"20th HIjacker" Tortured, Charges Dropped
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
January 15, 2009 3:27am CST
Apparently Mohammed al-Qahtani, the Saudi national known as the "20th Hijacker", was tortured was tortured by the U.S. Military while detained at Guantanamo Bay so now the charges against him have been dropped and he will not be prosecuted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html?hpid=topnews
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 D1ck 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.
(End of excerpt)
Do you think it was worth it to use these kind of interrogation techniques when now this man may well go free? It's not clear what will ultimately happen to the man they're sure was to have been on one of the planes on Sept. 11, 2001 had he been allowed to enter the country but for now at least he will not be prosecuted. Any thoughts?
Annie
4 responses
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
15 Jan 09
This might answer your question:
Qahtani was denied entry into the United States a month before the Sept. 11 attacks and was allegedly planning to be the plot's 20th hijacker. He was later captured in Afghanistan and transported to Guantanamo in January 2002. His interrogation took place over 50 days from November 2002 to January 2003, though he was held in isolation until April 2003.
Annie
@Fortunata (1135)
• United States
15 Jan 09
I'm glad he was interrogated. Doesn't sound like torture to me. How else were we going to get information from him? Read him bed time stories and give him glasses of warm milk? Sheesh!
@arrgophil (96)
• United States
16 Jan 09
That's part of the problem. Many people don't take torture seriously.
They demean the idea that torture carries inherent problems with reliability. Almost every experienced person concedes that information gathered using torture will be unreliable.
Refusing to acknowledge that fundamental flaw in torture will result in our intelligence personnel running in circles trying to confirm the veracity of information so garnered. That will be a waste of valuable time and resources.
1 person likes this
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
21 Jan 09
I am against all type of abuse even if the victim concerned is a hijacker. I do believe that a detainee should be treated with respect and the dignity of a human person. ~Even if some people think otherwise. Even if he did horrible things to humanity. But if we treat a criminal the same way that he has treated his victims that we are degrading ourselves from the human dignity.
@Aingealicia (1905)
• United States
20 Jan 09
Annie,
I do have plenty of thoughts on this subject. I also have first hand resources on this subject as to the fact I have been attending the court cases and speaking to people involved with this case. With out going into detail here, it is a romper room in the court house on Pearl Street here in NYC and I hate to say it but I am ashamed to have to report that there is a lot of information that no one bothered to cover and report. Such as, of the original men who were arrested near the World Trade Center, some of them were here with false papers, that certain techniques of torture and sleep deprevation were in action at the Brooklyn Jail where they were held, that INS allowed the Federal Government to have control over these mens lives, the list goes on.
Though I have not been here on my lot, I have attended a lot of things concerning the GitMo case from public speakers to the court rooms that things are discussed that are not always reported. I am sick that some men who are guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt are going to be released but for others this is a necessary process to allow them their freedom back.
I am not taking sides, I am only reporting to you what I have heard. My opinions in this case must be mute because I am reporting on it but when the story breaks, I think you will be surprised with what I have for facts and proof.
Take care and even if we don't agree on this point, please remember, in this case, only the facts will do.
Ainge
