"To cast him and describe him as the al-Qaeda emir or leader for the subcontinent or worse " I think was a mistake. " Based on his age and ethnicity, [he] would [n]ever be brought into the inner circle of al-Qaeda,"Cloonan said.
There was also the question of Zubaydah's personality. "My partner had a chance to look at a lot of Abu Zubaydah's diaries [which forms the basis of the government's case], poems and other things that he has written and he said that after reading this you just come away with the feeling that this is a guy who can't be trusted or be given huge amounts of responsibility."
Zubaydah began keeping a diary in 1992, after he suffered a severe head injury while fighting communist forces in Afghanistan. The injury left "significantly impaired both his long- and short-term memory," states a Jan. 14, 2009, motion his attorneys filed related to his diaries.
The diary now appears to be the chief element of the U.S. government's remaining case against him.
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