Newly Released Detainee Statements Provide More Evidence of CIA Torture Program

Today, in response to an ACLU lawsuit, the CIA released documents in which Guantánamo Bay prisoners describe abuse and torture they suffered in CIA custody. In previously released versions of the documents, the CIA had removed virtually all references to the abuse of prisoners in their custody; the documents released today are still heavily redacted, but include some new information.

The documents were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking uncensored transcripts from Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRTs) that determine if prisoners held by the Defense Department at Guantánamo qualify as “enemy combatants.”

The newly unredacted information includes statements from the CSRTs of former CIA detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Abd Al Rahim Hussein Mohammed Al Nashiri, Abu Zubaydah and Majid Khan, including descriptions of torture and coercion. These statements include:

• Abu Zubaydah: "After months of suffering and torture, physically and mentally, they did not care about my injuries that they inflicted to my eye, to my stomach, to my bladder, and my left thigh and my reproductive organs. They didn't care that I almost died from these injuries. Doctors told me that I nearly died four times." "They say ‘this in your diary.' They say ‘see you want to make operation against America.' I say no, the idea is different. They say no, torturing, torturing. I say ‘okay, I do. I was decide to make operation.'"
• Al Nashiri: "[And, they used to] drown me in water."
• Muhammad: "This is what I understand he [CIA interrogator] told me: you are not American and you are not on American soil. So you cannot ask about the Constitution."
• Khan: "In the end, any classified information you have is through…agencies who physically and mentally tortured me."

You can check out the documents we received today here.

In response to the documents’ release today, ACLU attorney Ben Wizner and lead attorney on the case stated, “The documents released today provide further evidence of brutal torture and abuse in the CIA's interrogation program and demonstrate beyond doubt that this information has been suppressed solely to avoid embarrassment and growing demands for accountability. There is no legitimate basis for the Obama administration's continued refusal to disclose allegations of detainee abuse, and we will return to court to seek the full release of these documents.”

While the information released today shed some new light on the CIA’s torture program, there are still many unanswered questions. We hope the Obama administration will make good on its commitment to transparency by stopping the suppression of information about torture and abuse, and holding accountable the officials who put those policies in place.

Do your part in demanding accountability for torture crimes: head over to the ACLU’s new Accountability for Torture site to learn more and take action.