Harrowing account of detention

The Washington Post this week printed a story documenting Marwan Jabour's account of detention. Suspected of ties to al-Qaida's chem and bio programs, he was held and abused in a secret detention facility he believes is in Afghanistan. (A Human Rights Watch report provided the account.)

Two years ago, in Mother Jones, Emily Bazelon (of Slate's Gabfest Podcast fame...) wrote that "Americans, and the world, have become accustomed to accounts like Mustafa’s in connection with Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. But his story hints at another scandal—one that has received little sustained media attention and sparked no public outrage. Over the past three years, numerous reports—from Afghan and American human rights groups, and from the Pentagon itself—have documented allegations of abuse inside U.S. compounds in Afghanistan." (See also the Salt Pit.) This could well be another such case -- and a bitter reminder of the continued absence of transparency in US detention policies.

Terror Suspect Gives Account of Detention
Feb 27, By Katherine Shrade (AP) WASHINGTON: While held incommunicado for more than two years by the U.S. and Pakistan, accused jihadist Marwan Jabour claims he was beaten, burned with an iron, held naked for a month and chained to the wall of his cell so tightly that he could not stand up...MORE

Photo: The CIA's largest CIA covert prison in Afghanistan was code-named the Salt Pit. Space Imaging Middle East.

 

His rare account of the secret world of terror detentions --provided in a new report from Human Rights Watch -- ended last summer when the United States flew him to Jordan from a secret detention facility that he believed to be in Afghanistan. By September, the Jordanians turned him over to the Israelis. Six weeks later, he was let go in the Gaza Strip, where the 30-year-old Palestinian had family.

U.S. counterterrorism officials would not confirm Jabour's account, but they say they still view Jabour as one of al-Qaida's most dangerous. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitivity, said Jabour was in direct contact with al-Qaida's operational leaders, had ties to al-Qaida's chemical and biological programs and plotted to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Human Rights Watch interviewed Jabour in December and is telling his story as part of a quest for more information. The group wants President Bush to disclose the fate of all terror suspects held since 2001, including at least 16 that the organization believes were detained in secret CIA facilities. Their whereabouts remain unknown...

...In his interviews with Human Rights Watch in December, Jabour acknowledged only some ties to Arab militants. He said he trained in a militant camp in Afghanistan in 1998, went to Afghanistan in 2001 for a couple of weeks after the U.S.-led invasion and helped Arab militants who fled Afghanistan in 2003.

Jabour said he was arrested in Lahore, Pakistan, in May 2004. He said he suffered the worst physical abuses during more than a month in Pakistani custody: beatings, being burnt with a hot metal rod and having string tied tightly to his penis to prevent him from urinating.

Later, in American custody, he said he was held naked for about six weeks and only gradually earned clothing. He described circumstances consistent with other detainee reports, including loud music, shackles and small, isolated cells.

But he said conditions gradually improved. He told Human Rights Watch that he was eventually moved to a larger, quieter room and given access to books. A year into his detention, he was allowed to see a movie once a week, choosing from a library of more than 200 films.

Jabour was transferred to Jordanian custody last summer and was handed over to the Israelis on Sept. 18. Within days, he said, he met with a lawyer and a judge. Within weeks, he was released. His status changed as Bush publicly acknowledged the CIA's secret prison program and said he was transferring the last 14 of the agency's detainees to Pentagon custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"There are now no terrorists in the CIA program," Bush said in September. "But as more high-ranking terrorists are captured, the need to obtain intelligence from them will remain critical _ and having a CIA program for questioning terrorists will continue to be crucial to getting lifesaving information."

Human Rights Watch is wondering what happened to the rest of the detainees who are believed to have traveled through the CIA's hands.

The group has a list of 16 that it believes were in CIA custody, including Mustafa Setmarian Nasar. The red-haired Syrian with Spanish citizenship is considered a jihadist ideologue and writer. U.S. officials have confirmed that he was seized in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta in November 2005, and Pakistani officials said he was flown out of the country. But his location is unknown.

The list also includes Mohammed Omar Abdel-Rahman, the son of the "Blind Sheikh." His father is serving life in prison for crimes related to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 plots against New York landmarks.

Human Rights Watch said the U.S. may have transferred the detainees to other countries that are cooperating with the CIA. The group worries that the detainees could have been returned to their home countries _ including Syria, Algeria, Egypt or Libya _ where torture is common.

"The U.S. government has long condemned these abusive practices in its policy statements and annual human rights reports," its report said. "Its own use of them severely undermines its moral authority on human rights."