From Truthout
When Abu Zubaydah was apprehended in Pakistan in 2002, the George W. Bush administration falsely characterized him as chief of operations for al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's number three man. For the next four years, the CIA sent Zubaydah to its "black sites" in Thailand and Poland where he was viciously tortured. In 2006, Zubaydah was taken to Guanta'namo, where he remains to this day. He has never been charged with a crime
The torture of Abu Zubaydah is thoroughly documented in the 2014 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In fact, several of the justices at the October 6 Supreme Court oral argument in United States v. Zubaydah referred to his treatment as "torture."
Zubaydah's lawyers detailed the torture he suffered in their brief (which referenced the Senate torture report) as follows:
"83 different occasions in a single month of 2002, he was strapped to an inclined board with his head lower than his feet while CIA contractors poured water up his nose and down his throat, bringing him within sight of death. He was handcuffed and repeatedly slammed into walls, and suspended naked from hooks in the ceiling for hours at a time. He was forced to remain awake for eleven consecutive days, and doused again and again with cold water when he collapsed into sleep. He was forced into a tall, narrow box the size of a coffin, and crammed into another box that would nearly fit under a chair, where he was left for hours. He was subjected to a particularly grotesque humiliation described by the CIA as 'rectal rehydration.'"
Nevertheless, the Biden administration told the high court that Zubaydah's well-known torture is a "state secret" because former CIA Director Mike Pompeo said publicizing it would harm national security. Thus, Solicitor General Brian Fletcher argued, the two contractors who orchestrated Zubaydah's torture in Poland should not be permitted to testify in a Polish court's criminal investigation into the treatment of Zubaydah
But as Justice Elena Kagan said, "At a certain point, it becomes a little farcical, this idea of the assertion of a privilege, doesn't it? I mean, if everybody knows what you're asserting privilege on, like, what exactly does this privilege." It's not a state secrets privilege anymore."
"Ultimately, the question in this case is whether torture can be kept secret. In a democracy, the answer to that question has to be no," attorney Joseph Margulies, who represents Zubaydah, told Truthout. "The state secrets doctrine must never be used to prevent an accounting for torture done in our name. If 'state secrets' means 'protect torture,' before long we won't have a state to protect."
Biden Asks Court to Prevent Testimony of Psychologists Who Tortured Zubaydah in Poland
The Biden administration seeks to prevent testimony of psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who have already testified in a prior case and in the military commission at Guanta'namo. Mitchell and Jessen were the chief architects of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques," the U.S. government's euphemism for torture. They were paid more than $80 million for their vile work.
Continuing Donald Trump's attempts to thwart the psychologists' testimony, the Biden administration claims that if Mitchell and Jessen admit Zubaydah was tortured at a CIA black site in Poland, it will create a "breach of trust" with the Polish government.
"The Polish prosecutor already has information [that it happened in Poland] and doesn't need U.S. discovery on the topic," David Klein, Zubaydah's attorney, told the justices. "What he does need to know is what happened inside Abu Zubaydah's cell between December 2002 and September 2003. So I want to ask simple questions like, how was Abu Zubaydah fed? What was his medical condition? What was his cell like? And, yes, was he tortured?"
Zubaydah's Testimony Would Be an "Off Ramp" From the Litigation, Gorsuch SaysAfter the Supreme Court engaged in an extensive back-and-forth exchange about the parameters of the state secrets privilege, Justices Stephen Breyer, Neil Gorsuch and Sonia Sotomayor all insisted that Zubaydah himself, who was an eyewitness to his torture, should be allowed to testify instead of the psychologists at the Polish proceeding. That would circumvent the state secrets issue, they noted. Gorsuch called it an "off ramp" to avoid additional litigation
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