Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

2004, al-Libi recanted the information, saying he “lied to the [foreign government service]
about future operations to avoid torture.” 392 No other credible evidence was ever produced
confirming Iraq had trained al Qaeda in the use of chemical or biological weapons. 393
For years after US forces initially detained him, al-Libi was forcibly disappeared. Human
Rights Watch and numerous other nongovernmental organizations called upon the US
government to disclose al-Libi’s location, as well as the location of many other “disappeared”
prisoners in the “global war on terror.” 394 When President Bush finally admitted
the existence of a secret CIA detention program and transferred 14 formerly secret detainees
held by the CIA to Guantanamo on September 6, 2006, al-Libi was noticeably missing
from the list.
In late 2006 and early 2007, Human Rights Watch and several journalists received reports
from Libyans in exile that al-Libi and several other Libyans who had been in US custody
had been rendered to Libya. The exact date of al-Libi’s transfer is not clear. During a
research trip to Libya in 2009, Human Rights Watch was able to confirm that al-Libi had
indeed been transferred and was being detained at Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. 395 Human
Rights Watch saw al-Libi for a few minutes and tried to interview him. He appeared agitated
and angry but he sat down with researchers and listened to a short introduction about
Human Rights Watch. However, before he could be interviewed, al-Libi got up and said
before walking away, “Where were you when I was being tortured in American jails?” 396
http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/11/DIAletter.102605.pdf (accessed June 2, 2012) (declassifying a Defense Intelligence
report from February 2002 which indicates that the information al-Libi was supplying was not reliable); and Larry Siems, The
Torture Report (New York and London: OR Books, 2011), p. 337-338.
392 SSCI Sept. 8, 2006 Report, p. 80.
393 Ibid., p. 82.
394 Human Rights Watch, The United States’ “Disappeared”: The CIA’s Long-Term “Ghost Detainees,” October 12, 2004
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/10/12/united-states-disappeared-cias-long-term-ghost-detainees (first on the list of 11
known prisoners missing at the time was Ibn Shiekh al Libi); Human Rights Watch, List of ‘Ghost Prisoners’ Possibly in CIA
Custody, November 30, 2005, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/11/30/list-ghost-prisoners-possibly-cia-custody (first on
the list of 26 known prisoners missing at the time was Ibn Sheikh al-Libi); Human Rights Watch, Ghost Prisoner: Two years in
Secret CIA Detention, Vol. 19, No. 1(G), February 27, 2007, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/02/26/ghost-prisoner (first on
the list of 38 of known prisoners missing at the time was Ibn Sheikh al Libi); and Human Rights Watch, “Letter to Bush
Requesting Information on Missing Detainees,” February 27, 2007, http://www.hrw.org/news/2007/02/26/letter-bushrequesting-information-missing-detainees.
395 “Libya/US: Investigate Death of Former CIA Prisoner,” Human Rights Watch news release, May 11, 2009,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/05/11/libyaus-investigate-death-former-cia-prisoner.
396 Ibid. Human Rights Watch interviewed other prisoners during this visit who had been in CIA custody, several of whom are
interviewed for this report, including Belhadj, Shoroeiya, Maghrebi, and Mehdi (see above). Some of these interviews were
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