The newly declassified accounts of the torture of Majid Khan, a so-called "high value detainee", describe in graphic detail how he was sexually assaulted, hung from a beam for several days without a break and half-drowned in tubs of freezing water.
The descriptions are contained in 27 pages of notes from interviews between Mr Khan and his legal team that were cleared for release by the US government on Tuesday, and first reported by Reuters.
In the new testimony, Mr Khan, who was arrested in Karachi in 2003 and held for more than three years in CIA black sites before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006, is described undergoing the near-drownings during an interrogation in May 2003.
“Guards and interrogators brought him into a bathroom with a tub. The tub was filled with water and ice. Shackled and hooded, they placed Khan feet-first into the freezing water and ice,” the excerpt said, “They lowered his entire body into the water and held him down, face-up in the water. An interrogator forced Khan's head under the water until he thought he would drown.”
Last year an intelligence source provided a very similar description of CIA excesses against an unnamed detainee, telling The Telegraph: “They weren’t just pouring water over their heads or over a cloth. They were holding them under water until the point of death, with a doctor present to make sure they did not go too far. This was real torture.”
The source added that doctors were also present during the near-death interrogations to ensure there was not a fatality – a fact corroborated by Mr Khan – who says he begged one doctor for help but the doctor instead instructed the guards to hang him from a metal bar for a further 24 hours.
... Mr Khan, now 35, grew in Baltimore, Maryland and is now a government witness in the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others accused in the September 11 attacks, after pleading guilty to terror conspiracy charges in February 2012.
Lawyers for Mr Khan and other rights groups say that the new testimony makes clear that the 500-page Senate torture report – which was bitterly contested by the CIA and caused huge controversy when it was released last year – only scratched the surface of what actually happened.
“It is clear that the CIA interrogators were completely out of control,” Wells Dixon, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents Mr Khan told The Telegraph, “the reality of what happened to men like Majid Khan is far more brutal and sadistic than has been revealed in the Senate report or any of the other prior public disclosures.”
Another extended extract that Mr Khan's lawyers shared with The Telegraph described how he was subjected to near-drowning during an interrogation in July 2003, to the point where his lungs filled with water.
The notes continue:
"He was hung for several days from a metal pole, without any break, without any food and very little water. Guards and interrogators then carried Khan into a room. [There was a] tub constructed from plastic sheeting that again had water and ice in it. Khan was forced into the tub and held down on his back, his hands were shackled underneath him and the arch of his back forced his head to tilt backwards into the water at an angle. A cloth hood remained on his face as the guards forced his body down into the tub. One of the interrogators held a bucket filled with water and large chunks of ice over his head. The interrogator poured the water and ice into Khan's mouth and nose as well as on his genitals from a high distance. As the interrogator poured the tub began to fill up. Khan could not breath and water went into his lungs. The guards and interrogators flipped Khan over from his front to his back several times, each time forcing his head into the water. An interrogator demanded answers to his questions throughout this process. This torture session was followed by a 15 minute videotaped interrogation in another room where Khan was forced to sit naked on a wooden box and he was again subject to sleep deprivation. He was forced to write his own confession while being filmed naked if he wanted some rest."
According to a full list of excerpts released by the The Center for Constitutional Rights:
Khan was raped while in CIA custody (“rectal feeding”) and sexually assaulted:
“As described in the Senate Intelligence Committee Report, Khan was raped while in CIA custody (‘rectal feeding’). He was sexually assaulted in other ways as well, including by having his ‘private parts’ touched while he was hung naked from the ceiling.
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