Gitmo 'Guinea Pig' to Describe 'Unspeakable Torture'

The Guantanamo detainee known as the CIA's "guinea pig" for its post-9/11 interrogation program is going to testify on his brutal treatment for the first time later this month, his lawyer says. Abu Zubaydah, an alleged al-Qaeda member who was captured in Pakistan in 2002 but has never been charged, plans to tell a Guantanamo war court pre-trial hearing about what his lawyer calls "the unspeakable torture of an innocent man," the Guardian reports. Before he ended up at Guantanamo, Zubaydah, a Saudi Arabia-born Palestinian, was held at a CIA "black site" in Thailand, where he underwent "enhanced interrogation" that included dozens of waterboardings. He lost an eye while in US custody.

Zubaydah has been called to testify May 19 about the treatment of 9/11 defendant Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who claims to have been tortured at Guantanamo's Camp 7. Mark Denbeaux, Zubaydah's chief civilian lawyer, says it will take a trial for the full extent of his client's torture to be revealed. "My endless goal is to force the US to bring charges against him so that he can be tried and the truths will become obvious," Denbeaux tells the Guardian. He accuses the CIA of lying about Zubaydah's importance to justify torturing him. (During the interrogations, CIA agents sought assurances that if Zubaydah survived, he would be "in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life.")