Abu Zubaydah

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Lithuania Plans to Sell CIA's 'Detention Site Violet'

Lithuanian government’s real estate fund announced it will unload the structure

(Newser) - A steel barn that's about to hit the market in Lithuania wouldn't normally attract international attention, but then again, there aren't too many barns out there that have served as CIA black sites. The Lithuanian government’s real estate fund says it is preparing to sell the...

US: Guantanamo Detainee Is Allowed to Describe Torture

Poland is investigating Abu Zubaydah's treatment at secret CIA site

(Newser) - The Biden administration says it will allow a Guantanamo Bay detainee to provide information to Polish officials about his torture in CIA custody following the 9/11 attacks. The decision from the Biden administration was included in a letter government lawyers filed Friday with the Supreme Court. The administration said it...

First Female Nominee to Lead CIA Has Controversial Resume

Gina Haspel has ties to agency's waterboarding program

(Newser) - With his decision to move CIA chief Mike Pompeo into the post of secretary of state, President Trump made a little history. He also nominated Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo, thus setting her up to be the first woman to run the spy agency. The nomination must be confirmed by...

Gitmo 'Guinea Pig' to Describe 'Unspeakable Torture'

Abu Zubaydah expected to testify next week

(Newser) - 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...

Gitmo Detainee Seen Publicly for 1st Time in 14 Years

Abu Zubaydah has been held at Gitmo since 2006

(Newser) - Between his capture by the CIA in Pakistan in 2002 and his appearance at a US government hearing Tuesday, Abu Zubaydah lost his left eye. How remains unclear (Dexter Filkins dedicates an entire piece to the question at the New Yorker ), but other details of what happened to him...

Report: CIA Sends Fake Memos to Own Agents

'WaPo' exposes agency 'eyewashing'

(Newser) - CIA agents shouldn't believe everything they hear from the CIA, according to the Washington Post , which says current and former officials have spilled the beans on "eyewashing." The Post's sources say that from time to time, higher-ups at the agency circulate memos with fake information as...

Report Likens Secret CIA Facility to 'Dungeon'

Site had buckets for waste and cold, isolated cells with shackled prisoners

(Newser) - Reporters are picking through the details of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's use of torture , and the details aren't pretty. Some examples:
  • Dungeon: The Week highlights one passage comparing a CIA black site to a dungeon. "CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility
...

Ex-Operative Admits Leaking CIA Agent's Name to Media

John Kiriakou gets 2-plus years in jail

(Newser) - A former CIA agent who soured on waterboarding has pleaded guilty to leaking the name of a secret agent to a journalist, reports Reuters . John Kiriakou admitted to the single count today as part of a deal that will send him to prison for 30 months. Kiriakou leaked the CIA...

Feds Charge Ex-CIA Man With Leaking Terror Secret

John Kiriakou allegedly talked about an agent who used waterboarding

(Newser) - The federal government charged a former CIA agent today with leaking secrets related to waterboarding, the AP reports. Authorities say John Kiriakou, 47, told a New York Times journalist about a covert agent who had helped interrogate al-Qaeda financier Abu Zubaydah 10 years ago. Asked by FBI agents last week...

No Charges in Destruction of CIA Videotapes

Agency destroyed 92 tapes of suspects being waterboarded

(Newser) - A special prosecutor cleared the CIA's former top clandestine officer and others today of any charges for destroying videotapes showing waterboarding of terror suspects. He did, however, continue an investigation into whether the interrogations went beyond legal boundaries. The decision not to prosecute anyone in the videotape destruction came five...

Gitmo Prisoners: We Lied to CIA to Stop Torture

Khalid Mohammed 'made up stories' on bin Laden's whereabouts after torture

(Newser) - Guantanamo prisoners fabricated information to give CIA interrogators after being physically and mentally abused, they told a 2007 military tribunal in transcripts released yesterday under the Freedom of Information act. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and one of the prisoners who was repeatedly waterboarded, said he...

CIA Told Pelosi About Waterboarding: Report

Newly released documents show speaker was briefed in 2002

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi and other Congressional leaders received multiple briefings on the CIA's use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, according to new information released by the Obama administration. Records suggest that Pelosi learned of the CIA's interrogation of Abu Zubaydah in a September 2002 briefing that covered the "...

Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd
Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd
ANALYSIS
Apr 24, 2009 2:39 PM CDT

Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd

Turns out the body never gets used to simulated drowning

(Newser) - Like many other forms of torture, waterboarding doesn’t get any easier with repeated exposure. After multiple sessions of the simulated drowning technique, accused al-Qaeda plotters Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah would at best have been able to slightly modify their response, explains Brian Palmer in Slate. The experience...

Did Brutal Questioning Pay Off? The Battle Heats Up

(Newser) - President Obama says the harsh interrogation methods used by the CIA both compromised American values and provided unreliable information. “Those are a convenient pair of opinions,” notes Scott Shane of the New York Times. But it's not going to be that easy for the new administration to defend...

Condi Was First to OK Waterboarding

Condi gave go-ahead before Rumsfeld, Powell even knew about it: Senate

(Newser) - Condoleezza Rice played a greater role than she has acknowledged in the CIA's harsh interrogation program, and approved the use of waterboarding, according to a newly released report from the Senate Intelligence Committee. The report finds that Rice, as national security adviser, verbally approved the CIA's request to waterboard a...

CIA Waterboarded Gitmo Detainee 183 Times in a Month

That's twice CIA's max, challenges efficacy

(Newser) - A Department of Justice memo that detailed interrogation techniques used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay notes that in August 2002, suspected al-Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 82 times, while the following March, 9/11 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. But as the blog Emptywheel points out, there's...

Psychologists, Doctors Helped With Interrogations

Role of medical professionals in CIA program angers peers

(Newser) - Psychologists and physicians who assisted the CIA's harsh interrogation program are being accused of violating the most basic principles of their professions, the Washington Post reports. The newly released CIA memos confirm that on-site psychologists—generally contract workers with the agency—took an active role in the program, offering ideas...

CIA Pushed Brutal Tactics on Interrogators

Captors felt al-Qaeda suspect had already told all he knew

(Newser) - Higher-ups in the CIA pressed for harsh interrogation methods to be used on a captured al-Qaeda member despite his interrogators' assurances that he had nothing more to tell, the New York Times reports. Abu Zubaydah had already yielded important information, including tips that led to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shiekh Mohammed,...

US Ends Trials of 5 Gitmo Prisoners
US Ends Trials of 5 Gitmo Prisoners
Oct 22, 2008 10:24 AM CDT

US Ends Trials of 5 Gitmo Prisoners

Though charges are dropped, men are still held, may be retried

(Newser) - The war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay has dropped charges against five suspects that the Pentagon has called al-Qaeda operatives, reports the Los Angeles Times. All of the men were fingered by Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi-born militant whom the Bush administration concedes was waterboarded. The charges were dismissed after one...

Lawyers Declare Innocence of Waterboarding Victim

Gitmo detainee 'was never in al Qaeda'

(Newser) - Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah isn’t a member of al Qaeda or the Taliban, his lawyers contend, and he’s never tried to harm American citizens. Held in CIA secret prisons and waterboarded, Zubaydah wasn’t given anything “that would satisfy even the most basic notions of due process,...

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