Both The Washington Post and Asharq Alawsat carry versions of the same story about a US government official involved in bringing Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial declared that one such detainee, Saudi Mohammed al-Qahtani, was tortured during his detention. Al-Qahtani, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2002, is alleged to have been intended to be among the 9/11 hijackers.

In deciding that al-Qahtani’s treatment amounted to ‘torture’, the way forward is still very much clouded. He cannot be released, the official said, but the torture finding means that he also cannot be tried. What happens to/with him will have to be determined by the new Obama Administration.

Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official
Trial Overseer Cites ‘Abusive’ Methods Against 9/11 Suspect
Bob Woodward

The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a “life-threatening condition.”

“We tortured [Mohammed al-] Qahtani,” said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. “His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case” for prosecution.

Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.

Crawford, 61, said the combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the impact on Qahtani’s health led to her conclusion. “The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge” to call it torture, she said.
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Asharq Alawsat‘s story is more limited, addressing only the fact of the official’s statement, not the consequences…

Saudi Sept 11 Suspect Tortured in Guantanamo: Report

WASHINGTON, (AFP) – A Saudi suspected of involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks was tortured at the US detention site in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing a US official.

Susan Crawford, the Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo detainees to trial, told the Post that the suspect cannot be tried because he was tortured.

US military interrogators subjected Mohammed al-Qahtani, 30, to sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a “life-threatening condition,” Crawford said.

“We tortured Qahtani,” Crawford told the newspaper. “His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case” for prosecution.
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