Just in:
New Nylon Constant Torque Hinge From Southco Provides Position Control In A Compact Package // Sharjah Chamber Breaks Ground on Final Expansion with New HQ Pact // 2024 Lok Sabha Elections Will Be The Costliest One Till Now In The Whole World // Experience Ultimate Shopping Freedom at 4.4 Shopee Spree: Don’t Worry, Shop Shopee! // Ajman Celebrates Conclusion of Ramadan Activities with Grand Ceremony // Ingdan Announces 2023 Annual Results // Lisboeta Macau’s world first LINE FRIENDS PRESENTS CASA DE AMIGO and BROWN & FRIENDS CAFE & BISTRO has officially opened // Konica Minolta is named ASEAN 2023 Market Leader in Colour Light and Mid Digital Production Printers // Sunshine’s Debut Features Leave Tech World Scratching Its Head // French Leaders Gather for Interfaith Iftar Dinner // Following the Money Trail: US and UK Investigate $20 Billion in USDT Transfers Tied to Sanctioned Russian Exchange // U.S. Compliance Takes Center Stage at OKX Following Industry Jitters // Hope for Respite as UAE Endorses UN Plea for Gaza Truce // Meta Earth Official Website Launch: The Pioneer Explorer in the Modular Public Blockchain Domain // Samsung Partners National Heritage Board to Bring a Slice of Singapore’s Cultural Heritage to Samsung The Frame TV // Andertoons by Mark Anderson for Thu, 28 Mar 2024 // Renewables Surge Sets Record, But Global Equity Lags // Sharpening the Focus: Sharjah Health Department Refines Evaluation Criteria for “Healthy Schools Programme” // TUMI Hosts Global Launch Event in Singapore to Unveil Women’s Asra Collection and Announce Global Ambassador, Mun Ka Young // Infineon and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering jointly develop ship electrification technology //
HomeNewsboxC.I.A. Torture Left Scars on Guantánamo Prisoner’s Psyche for Years

C.I.A. Torture Left Scars on Guantánamo Prisoner’s Psyche for Years

18TORTURE 01 facebookJumbo v2

But even though some of what the government did to Mr. Nashiri has become public, including through the partial declassification of a 2004 C.I.A. inspector general report and the release in 2014 of the executive summary of a Senate Intelligence Committee report about the interrogation program, many details have remained classified.

Photo

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is accused of involvement in Al Qaeda’s bombing of the American destroyer U.S.S. Cole in 2000.

Credit
ABC, via Associated Press

Among the newly disclosed details, the court filing showed that Mr. Nashiri was locked inside a coffin-like box for days. While it was known that confinement in cramped spaces was one of the torture techniques the C.I.A. had approval to use at its black-site prisons, it was not previously known that Mr. Nashiri was among the detainees subjected to it.

ADVERTISEMENT

The latest filing also discloses that photographs exist of the waterboard setup that the C.I.A. used with Mr. Nashiri and at least two other prisoners, although the photographs were not revealed.

And government censors left unredacted details from a classified psychological examination of Mr. Nashiri that was conducted in 2012 as part of the commission case against him. It showed that his mental breakdown in response to the torture had long-term effects, including his continuing nightmares and other signs of post-traumatic stress.

Lasting Scars

Articles in this series examine the American legacy of brutal interrogations.

“He developed a phobia of water and, when showering, kept the water pressure low,” the filing stated, citing the psychological review. “For approximately one year after being publicly transferred” from the C.I.A. black-site program “to Guantánamo in 2006, he avoided leaving his cell altogether.”

Lawyers for Mr. Nashiri have been pursuing a lawsuit in the federal court system asking judges to block the government from prosecuting him before a military commission, rather than in civilian court. The argument centers on the idea that the bombings of the Cole and the French oil tanker did not take place in a wartime context, and so it is improper to use a military war-crime court to address them.

In August, a three-judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Mr. Nashiri’s lawsuit by a 2-to-1 vote, with the majority ruling that the pending commission proceedings had to run their course first and then Mr. Nashiri could raise the issue on appeal, assuming he is convicted. His lawyers are appealing to the Supreme Court, again seeking an order to shut down the commission trial.

ADVERTISEMENT
Photo

The attack on the Cole at the Yemeni port of Aden killed 17 sailors.

Credit
Dimitri Messinis/Associated Press

Their petition and an attached appendix include a significant amount of information about what happened to Mr. Nashiri, drawn from classified summaries turned over to his defense team in the commission case. Large amounts of that material remained redacted.

The uncovered portions showed that Mr. Nashiri’s defense team also drew heavily from a recently published book, “Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying to Destroy America,” by James E. Mitchell, one of two psychologists whom the C.I.A. hired to design its interrogation program.

Mr. Mitchell’s book defended the program as he and the other psychologist, Bruce Jessen, had designed it, but portrayed C.I.A. officials as sometimes deviating from it — and from limits set by the Justice Department — to inflict more extreme physical abuse on detainees that the psychologists did not condone.

Got a confidential news tip?

The New York Times would like to hear from readers who want to share messages and materials with our journalists.

Some of those details, which have not been included in declassified government documents to date, were also included in the Supreme Court petition.

For example, Mr. Mitchell described watching C.I.A. officials make Mr. Nashiri kneel, put a broomstick behind his knees and force his body backward until “he began to scream” — because, the petition said, the technique was pulling his knee joints apart.

Another passage from the book highlighted in the petition described the use of a stiff-bristled brush to scrub Mr. Nashiri’s anus and scrotum “and then his mouth.”

Separately, the military judge overseeing the commission case against Mr. Nashiri has apparently issued an order authorizing the defense team to call Mr. Jessen and Mr. Mitchell as witnesses. The defense strategy in that case is to argue that the government should not be permitted to execute Mr. Nashiri because it tortured him.

In yet another case, other former C.I.A. detainees are suing Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Jessen. Earlier this month, the Trump administration asked a judge to block the two psychologists’ request for testimony from several top C.I.A. officials, including Gina Haspel, the deputy director, arguing that asking her questions about the topic would endanger state secrets.

Continue reading the main story

NYtimes

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT
Just in:
Universal Language for Healthcare: General Authority Embraces Global Coding System // Following the Money Trail: US and UK Investigate $20 Billion in USDT Transfers Tied to Sanctioned Russian Exchange // AIA Hong Kong Wins More Than 20 Accolades at MPF Ratings MPF Awards, BENCHMARK MPF of The Year Awards and Bloomberg Businessweek Top Fund Awards // Sunshine’s Debut Features Leave Tech World Scratching Its Head // Experience Ultimate Shopping Freedom at 4.4 Shopee Spree: Don’t Worry, Shop Shopee! // U.S. Compliance Takes Center Stage at OKX Following Industry Jitters // First-Ever Fortune Innovation Forum Draws Top Global Leaders to Hong Kong, Promoting Agendas On Collective Cross-Sector Advancement // Infineon and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering jointly develop ship electrification technology // US reiterates concern over Kejriwal arrest, Cong accounts // Emirati Aid Reaches Ukraine as Food Shortages Bite // Arvind Kejriwal Was Used By BJP In 2011 Movement To Take On The Congress // Lisboeta Macau’s world first LINE FRIENDS PRESENTS CASA DE AMIGO and BROWN & FRIENDS CAFE & BISTRO has officially opened // 2024 Lok Sabha Elections Will Be The Costliest One Till Now In The Whole World // TUMI Hosts Global Launch Event in Singapore to Unveil Women’s Asra Collection and Announce Global Ambassador, Mun Ka Young // Renewables Surge Sets Record, But Global Equity Lags // Ajman Celebrates Conclusion of Ramadan Activities with Grand Ceremony // Hope for Respite as UAE Endorses UN Plea for Gaza Truce // Samsung Partners National Heritage Board to Bring a Slice of Singapore’s Cultural Heritage to Samsung The Frame TV // Meta Earth Official Website Launch: The Pioneer Explorer in the Modular Public Blockchain Domain // Sharjah Chamber Breaks Ground on Final Expansion with New HQ Pact //