Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Fresh torture claims against CIA


Accused al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has said he was tortured into lying while in CIA custody, newly-released documents show.

The Guantanamo Bay detainee said that US interrogators had forced him to "make up stories", although he admitted to being behind nearly 30 terror plots.

The latest transcripts were released by the CIA as part of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Meanwhile, Italy has agreed to take three Guantanamo Bay detainees.

US President Barack Obama announced the agreement after talks at the White House with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Last month, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini revealed Italy was considering a US request to take two Tunisian prisoners from the detention centre in Cuba.

'Brutal torture'

The ACLU said that the newly released government transcripts "provide further evidence of brutal torture" by the CIA.

Most of the new material centres on claims of abuse by Guantanamo inmates while being held in CIA custody.

Detainee Abu Zubaydah said that "after months of suffering and torture, physically and mentally, they did not care about my injuries".

"Doctors told me that I nearly died four times," he said.

Another detainee, Abd al-Rahim Hussein Mohammed al-Nashiri, complained that interrogators used to "drown me in water", in an apparent reference to the interrogation technique known as waterboarding.

The ACLU - which is seeking uncensored transcripts of the US government's terror detainee programmes - said the latest documents were "still heavily blacked out" by the CIA.

It said in previously released documents the CIA had removed virtually all references to the abuse of prisoners in custody.

"There is no legitimate basis for the [US President] Obama administration's continued refusal to disclose allegations of detainee abuse, and we will return to court to seek the full release of these documents," ACLU attorney Ben Wizner said.

No comments: