Terror Suspect Waterboarded 83 Times by CIA to Testify About Gitmo

The Guantánamo Bay detainee known as Abu Zubaydah, who was subjected to the brutal CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques," otherwise known as torture, has waived his immunity in order to testify at a coming hearing about conditions at the detention center. 

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"Abu Zubaydah will take the stand, unafraid of the truth that will emerge, confident that the world will come to know that he has committed no crimes," Zubaydah’s lawyer Mark Denbeaux wrote in a letter released Thursday. 

The hearing, scheduled on May 19 at the Guantánamo war court, is over the treatment of fellow captive Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of five detainees charged with committing the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Al-Shibh had accused guards inside Camp 7, the highest security section of Guantánamo, of psychological torture, including the beaming of sounds and vibrations into his cell to disturb his sleep.

“[Zubayah] is prepared to testify to all issues, including the sights, smells, sounds and other conditions within Camp 7,” Denbeaux writes. “My client can draw upon his personal experience to address this issue.”

Al-Shibh’s lawyers have called Zubaydah as a witness to support the claims. Previous attempts to hear from the alleged terrorist failed because of a legal dispute over whether his testimony could be later used to incriminate him at his own military trial. 

But Zubaydah has now agreed to waive all immunity. “Unlike the CIA, [Zubaydah] has nothing to fear from the truth.”

“The failure to charge him after 15 years of torture and detention, speaks eloquently,” Denbeaux wrote in the letter. “To charge him would be reveal the truth about the creation of America’s torture program.”

Zubaydah, 46, was captured in Pakistan in March 2002 and taken to a clandestine CIA detention facility in Thailand. The CIA alleged that Zubaydah was the third highest ranking member of al-Qaida and had been involved “in every major terrorist operation carried out by al-Qaida.” But they have more recently described him in official documents only as a "facilitator" for the terrorist organization.

Convinced he had more information than he was providing, the CIA subjected him to the "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved by the administration of President George W. Bush, including the torment of waterboarding 83 times in August 2003.

“The information provided by the CIA used to justify torturing him was worse than false – it was non-existent,” Denbeaux said.

During one waterboarding session, medical personnel had to revive Zubayadah. Intelligence officers later sent a cable to Washington seeking assurances that if he died in the course of an interrogation he should be cremated immediately.

In a separate cable to CIA headquarters, interrogators said that if he survived the experience they should be protected from recriminations by ensuring that he was “in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life.”

Zubaydah has been held at Guantánamo since September 2006. Next week’s hearing would mark the first time that Zubaydah has publicly talked about his torture by the U.S. government.

“The act of testifying will allow Zayn to celebrate his survival after years of torture and to allow him to be seen and to allow his voice to be heard by people other than his torturers, his prison guards, and his own attorneys,” Denbeaux wrote.