US official: Guantanamo Bay detainee was tortured

THE Pentagon official overseeing the tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees admitted the US military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the September 11 attacks, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

“We tortured Mohammed al-Qahtani,” Susan Crawford said in an interview. “His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case [for prosecution].”

Retired judge Crawford is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly say a detainee was tortured.