Waterboarded detainee pleads for his freedom
Abu Zubaydah, WASHINGTON — a war-on-terror detainee who was the first to undergo abusive interrogation in secret CIA custody after 9/11, appeared before a Pentagon panel on Tuesday to plead for his release the first time
— he’s been seen by any member of the public since being captured in 2002 during a shootout in Pakistan.
The video link that beamed his image from Guantanamo Bay to the Pentagon hearing revealed no signs of the waterboarding or other abuse Abu Zubaydah suffered during the four years he was in CIA custody. He wore a white formal tunic, and his beard and mustache were neatly trimmed. His dark hair was closely cropped. An eye patch hung from a cord around his neck. How he lost his left eye is not publicly known.
“The focus of this hearing is on the threat you may pose to the United States,” an unnamed member of the Parole Review Board told Abu Zubaydah, whose real name is Zayn al Abdeen Mohammed al Hussein. “It is not on the lawfulness of your detention.”
The U.S. government says Abu Zubaydah, who was born in Saudi Arabia in 1971, was a senior al-Qaida communications operative who “was generally aware of the impending 9/11 attacks” and may have coordinated the training of two hijackers at a militant camp in Afghanistan. It says he also plotted attacks against Israeli, Jordanian and Western targets, though the government’s unclassified profile also acknowledges that he has been a cooperative prisoner at Guantanamo.
Abu Zubaydah, through an unnamed personal representative, said he is no threat to American security and ought to be released.
“Zayn al Abdeen has stated that he has no desire or intent to harm the United States or any other country, and he has repeatedly said that the Islamic State is out of control and has gone too far,” the representative said.
Abu Zubaydah was silent throughout the hearing.
There was no mention of Abu Zubaydah’s treatment during his years in CIA custody.
U.S. records show he was waterboarded at least 83 times, the last session administered at the insistence of CIA headquarters, even though interrogators had judged him compliant.
Katherine Cosgrove, a national security analyst who witnessed the hearing for Human Rights First, an advocacy group with offices in Washington, New York and Houston, criticized the omission.
The government’s unclassified profile acknowledged that Abu Zubaydah “has condemned ISIL atrocities and the killing of innocent people,” using a popular acronym for the Islamic State.
At the same time, Abu Zubaydah “withheld information, which might have been to protect historical or current activities,” and he “probably retains an extremist mindset,” the government said.