Thursday, February 10, 2022

another torture victim is cleared for release

 Mohammed al-Qahtani was cleared for release last week. The torture of Qahtani was one of the worst and was approved by the war criminal and now deceased former secretary of defense, Rumsfeld. 

From the website Close Guantanamo:
 

The details of his torture shocked the world when a day-by-day interrogation log was leaked to Time magazine in 2006. As the Times described it, the log revealed how "military interrogators placed Mr. Qahtani in solitary confinement, stripped him naked, forcibly shaved him, and subjected him to prolonged sleep deprivation, dehydration, exposure to cold, and various psychological and sexual humiliations like making him bark like a dog, dance with a man and wear women’s underwear on his head." As the Times added, "They extracted a confession, which he later recanted," and which included allegations that he had made against 30 other prisoners, falsely claiming that they were bodyguards of Osama bin Laden.


Qahtani was reportedly mentally handicapped even before the torture and will most likely need life long medical care. Word is that the Biden administration has worked out a deal for the Saudi government to take him and provide that care.  Let's hope this is true.

Read more here.