Pentagon Official Says Alleged 20th Hijacker Was Tortured by US
The Pentagon official charged with deciding whether to try Guantanamo detainees says she refused to allow the prosecution of the alleged 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks because he was tortured by the U.S. military.
Susan Crawford, who is convening authority of the military commissions created to try the detainees, spoke to the Washington Post about why she declined to prosecute Mohammed al-Qahtani in her first interview since she took on the Pentagon job in February 2007.
Guantanamo interrogators exposed Qahtani to long periods of cold, deprived him of sleep, forced him to wear a bra and stand naked in front of a female agent, and made him bark like a dog and perform dog tricks, according to the Post and a New York Times account of the Post interview.
“His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case” for prosecution, Crawford said. She told the Post the tactics created a “life-threatening condition.” Qahtani was twice hospitalized for a low heart rate that that at one point dropped to 35 beats a minute.
“It did shock me,” Crawford said. “I was upset by it. I was embarrassed by it. If we tolerate this and allow it, then how can we object when our servicemen and women, or others in foreign service, are captured and subjected to the same techniques? How can we complain? Where is our moral authority to complain? Well, we may have lost it.”
Crawford said the techniques had been approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Despite her decision not to prosecute, she said that Qahtani is “a very dangerous man. What do you do with him now if you don’t charge him and try him? I would be hesitant to say, ‘Let him go.’ ”
Qahtani tried to enter the United States at the Orlando airport in August 2001 but was turned away. “There’s no doubt in my mind he would’ve been on one of those planes had he gained access to the country,” Crawford said.
The Pentagon released a statement to the Times and the Post saying the interrogations had been determined to be lawful, but that some of the aggressive questioning techniques used on Qahtani are no longer allowed.
