Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Court Calls US 'Enhanced Interrogation Techniques' Torture
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
September 20, 2019

Share

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal court in San Francisco took the unusual step of using the word “torture” to describe the treatment of a Palestinian man while he was in CIA custody following the Sept. 11 attacks.

“It’s the first time an appellate court, to my knowledge, has come right out and said that the enhanced interrogation techniques were torture. We’re no longer going to equivocate.” — Joseph Margulies, a Cornell University law professor
The Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco used the word in a 2-1 ruling to describe the harsh interrogation methods used against a prisoner known as Abu Zubaydah while he was held in clandestine CIA detention facilities overseas.
“To use colloquial terms,” said the court wrote, “Abu Zubaydah was tortured.”
The court ruled Zubaydah’s lawyers can question two former CIA contractors who designed the government’s interrogation program for an investigation in Poland, where Zubaydah was held from December 2002 to September 2003. The Ninth Circuit ruling said the two contractors could face limited questioning.
Joseph Margulies, a Cornell University law professor who represented Zubaydah for more than a decade, said the ruling was a milestone.
“It’s the first time an appellate court, to my knowledge, has come right out and said that the enhanced interrogation techniques were torture,” Marguelies told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We’re no longer going to equivocate.”

Most of the 6,700-Page Report Remains Classified

Zubaydah has been held without charge since September 2006 at the detention center on the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His lawyers have urged the government to file charges against him so they can challenge his confinement.

Photo of Abu Zubaydah
(U.S. Central Command via AP, File)
The Palestinian man was wounded and captured in Pakistan in 2002 by U.S. agents, who labeled him a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative. He was shuttled between secret CIA sites around the world for the next four years before winding up at Guantanamo Bay.
The court cited a report in 2014 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California.
Most of the 6,700-page report remains classified, but a 525-page public summary included a disclosure that the CIA had eventually concluded Zubaydah was not a member of Al Qaeda. The report also found that torture in interrogations had produced little useful intelligence.
At the secret CIA sites, the court said, Zubaydah was “persistently and repeatedly waterboarded,” held in a “coffin-sized … confinement box” for hundreds of hours, kept in cramped and stressful positions, slapped, grabbed and deprived of sleep. Insects were placed near him to exploit a personal phobia, and he was subjected to a mock burial.
James E. Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, psychologists in Spokane, Washington, were hired by the CIA as independent contractors, developed the interrogation program, and, according to the Senate report, took part in waterboarding Zubaydah.

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

DON'T MISS

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

DON'T MISS

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

UP NEXT

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

UP NEXT

Putin Says Russia Has Tested a New Intermediate Range Missile in a Strike on Ukraine

UP NEXT

What Will Happen to CNBC and MSNBC When They No Longer Have a Corporate Connection to NBC News?

UP NEXT

Major Storm Drops Record Rain, Downs Trees in Northern California After Devastation Further North

UP NEXT

Newsom Heads to Fresno, a County That Voted for Trump

UP NEXT

Conservative Professors and Students Are Beating CA Community Colleges in Court

UP NEXT

Thousands of University of California Workers Go on 2-Day Strike Over Wages, Staff Shortages

UP NEXT

Gavin Newsom Pledged to Release His Tax Returns Every Year. The Last One Was for 2020.

UP NEXT

Pope to Make Late Italian Teenager Carlo Acutis the First Millennial Saint on April 27

UP NEXT

California Governor Will Not Make Clemency Decision for Menendez Brothers Until New DA Reviews Case

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

3 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

3 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

3 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

4 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

4 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

4 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

4 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

5 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

5 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

5 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

NEW YORK — Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, was chosen Thursday by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general hours after...

1 hour ago

1 hour ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

2 hours ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

2 hours ago

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

3 hours ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
3 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

3 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

4 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
4 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend