New signs of torture investigation cover up

Guardian - More lawyers for men allegedly tortured by the CIA are coming forward to say that the major US criminal investigation into torture never interviewed their clients. The Justice Department inquiry, concluded in 2012 without charging anyone involved in the CIA’s Bush-era network of secret prisons, is receiving new scrutiny thanks to a United Nations committee hearing in Geneva this week examining US compliance with international anti-torture law.

Looking at US conduct on torture for the first time since 2006, the committee on Wednesday specifically asked a US delegation about the defunct investigation, conducted by John Durham, an assistant US attorney in Connecticut.

Attorneys representing five former CIA detainees, all of whom allege the agency was involved in their detention or rendition, now say Durham never interviewed their clients, either . One of them said he specifically suggested to Durham that he speak with his client.

Lawyers for Walid bin Attash, one of the co-defendants in a military tribunal for the 9/11 attacks, said that Durham did not interview their client. Bin Attash is one of several people held at Guantánamo Bay’s Camp 7, for “high-value” detainees once in CIA custody.

In a secret CIA prison, believed to be in Poland, Bin Attash’s captors placed a collar around his neck that they would use to “slam me against the walls of the interrogation room”, he told the International Committee of the Red Cross in a leaked report. He estimates that for days on end, his captors kept him standing, naked, chained to the ceiling.

“It’s undeniable that the detainees who were tortured would have highly relevant information about their torture,” said David Remes, who represents Abdulsalam al-Hela and Hassan bin Attash, two Yemeni nationals who are currently detained at Guantánamo Bay.

Before arriving at Guantánamo, Hela and Bin Attash were held at a suspected CIA facility near Kabul, Afghanistan known as the “dark prison”. While there, Remes said, Hela’s “arm was chained to the wall three feet up”, requiring painful contortions, while officials blasted the darkened prison with loud music and flashed “strobe lights” in Hela’s eyes.

At the same prison, Bin Attash – the younger brother of Walid bin Attash – was shackled to the ceiling, with his toes barely able to touch the floor, Remes said.