Pentagon Redacted Statements of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad Discussing Torture

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/15/ksm-torture-redaction/


Pentagon Redacted Statements of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad Discussing Torture

According to a Pentagon transcript released yesterday, Khalid Sheik Mohammed confessed to masterminding 9/11 and “more than 30 other terror attacks or plots” at a military hearing held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Known among CIA officers as “Al-Qaeda’s toughest prisoner” in Guantanamo Bay, Mohammad has long been the subject of extreme interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. “CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in…KSM won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half-minutes before begging to confess.” The CIA also reportedly abducted his seven- and nine-year-old sons and flew them to the United States for interrogation.

In his remarks to a military tribunal, Mohammad raised objections to the extreme torture he received, but his statements on torture were in fact redacted by the Pentagon in their publicly released transcript:

“I know American people are torturing us from seventies. . I know they are talking human rights. And I know it is against American constitution, against American laws.”

Furthermore, Mohammad claimed that CIA interrogators warned him he would be tortured, calling it “bad luck”:

“They said every law, they have exceptions, this is your bad luck you have been part of the exception of our laws.”

Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch questioned the legality of the closed-door sessions and whether Mohammad’s confession was actually the result of torture. “We won’t know that unless there is an independent hearing,” he said. “We need to know if this purported confession would be enough to convict him at a fair trial or would it have to be suppressed as the fruit of torture?”

See the full Pentagon transcript HERE.

UPDATE: Danger Room and Talk Left have more.

[havocmom]

1. Waterboard Gonzales

if testimony under such conditions is acceptable.

[tanyev]

5. I think Scooter's memory would have improved considerably.

[mod mom]

6. I am adamently against torture, but since Abu okayed it, then he should be willing

to accept it upon himself in order for the American people to get the full "truth" of what has been going on within the Bush administration and just how they got into office. Of course, just as it was admissable with KSM, so it should be with Abu Gonzales. The article said CIA agents that under went water boarding lasted ~ 14 seconds before submitting. I give the weenie Abu ~ 2.3 seconds.

[Supersedeas]

2. fruit is fruit in the propoganda war Bush is waging on the 'Merican people

[ORDagnabbit]

3. dontcha just love being an american?

[fasttense]

4. Does it ever stop?

The attack by the republics on American values, does it ever stop?