Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official
Trial Overseer Cites 'Abusive' Methods Against 9/11 Suspect
Susan J. Crawford, the convening authority of military commissions since February 2007, concluded that the U.S. military tortured Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a Jan. 14, 2009 Washington Post article. Article 1 of the Torture Convention (WITH Reservations), to which the U.S. is a Party, defines “torture” as:
any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
Crawford, who served as Chief Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, as General Counsel for the Army during the Reagan administration and as Department of Defense Inspector General when Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense, cited a combination of interrogation techniques including sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity, and prolonged exposure to cold that left Qahtani in a "life-threatening condition,” the Post reported.
While Crawford acknowledged, the Post said, that then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had authorized the techniques used against Qahtani, she noted that the “the manner in which [interrogators] applied [the techniques] was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge to call it torture.” For instance, Qahtani was twice hospitalized at Guantanamo with bradycardia, a condition in which the heart rate falls below 60 beats a minute and which, in extreme cases, can lead to heart failure and death, according to the Post. Additionally, the Post quoted Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, Qahtani's civilian attorney, as saying that Qahtani suffers from "loss of concentration, memory loss, and paranoia.”
The Washington Post’s Jan. 14, 2009 article reported that Crawford dismissed war crimes charges against Qahtani in May 2008 and was not planning to allow prosecution against him to go forward.[1] Additionally, the Post stated, in the same article, that Crawford believes coerced testimony, such as that obtained from Qahtani, should not be admissible in military tribunals as it is not allowed in a regular court. (Following the Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, which bans torture but permits "coercive" testimony in military tribunals.) Similarly, Article 15 of the Torture Convention states that “each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings.”
Additionally, articles 11-13 of the Torture Convention guarantee impartial review of interrogation methods and the right to complain to competent authorities if one has been tortured. In regards to Qahtani’s interrogation, the Washington Post quoted Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell as saying:
We have conducted more than a dozen investigations and reviews of our detention operations . . . . They concluded the interrogation methods used at GTMO, including the special techniques used on Qahtani in 2002, were lawful. However, subsequent to those reviews, the Department adopted new and more restrictive policies and procedures for interrogation and detention operations. Some of the aggressive questioning techniques used on Al Qahtani, although permissible at the time, are no longer allowed in the updated Army field manual.
Crawford also cited systemic problems with the prosecution process in Guantanamo. According to the Post, Crawford felt that the prosecution was unprepared to bring cases to trial, even after years of working on possible cases. She pointed to a prosecutor’s “ethical obligation to review all the evidence before making a charging decision” and claimed that Guantanamo prosecutors “didn't have access to all the evidence, including medical records, interrogation logs, and they were making charging decisions without looking at everything." Crawford noted, in the Post, “that prosecutors are required to determine whether any evidence possessed by the government could be exculpatory; if it is, they must turn it over to defense lawyers.” Crawford told the Post that “it took more than a year -- and the intervention of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England -- to ensure [prosecutors] had access to all the information, much of it classified.”
The Washington Post
By Bob Woodward; Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html
Military Commissions Act of 2006: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ366.109.pdf
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cat.htm
o US signed 18 Apr 1988
o US ratified 21 Oct 1994
[1] Crawford made this decision before President Obama signed the executive order to close Guantanamo which was reported by the Washington Post on Jan. 22, 2009. Jeff Mason, Obama Orders Guantanamo's Closure Within a Year, Reuters, Jan. 22, 2009, available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012200817.html.