Charges Dropped Against ‘Dangerous’ Detainee Who Was Tortured At Guantanamo
Charges Dropped Against ‘Dangerous’ Detainee Who Was Tortured At Guantanamo
The AP reports today that the Pentagon has “dropped charges” against Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 who was alleged to have been the so-called “20th hijacker” on 9/11.
Known as Detainee 063, Qahtani was the subject of a 2002 meeting at Guantanamo that included former Bush lawyer Alberto Gonzales, Cheney’s lawyer David Addington, and former Rumsfeld lawyer Jim Haynes. The trio approved the interrogations at Guantanamo, with Donald Rumsfeld then authorizing the “First Special Interrogation Plan” specifically for Qahtani. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) noted that these methods included:
[F]orty-eight days of severe sleep deprivation and 20-hour interrogations, forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, physical force, prolonged stress positions and prolonged sensory overstimulation, and threats with military dogs. The aggressive techniques, standing alone and in combination, resulted in severe physical and mental pain and suffering.
“This is a very dangerous individual who has provided us with valuable intelligence,” claimed former White House press secretary Scott McClellan in 2005. But as Marcy Wheeler notes, the dismissal raises questions about the credibility of torture-based evidence.
Renowned international lawyer Philippe Sands, who has extensively studied Qahtani, talked to PBS’s Bill Moyers about the interrogations of Qahtani on Friday. “And the bottom line of it was, contrary to what the administration said, they got nothing out of him,” Sands explained. Watch it:
In 2006, Qahtani recanted a confession he said he made after he was tortured. In fact, “Qahtani never made a single statement that was not extracted through torture or the threat of torture,” CCR notes.
Records of the interrogations of Qahtani, however, were “mysteriously lost.” Cameras that “run 24 hours a day at the prison were set to automatically record over their contents,” the Guardian reported last month.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Just how many “20th Hijackers” were there?
May 13th, 2008 at 3:51 pmWe can’t have acquittals, but we can have dismissals.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:56 pmIt must severely tax the dem leadershi(t) to continually manage to ignore all of the administration outrages coming in rapid-fire succession as they do. It’s their strength, ‘ol “impeachment off the table”-Pelosi and “immunity for telecoms”-Reid to show staggering indifference to so much misconduct and criminality.
How they must suffer, sitting on their hands all day while puckering-up….
May 13th, 2008 at 3:58 pmif he was not a “terrorist” when he captured, he will become one after the way he was treated & tortured. can’t blame him if he did.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:59 pmStalin would be proud, not to mention Himmler. Cheney-Bush are right up there with the most potent movers of the 20th century.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:00 pmWHAT? They didn’t even waterboard him? What the hell’s the matter with these jerks, they don’t even know how to torture properly.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm/snark = false;
So, the charges are dropped. Are they releasing him? Isn’t that an odd ‘detail’ to leave out?
May 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm“(Susan) Crawford dismissed the charges Friday without prejudice, meaning they can be filed again later”
I wonder if this guy will ever get out.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:03 pmAble as,
Ya think Darth, Rummy and Gonzo have autographed posters of those guys plus Attila above their “Shrine to Democracy” in their living rooms?
May 13th, 2008 at 4:04 pmSo we destroyed our reputation around the globe for nothin? But that is not the best part: The best part will be the pathetic way the administration brings dubious charges against other ‘high value’ detainees just in time for the election. All the low information voters will hang on to the hope that somewhere, someday, someone will be tried and convicted for a terrorist offense.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:04 pmLet the kangaroo courts begin!
StratRat; we didn’t destroy our reputation for nothing. Bush/Cheney, neocons. and their cheerleaders got great entertainment value from torturing others.
sarc
May 13th, 2008 at 4:08 pmthe dismissal is without prejudice, meaning that the government, ie the Unitary Executive operating now with the implicit, if not explicit, consent of Congress, can bring those charges back at a more opportune time (although I’m not quite sure when that might be as I am quite hopeful that some Congress, some day, will decide that enough is enough and refuse to fund any more illegal activities in the communist country of Cuba, but hey, wishful thinking is what I’m all about).
High crimes? misdemeanors? seriously folks, if the words mean anything they mean these types of actions and these types of “people”. Not a good time, I know . . .
May 13th, 2008 at 4:13 pmBetter luck next time!
May 13th, 2008 at 4:17 pmSo all that vital information gathered from torturing that saved American lives was just another made up propaganda lie….umh…go figure.
Bush/Cheney
May 13th, 2008 at 4:17 pmHague Trials ‘09
I hope I get reincarnated so I can see just how “favorable” historians look at the Bush/Cheney regime. I’d venture a guess that Sadam Hussein will get a more favorable assessment than they do. Unless of course they end up at the end of a rope too.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:22 pmStratRat; we didn’t destroy our reputation for nothing. Bush/Cheney, neocons. and their cheerleaders got great entertainment value from torturing others.
sarc
I know, I know…I just have trouble thinking like a delusional neocon. Maybe I could take some night classes on lowering my loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law. Its a stretch for me to move away from my lifelong appreciation of our founding fathers and the work they did.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:25 pmNot to mention boatloads of cash for themselves and their subsidiaries.
In Republican terms, that’s a Win-Win!
May 13th, 2008 at 4:31 pm[F]orty-eight days of severe sleep deprivation and 20-hour interrogations, forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, physical force, prolonged stress positions and prolonged sensory overstimulation, and threats with military dogs.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:36 pm~~ From the bestseller “Creating Terrorists for Dummies”
Just how many “20th Hijackers” were there?
Ralph: exactly as many as there were No. 2 men in Al Qaeda…
May 13th, 2008 at 4:37 pm“the dismissal raises questions about the credibility of torture-based evidence”
Should read
“the dismissal reinforces the well known expert opinion about the credibility of torture-based evidence”
May 13th, 2008 at 4:50 pmWhen George W. Bush comes before the Almighty God for his judgment, WHAT do you think God will do?
Keep Bush with his as a “shining example” or SEND HIM TO HELL, WHERE HE BELONGS?
May 13th, 2008 at 4:51 pmNRA Gun Nut(e)s
The tapes were lost and cameras were recorded over themselves. RIGHT ! And the 18 minutes of tape erased by Nixons secretary……
Why would Shrub Co and Rove work so hard NOT to have any records ? Thinking of despots /dictators/etc. throughout the last century, most were at least proud enough of their work to make tapes for the future.
If Shrub thinks that he will be vindicated in the future, why doesn’t he want records ?
May 13th, 2008 at 4:54 pmThe greatest damage that this administration has done is bearing its poisonous fruit at this very minute. In dribs and drabs the truth has been coming out about the real crimes and machinations of the fascist Republican leaders. As a former Judge Advocate, I am proud to see that in many ways it has been military legal personnel who have stood in the way of the ungodly plans of Bush and his henchmen.
1. Military JAGS fought the changes in interrogation tactics.
2. A Navy military JAG went took the case to the Supreme Court the case that acknowledged the place of the Geneva Conventions/
3. It was a JAG prosecutor who testified against the command influence from the current head of the military commission office.
4. It was a Navy JAG judge who ruled on undue command influence.
5. The were JAGS at the Congressional hearings on military commissions battling the administration’s proposal to have special rules instead of UCMJ governing the commissions.
Although soldiers rather than civilians and with a chain of command and a duty to obey orders, it is strange that these military attorneys have done far more to protect our precious system of justice than those civilians appointed by this president and who took an oath to protect the US from its enemies, foreign and domestic.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pmanymouse20
I’m willing to bet, since I haven’t come across any hard statistics, that the odds of these charges being refiled are pretty low.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:51 pmBastards. I am so freaking depressed that we treat our fellow human beings in these abhorrent ways! What the hell has gone wrong in this country!? Why are millions not standing outside their houses, putting up signs, yelling, saying, “NOT IN OUR NAME!!” ?
Damn this administration and its flunkies. Damn them to hell.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:51 pmDamn, they should have had Jack Bauer doing the torturing. It always works for him.
Oh wait a minute, now I’m confusing fiction with reality. Only in a fictional world could this happen in the United States of America.
Thank God I’m wearing a flag lapel pin which proves irrefutably that I’m a bona fide, all-American patriot. God bless America.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:02 pm>For the charges to have been “dropped” permanently, it would >have to be a dismissal “with prejudice.”
did you ever get around to offering any explanation of your “non-frivilous” = “substantial” legal argument in re: the Selligman matter?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:31 pmDid you know that many in the Bush Administration have been charged with war crimes? Read it now!
May 13th, 2008 at 8:45 pmGee must have tortured the bad right out of him ! Not that it will matter because without Habeas Corpus he can be held till he’s an old man and still not given a fair trial !Perhaps he should be given a secret trial and tried on secret evidence ?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:56 pm“Charges Dropped Against ‘Dangerous’ Detainee Who Was Tortured At Guantanamo”
So, now they’ll de-torture him now, right? Because, if charges have been dropped, that means that they haven’t found enough proof to charge on him.
What? You mean that the evil done by torture can’t be erased simply?
May 14th, 2008 at 6:45 am