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.

The US government has maintained that the US does not torture.

Crawford said techniques used in Qahtani’s case were authorised but applied in an overly aggressive and too persistent manner.

“This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for and coercive,” she said.

Crawford dismissed war crimes charges against Qahtani last May but he remains at Guantanamo and she describes him as dangerous.