Torture: Fruitless Evil
Philippe Sands; 20/5/08
Over the past five years the name Mohammed Al-Qahtani — detainee 063 at Guant?namo — has been indelibly associated with the Bush administration’s efforts to justify extreme measures in the “war on terror”. This Saudi was apprehended in Afghanistan in late 2001 and taken to Guantanamo in early 2002, included in a group labeled as the “worst of the worst”. His identity got a full airing in June 2004, as the administration struggled to contain the fallout from the Abu Ghraib pictures. Alleged to be the 20th hijacker, Al-Qahtani became its justification for abandoning a longstanding prohibition on the use of cruelty by the military. Two of the administration’s most senior lawyers — White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Defense Department General Counsel Jim Haynes — stood before the world’s media and laid out the official story to explain the move to aggressive interrogation: It occurred as a result of a bottom-up request from an aggressive combatant commander at Guantanamo; it was implemented within the law and on the basis of careful legal advice; and it produced useful and important results.
See: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=110079&d=20&m=5&y=2008
Tags: Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Saudi Arabia, USA