News / International
911 '20th hijacker' sues U.S. government
10 Jan 2012 at 23:16hrs | Views
A cell block at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. - Andres Leighton/AP
Lawyers for the man known as the "20th hijacker" of 9/11 are suing the U.S. government to release "sickening" videotapes they say show Guantanamo Bay interrogators torturing their client.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday by the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Mohammed Al-Qahtani was a victim "of torture and other profoundly cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment."
"The American public should now be permitted to see what occurred for itself," the lawsuit said.
Between 2002 and 2003, Al-Qahtani suffered through marathon interrogation sessions and was subjected to severe temperatures, sleep deprivation and other "sexual and moral" humiliations, the suit said.
The center's lawyers said they have seen the videos, but couldn't share any details.
"I found them extremely disturbing, sickening even," said human rights lawyer Sandra Babcock, adding that Al-Qahtani was now a "broken man" who would never recover from the trauma.
The Defense and Justice departments, the FBI and the CIA were named in the suit.
The Saudi native was charged with war crimes and murder in February 2008, but the charges were dropped without official explanation later that year.
In 2009, the Pentagon official who had the final ruling on Gitmo cases told The Washington Post that the trial couldn't go forward because Al-Qahanti had been tortured.
Al-Qahtani's time at the notorious military prison in Cuba has been well-documented since his capture in Afghanistan in 2001.
Last April, the WikiLeaks website dumped a trove of classified documents that revealed interrogators forced Al-Qahtani to wear a dog leash, urinate on himself and sexually humiliated him in order to get confessions.
According to prison logs published by Time magazine in 2005, he also suffered months of isolation, was menaced by attack dogs, stripped naked, doused with water and forced to listen to blaring Christina Aguilera music.
He eventually sung on dozens of his Al Qaeda comrades and gave details about his terrorist training.
Al-Qahtani was originally allegedly recruited by 9/11 organizers to provide "muscle" aboard a hijacked plane.
He tried to enter U.S. from Dubai a month before but was sent back after Orlando airport officials noticed he had a one-way ticket and suspected he was trying to become an illegal immigrant.
He remains jailed at Gitmo.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday by the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Mohammed Al-Qahtani was a victim "of torture and other profoundly cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment."
"The American public should now be permitted to see what occurred for itself," the lawsuit said.
Between 2002 and 2003, Al-Qahtani suffered through marathon interrogation sessions and was subjected to severe temperatures, sleep deprivation and other "sexual and moral" humiliations, the suit said.
The center's lawyers said they have seen the videos, but couldn't share any details.
"I found them extremely disturbing, sickening even," said human rights lawyer Sandra Babcock, adding that Al-Qahtani was now a "broken man" who would never recover from the trauma.
The Defense and Justice departments, the FBI and the CIA were named in the suit.
The Saudi native was charged with war crimes and murder in February 2008, but the charges were dropped without official explanation later that year.
Al-Qahtani's time at the notorious military prison in Cuba has been well-documented since his capture in Afghanistan in 2001.
Last April, the WikiLeaks website dumped a trove of classified documents that revealed interrogators forced Al-Qahtani to wear a dog leash, urinate on himself and sexually humiliated him in order to get confessions.
According to prison logs published by Time magazine in 2005, he also suffered months of isolation, was menaced by attack dogs, stripped naked, doused with water and forced to listen to blaring Christina Aguilera music.
He eventually sung on dozens of his Al Qaeda comrades and gave details about his terrorist training.
Al-Qahtani was originally allegedly recruited by 9/11 organizers to provide "muscle" aboard a hijacked plane.
He tried to enter U.S. from Dubai a month before but was sent back after Orlando airport officials noticed he had a one-way ticket and suspected he was trying to become an illegal immigrant.
He remains jailed at Gitmo.
Source - nydailynews
