Guantánamo Bay
In a pre-trial hearing in early May in the capital case of Abd Al-Nashiri, accused of involvement in an attack on a military vessel in the Gulf of Aden in 2000, CIA torture architect, contract psychologist Dr James Mitchell, testified how “how he and his partner in building the CIA interrogation program, Dr. Bruce Jessen, conducted three waterboarding sessions of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri over multiple days in November 2002 in an effort to stop what the Bush administration believed was “a second wave” of terrorist attacks to follow those on Sept. 11, 2001.” They stopped as the victim was too small in size to continue; at the time, Al-Nashiri weighed only 120 lb. Providing more of the kind of confessional testimony that should be used in his own war crimes trial, “Mitchell said that al Nashiri began providing useful intelligence in subsequent interrogation sessions at Location 3, leading the interrogation team to “taper off” from what the CIA referred to as its “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or “EITs.” For al Nashiri, Mitchell said these techniques also included sleep deprivation, slapping, periods of confinement in a box and a process of being repeatedly pushed hard against a wall known as “walling.” According to his testimony, Mitchell based the techniques on those he used as an instructor in the Air Force’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape, or SERE, program, which puts trainees through abusive situations to prepare them for capture by hostile forces.
“Mitchell said Monday afternoon that al Nashiri would crawl into the confinement box to get away from the bright lights in his cell that were on 24 hours a day.
“Nashiri actually liked being in the box,” Mitchell said.”
In the same hearing, another Guantánamo prisoner, Yemeni Abd al Salam al Hilah, who has been cleared for release, was due to give two days of testimony against Al-Nashiri, however on the morning of his testimony, he refused to attend court. Attending the following day, he stated “he had “nothing to hide” but was concerned that the government would “manipulate” his answers and use them against him. His voice rising at times, al Hilah said that both he and his family have suffered during his 20 years in U.S. custody.
“Lyness [al Hilah’s lawyer] rose to say that his client’s statement was a “clear invocation” of his right against self-incrimination. [Judge] Acosta agreed and decided that the deposition would not go forward. He recessed the commission until the next hearing, scheduled to start July 25”.
Former British resident, Ugandan Jamal Kiyemba, who was released from Guantánamo without charge or trial in 2007, has been charged and faces trial for alleged membership in 2021-2022 of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group designated a terrorist organisation in Uganda, along with others. He has been remanded in custody pending investigation. He denied the charges.
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