Thought to be a top al-Qaida leader, Abu Zubaydah was captured in 2002 in Pakistan. He was transferred to Poland where he and his team of lawyers say he was tortured in a secret CIA facility by two former CIA civilian contractors. They want to know why and they’re demanding to see the information leading to his arrest and subsequent detention. Zubaydah is currently being held in Guantanamo Bay.
It’s up to the Supreme Court to decide the legalities involved with withholding the top-secret file, but because it contains information highly pertinent to their accusations, Zubaydah’s lawyers said they need to review the file in order to build a strong enough case.
The case to release the information has already been heard by a federal appeals court who agreed that Zubaydah’s attorneys have every right to read the file, but the ultimate decision doesn’t rest with them. They simply agreed to kick the case up the ladder.
Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the CIA went full steam ahead after the culprits. They established secret prisons known as black sites in various European countries where their style of interrogation crossed the line into some fairly hardcore torture.
Zubaydah arrived at Guantanamo Bay in 2006, and if the reports of what he endured in Poland are true, he was probably happy to be there. A Senate review of the CIA contractor’s actions and results show where the prisoner once spent a straight 11 days in a coffin-sized wooden box and was waterboarded over 80 times.
James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen are the two contractors who designed the systematic torture program they are alleged to have used on Zubaydah.
The first thing Zubaydah needs is evidence that he was even held in a secretive black site in Poland. Understandably, this type of information is not readily available, and more often than not, it isn’t documented in any form. The entire process is verbal only.
The U.S. government has yet to acknowledge that the site has ever existed but Poland’s former president knew where it was and reported it to the media. It immediately shut down. Because of this, it’s detrimental that the two CIA contractors be forced to provide evidence that it was ever there.
If Mitchell and Jensen are called to the witness stand it won’t be the first time for either of them. They were called to testify when the dung hit the fan in Guantanamo, and Mitchell had to once again testify concerning a book he authored that detailed his former experiences as a CIA contractor.
Zubaydah and his attorneys want a full detailed report concerning the torture he received, his medical condition throughout the ordeal, and the basis for his confinement. Zubaydah has yet to be charged with anything despite his 19 years in “detainment.”
On at least this one issue Trump and Biden agree, what happens at a black site stays at a black site. Revealing their locations would do massive harm to America’s national security.
A number of things concerning the CIA’s former program have already been declassified so there’s no secret there. But the locations of the sites are another story. Outside of the site in Poland being discovered, other countries where they were located didn’t know they were there and might not take too kindly to finding out.
The U.S. government told SCOTUS that Zubaydah was “an associate and longtime terrorist ally of Osama bin Laden.” Zubaydah’s team of attorneys say “it ain’t so.” The CIA had bad intel and they say their client was not a high-ranking al-Qaida operative.
So now it remains in the hands of the Supreme Court to either override Trump and Biden or to stick with their guns for the benefit of national security. Either way, as far as we’re concerned, Zubaydah is a lying POS who had everything to do with 9/11.
What does our jury of readers think?
