CIA facing new torture charge

WASHINGTON — A Libyan man says he was waterboarded while in CIA custody in Afghanistan, a new allegation that challenges the long-standing claim by U. S. officials that just three people since Sept. 11 had been subjected to the simulated drowning technique many consider torture.

The account by Mohammed Shoroeiya, who says he was detained in Pakistan in April 2003 and kept in American custody in Afghanistan through 2004, is part of a series of new claims included in a report by Human Rights Watch published Thursday.

The report comes two days after the Justice Department closed two unrelated investigations of the deaths of detainees in CIA custody with no charges.

In the 156-page report, five Libyans describe being chained naked, sometimes while diapered, in dark, windowless cells, for weeks or months at a time; being restrained in painful stress positions and forced into cramped spaces; being beaten and slammed into walls; and being constantly exposed to loud music in an effort to deprive them of sleep. The report did not use the word “waterboarding.” But Shoroeiya said he was strapped to a board with his head lower than his feet, and buckets of cold water were poured over his nose and mouth.

CIA spokesman John Tomczyk said, “The agency has been on the record that there are three substantiated cases in which detainees were subjected to the waterboarding technique under the program. Although we cannot comment on these specific allegations, the Department of Justice has exhaustively reviewed the treatment of more than 100 detainees in the post-9/11 period, including allegations involving unauthorized interrogation techniques, and it

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