thursday.Fleener, the defense lawyer assigned to Bahlul, said it was "absurd" that
Bahlul could not argue his own case. He cited US domestic and military
law as well as the Nuremberg war crimes trials, which he said allowed
for self-representation or for citizens of the same nationality to serve
as defense lawyers.February 15, 2006
Salon publishes more Abu Ghraib pictures
"Salon has obtained files and other electronic documents from an internal Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal. The material, which includes more than 1,000 photographs, videos and supporting documents from the Army's probe, may represent all of the photographic and video evidence that pertains to that investigation."
Read more:
Salon exclusive: The Abu Ghraib files (News at Salon.com)
New Torture pictures
An Australian TV show has broadcasted previously unpublished pictures and film clips of torture at Abu Ghraib. They appear to come the same period as the previously published pictures. Here are some of them:
This last one is part of a video in which a prisoner is hitting his head against a wall
A detainee covered in faeces
The severely burned arm of a detainee
December 6, 2005
Another Reason Not to Torture
If you can't be sure you have "disappeared" the right person, you can't be sure that you're torturing the right person, as the U.S. has admitted privately to Germany in the case of German national Khaled Masri. According to this article in the Sunday, December 4, 2005, Washington Post, Masri was disappeared by the United States for five months because the head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center's al Qaeda unit "had a hunch." According to lawsuit filed by Masri, the CIA drugged him and tortured him before it determined that he was not the person they were looking for.
Given a free hand by the Bush administration, the CIA has a number of ongoing public relations disasters, including the use of "black sites" where individuals "disappeared" by the CIA have been detained in Eastern Europe, kidnapping charges against 22 CIA operatives involved in the disappearance of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (aka Abu Omar) from Italy on February 17, 2003, and the Swedish government inquiry into the CIA disappearance of Egyptian Mohamed al-Zery and Ahmed Agiza on December 18, 2001.
Masri was held for 23 days by Macedonian authorities, but not at a government site, before he was disappeared by the CIA in January 2004. He was released in late May 2004 in Albania.
December 5, 2005
Another Supporter of Torture
Neil Livingstone is CEO of Global Options and a frequent commentator on terrorism and national security issues. He also supports torture.November 17, 2005
Former CIA Director: Cheney is VP of Torture
In an interview with ITV News, Admiral Stansfield Turner said of Dick Cheney: "I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture."
Turner was the director of the CIA from 1977 to 1981.
November 7, 2005
Which US Senators Support Torture?
On October 5, 2005, the United States Senate voted 90 to 9 in favor of an amendment that would reinforce the ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees by making the Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogations binding interrogation policy for all those in military custody.
The Bush administration has asserted that the Geneva Convention and US legal prohibitions against torture don't apply to US actions outside of the United States.
The U.S. Senators that voted against this provision, and essentially in support of torture, are:
December 29, 2004
US Transports Detainees to be Tortured
According to the Washington Post and other sources, a Gulfstream jet appears to be used by the US government to transport detainees to other countries, where the detainees are tortured. The owner of Gulfstream is a company called Premier Executive Transport Services Inc., which appears to be a CIA front (much like the Air America of yore) and whose executives have suspciously vague records.
According to plane spotters, public records, and airport records, the plane has been to places like Jakarta, Indonesia; Egypt; Sweden; well-known U.S. government refueling stops; Islamabad; Karachi; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Dubai; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Baghdad; Kuwait City; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Rabat, Morocco. Other frequent stops include Dulles International Airport, a military airport in Jordan, Frankfurt, Scotland, and Cyprus. The plane has been tracked by its tail number, N379P. The plane was spotted in Pakistan when Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, a suspect in bombing of the USS Cole, was handed over on October 23, 2001. On December 18, 2001, the jet was used to transport Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad Zery from Sweden to Egypt, where they both reported that they were tortured. And prisoners are usually transported without the niceties of a hearing or other standard practices.
The practice of transporting people to countries that use "interrogation techniques" that are outlawed in the United States in prohibited by the U.N. Convention Against Torture.
The tail number has reportedly been changed to N8068V.
More information can be found at:
http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?regsearch=N379P
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N379P&distinct_entry=true
Another plane (N313P) from Premier Executive Transport Services
Markey pledges battle on rendition practice - Boston Globe, November 30, 2004
Terror suspects' torture claims have Mass. link - Boston Globe, November 29, 2004
Gulfstream N379P becomes N8068V - Blog, November 14, 2004
U.S. Accused of Torture Flights - Sunday Times, November 14, 2004
A Secret Deportation Of Terror Suspects - Washington Post, July 25, 2004November 15, 2004
US accused of ˜torture flights"
AN executive jet is being used by the American intelligence agencies to fly terrorist suspects to countries that routinely use torture in their prisons.
The movements of the Gulfstream 5 leased by agents from the United States defence department and the CIA are detailed in confidential logs obtained by The Sunday Times which cover more than 300 flights.
October 23, 2004
After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law
WASHINGTON - In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in great secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had declared on terrorism.
Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their constitutional guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign suspects indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War II.
October 20, 2004
US soldier admits Iraq jail abuse
US army reservist Sgt Ivan Frederick has pleaded guilty to five charges of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad.BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | US soldier admits Iraq jail abuse
August 8, 2004
Contract to torture
The world's outrage over the abuse and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has focused largely on the seven U.S. soldiers caught in the infamous photographs; they are now facing criminal charges. But several thousand pages of classified military documents reveal that private contractors, hired as interrogators at Abu Ghraib, played a key role in the abuses. According to the testimony of one detainee, a male contract worker carried out one of the most heinous crimes at the prison, raping a boy while a female soldier took pictures.
July 22, 2004
U.S. Reports 94 Cases of Prisoner Abuse
The U.S. military has found 94 cases of confirmed or alleged abuse of prisoners by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan since the fall of 2001, the Army's inspector general said Thursday in a long-awaited report made public at a hastily called Senate hearing.
The number is significantly higher than all other previous estimates given by the Pentagon, which had refused until now to give a total number of abuse allegations.
July 18, 2004
Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape
Salon reports that in a speech at the ACLU conference last week, Hersh claimed that children were sodomized at Abu Ghraib and the Pentagon has film of it.
June 23, 2004
Memo on Interrogation Tactics Is Disavowed
President Bush's aides yesterday disavowed an internal Justice Department opinion that torturing terrorism suspects might be legally defensible, saying it had created the false impression that the government was claiming authority to use interrogation techniques barred by international law.
Memo on Interrogation Tactics Is Disavowed (washingtonpost.com)
Spirited Debate Preceded Policies
The Pentagon documents released yesterday reveal a gripping internal debate over interrogation tactics for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, with Pentagon lawyers warning that the military's reputation could suffer as a result of tools approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
June 22, 2004
Torture Trail
The investigation by the Pentagon of the abuses veering on torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has so far collared only seven very low-level officers. And George W. Bush has told the nation that only these "bad apples" caused the worldwide revulsion fueled by the photographs of snarling dogs and naked prisoners. There are also the disingenuous assertions by Donald Rumsfeld that this nation treats "detainees" in the spirit of the Geneva Conventions.
The Village Voice: Nation: Liberty Beat: Torture Trail by Nat Hentoff
June 14, 2004
Justice Dept. Memo Says Torture 'May Be Justified'
Today washingtonpost.com is posting a copy of the Aug. 1, 2002, memorandum (PDF) "Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A," from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to President Bush.
The memo was the focus of a recent article in The Washington Post.
The memo was written at the request of the CIA. The CIA wanted authority to conduct more aggressive interrogations than were permitted prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The interrogations were of suspected al Qaeda members whom the CIA had apprehended outside the United States. The CIA asked the White House for legal guidance. The White House asked the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for its legal opinion on the standards of conduct under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
washingtonpost.com: Justice Dept. Memo Says Torture 'May Be Justified'
DOJ Memo on Torture
We have published the Department of Justice Memo on how to legally justify torture here
June 8, 2004
Memo on Torture Draws Focus to Bush
The disclosure that the Justice Department advised the White House in 2002 that the torture of al Qaeda terrorist suspects might be legally defensible has focused new attention on the role President Bush played in setting the rules for interrogations in the war on terrorism.
Working Group Draft Report on Torture
We have published the draft report written by a working group of the department of defense charged with finding ways to legitimize the use of torture by the US administration. You can find it at http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/us/doc/wg-torture.pdf
Also read the Newsweek report on the memo.
Today Ashcroft testified before Congress and refused to let Senators see a January 2002 memo used as the basis for the Pentagon memo. Read his testimony
