【每日邮报】Mastermind of 9/11 attacks claims torture 'only makes me tell lies……

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Mastermind of 9/11 attacks claims torture 'only makes me tell lies to keep my interrogators happy'
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1193433/Mastermind-9-11-attacks-claims-torture-makes-tell-lies-interrogators-happy.html

By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 5:31 PM on 16th June 2009


Alleged al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claims he told lies under torture to keep his interrogators happy


One detainee Abu Zubaydah claimed he was subjected to waterboarding, which stimulates drowning. File photo

Accused al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claims interrogators tortured lies out of him, government transcripts reveal.

The terror suspect, who proudly took credit for more than two dozen other terror plots, said the torture only forced him to lie to keep his interrogators happy.

'I make up stories,' Mohammed said at one point in his 2007 hearing at Guantanamo Bay.

In broken English, he described an interrogation in which he was asked the location of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

'Where is he? I don't know,' Mohammed said. 'Then he torture me. Then I said, "Yes, he is in this area or this is al-Qaeda which I don't know him." I said "no", they torture me.'

Yet at the same military tribunal hearing, Mohammed ticked off a list of 29 terror plots in which he said he participated.

The transcripts were released as part of a lawsuit in which the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking documents and details of the government's terror detainee programs.

Previous accounts of the military tribunal hearings have already been made public.

But the Obama administration has since reviewed the still-secret sections and determined that more could be released.

ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner called on the American President to disclose even more details.

He said: The new materials 'provide further evidence of brutal torture and abuse in the CIA's interrogation program and demonstrate beyond doubt that this information has been suppressed solely to avoid embarrassment and growing demands for accountability.'

'The CIA plainly has a very different take on its past interrogation practices, what they were and what they weren't, and on the need to protect properly classified national security information,' he said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the new materials were released voluntarily by the government, which is keeping other portions secret to protect intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

Most of the new material centres on the detainees' claims of abuse during interrogations while being held overseas in CIA custody.

One detainee, Abu Zubaydah, told the tribunal that after months 'of suffering and torture, physically and mentally, they did not care about my injuries.'

Abu Zubaydah was the first detainee subjected to Bush administration-approved harsh interrogation techniques.

He claimed this included a simulated form of drowning known as waterboarding, being slammed onto walls and enduring  prolonged periods of nudity.

Abu Zubaydah claimed in the hearing that he 'nearly died four times.'

'After a few months went by, during which I almost lost my mind and my life, they made sure I didn't die,' Abu Zubaydah said in his statement to the tribunal.

He claimed that after many months of such treatment, authorities concluded he was not the No. 3 person in al Qaeda as they had long believed.

Amnesty UK director Kate Allen said torture was abhorrent and could never be condoned.

'It is banned under international law and with good reason. It is always wrong and always will be - no matter what the circumstances.

'The UK should never use information obtained from torture. Doing so, is a tacit acceptance of torture and gives the green light for the infliction of yet more pain and terror on people.'

But CIA spokesman George Little took issue with Wizner's characterisation of the interrogation practices.

'The CIA plainly has a very different take on its past interrogation practices, what they were and what they weren't, and on the need to protect properly classified national security information,' he said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the new materials were released voluntarily by the government, which is keeping other portions secret to protect intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

Most of the new material centres on the detainees' claims of abuse during interrogations while being held overseas in CIA custody.

One detainee, Abu Zubaydah, told the tribunal that after months 'of suffering and torture, physically and mentally, they did not care about my injuries.'

Abu Zubaydah was the first detainee subjected to Bush administration-approved harsh interrogation techniques.

He claimed this included a simulated form of drowning known as waterboarding, being slammed onto walls and enduring  prolonged periods of nudity.

Abu Zubaydah claimed in the hearing that he 'nearly died four times.'

'After a few months went by, during which I almost lost my mind and my life, they made sure I didn't die,' Abu Zubaydah said in his statement to the tribunal.

He claimed that after many months of such treatment, authorities concluded he was not the No. 3 person in al Qaeda as they had long believed.

Amnesty UK director Kate Allen said torture was abhorrent and could never be condoned.

'It is banned under international law and with good reason. It is always wrong and always will be - no matter what the circumstances.

'The UK should never use information obtained from torture. Doing so, is a tacit acceptance of torture and gives the green light for the infliction of yet more pain and terror on people.'