The interrogation of Detainee 063
http://detainee063.com/
Detainee 063 at Guantanamo Bay, the subject of this log, is Mohammed al-Qahtani. It was originally published in Time magazine four years ago and covers an intensive period of 20-hour-a-day interrogation between November 02 and January 03. First, a little background on him from the site: On 23 November 2002 at 02:25, when Al-Qahtani was being bolted to the floor in his interrogation booth at Camp X-Ray, he had been in American custody for almost a year.
In December 2001 he was captured in Afghanistan; in July 2002, after his fingerprints linked him to a pre 9-11 attempt to enter the US, he was marked as a prospect for more aggressive interrogation.
The interrogators’ log records the daily sessions spent with al-Qahtani and his responses to questions. It is as clinical as you would expect and makes a pretty horrifying read, no less so as presented here, in blog form.
Extract: 0230 Source received haircut. Detainee did not resist until the beard was cut.
Detainee stated he would talk about anything if his beard was left alone.
Interrogator asked detainee if he would be honest about himself.
Detainee replied “if God wills”. Beard was shaven. Detainee stated he was on strike from interrogation on all teams.
A little water was poured over the detainee’s head to reinforce control and wash the hair off.
Interrogator continued futility approach. Detainee began to cry when talking.
Al-Qahtani was eventually charged in early 2008 with war crimes and murder but the charges were dropped three months later.
New charges were brought in November that year but they too were subsequently dropped (a year ago) on the basis that he had been tortured.
The Wikipedia entry on him includes a long list of sickening and humiliating techniques used to extract answers from him.
“I think on the left wing of the Democratic party, there are some people who believe that we really tortured”
— Dick Cheney, January 2009
Detainee 063 at Guantanamo Bay, the subject of this log, is Mohammed al-Qahtani. It was originally published in Time magazine four years ago and covers an intensive period of 20-hour-a-day interrogation between November 02 and January 03. First, a little background on him from the site: On 23 November 2002 at 02:25, when Al-Qahtani was being bolted to the floor in his interrogation booth at Camp X-Ray, he had been in American custody for almost a year.
In December 2001 he was captured in Afghanistan; in July 2002, after his fingerprints linked him to a pre 9-11 attempt to enter the US, he was marked as a prospect for more aggressive interrogation.
The interrogators’ log records the daily sessions spent with al-Qahtani and his responses to questions. It is as clinical as you would expect and makes a pretty horrifying read, no less so as presented here, in blog form.
Extract: 0230 Source received haircut. Detainee did not resist until the beard was cut.
Detainee stated he would talk about anything if his beard was left alone.
Interrogator asked detainee if he would be honest about himself.
Detainee replied “if God wills”. Beard was shaven. Detainee stated he was on strike from interrogation on all teams.
A little water was poured over the detainee’s head to reinforce control and wash the hair off.
Interrogator continued futility approach. Detainee began to cry when talking.
Al-Qahtani was eventually charged in early 2008 with war crimes and murder but the charges were dropped three months later.
New charges were brought in November that year but they too were subsequently dropped (a year ago) on the basis that he had been tortured.
The Wikipedia entry on him includes a long list of sickening and humiliating techniques used to extract answers from him.
