A military judge at Guantánamo has thrown out the confessions of a Saudi man because he had been subjected to waterboarding and other forms of torture at secret CIA black sites in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and Morocco. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was detained in 2002 and held for four years at the black sites. Then, in 2006, he was transferred to Guantánamo, where he’s been held ever since.
He’s alleged to have been the mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole. In 2007, he confessed to his role in the bombing. But a military judge, Colonel Lanny Acosta Jr., recently tossed that confession, writing, quote, “Any resistance the accused might have been inclined to put up when asked to incriminate himself was intentionally and literally beaten out of him years before.” Acosta went on to write, “Even if the 2007 statements were not obtained by torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, they were derived from it,” unquote.
During a hearing last year, the psychologist James Mitchell admitted he and another psychologist, Bruce Jessen, had waterboarded al-Nashiri at a CIA black site. Al-
— source democracynow.org | Sep 05, 2023