Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

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A sketch by Mohammed Shoroeiya depicts a wooden board to which he was strapped and on which his interrogators put him when he underwent abuse with water. © 2012 Mohammed Shoroeiya Shoroeiya in a later interview explained that each session took about half an hour, and during this half hour he was waterboarded many times. 171 He said he felt like each time lasted about three minutes but said there was no way to really tell time. When told that the United States had admitted to doing this to a few people for between 20 and 40 seconds each time, he said he was sure his sessions were definitely longer than that. 172 He said: “I could hold my breath for 20, even 40 seconds, so it was definitely longer than that.” 173They would do this numerous times over and over again during a session. They would ask him questions in between. He told Human Rights Watch, “They wouldn’t stop until they got some kind of answer from me.” 171 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Shoroeiya, May 7, 2012 172 Malcom Nance, author, counterterrorism specialist, and former US Navy SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) instructor, who was consulted about this case, said, “When you are on the board you have no idea how much time is really going by, time literally stands still.” When the procedure was being administered on him (Nance), for example, he thought it lasted about three minutes, when in fact it was only about 30 seconds. “You have no idea what is happening to you, you panic.” 173 When asked about this comment, Nance said, “He might have thought that holding his breath was helping him resist but if it [waterboarding] is being administered properly holding your breath is not really going to help. Everyone develops their own method of resistance and maybe this was part of his, but you can’t really resist waterboarding by holding your breath.” See also Department of Justice Guidance on Waterboarding from Steven Bradbury, Principle Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the time, explaining one thing an interrogator can do if a detainee tries to resist waterboarding by holding his breath: “In addition, you have informed us that the technique may be applied in a manner to defeat efforts by the detainee to hold his breath by, for example, beginning an application of water as the detainee is exhaling.” Memo from Steven Bradbury, Principle Deputy Assistant Attorney General, to John Rizzo, Senior Deputy General Counsel, CIA, May 10, 2005, http://media.luxmedia.com/aclu/olc_05102005_bradbury46pg.pdf (accessed August 28, 2012), p. 13. 49 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012
He said there were doctors present. He knows they were doctors because his leg was broken while he was there and he was treated by these same people. The doctors would monitor him as the cold water was poured on him, and when his body temperature got too low, they would order warm water be added to the cold. Once his temperature was okay, they would begin adding cold water again. 174 they got some kind of answer from me.” In addition to waterboarding, his interrogators would also make a sort of basin out of a type of plastic sheeting. They would have him lie down on the floor in the basin and then pour freezing water over him. Shoroeiya said the water was so cold it had a gel-like, icy texture. Again, when his body temperature got too cold, they would pour warmer water on him. Doctors were present during these sessions also, monitoring his body temperature. He was often naked when subjected to both types of abuse with water. 175 Sharif described being subjected to a similar type of treatment, though not with a board. 176 He said he was threatened with use of the board, was shown the board, and was aware it was being used on other prisoners, but that it was not used with him. During this treatment, Sharif would be made to lie down on his back on plastic sheeting while guards would hold the sides of it up, so that when water was poured in, it would not spill out. The water was freezing cold, with an icy, gel-like consistency. His whole body was lying in it. While this was going on he would be made to wear a black hood made out of thick cloth over his head and they would also pour jugs of freezing cold water directly over his nose and mouth. Sharif told Human Rights Watch: Sometimes they put a hood over my head and they lay me down and they start to put water in my mouth.… They poured the water over my mouth and 174 The Department of Justice, in approving the use of waterboarding, made reference to the fact that a doctor would be present during the procedure. Office of Legal Counsel, Memorandum for John Rizzo, Acting General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, Re: Interrogation of an al Qaeda Operative, August 1, 2002, http://media.luxmedia.com/aclu/olc_08012002_bybee.pdf (accessed August 26, 2012), p. 4 (“We also understand that a medical expert with SERE experience will be present throughout this phase and that the procedures will be stopped if deemed medically necessary to prevent severe mental or physical harm to Zubaydah.”). 175 Shoroeiya also described being subjected to this treatment when he spoke to Human Rights Watch researchers in Abu Salim prison in 2009. 176 Human Rights Watch interview with Sharif, March 14, 2012. DELIVERED INTO ENEMY HANDS 50 “They wouldn’t stop until
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H U M A N R I G H T S W A T C H Del
Page 3 and 4: Copyright © 2012 Human Rights Watc
Page 5 and 6: Mustafa Jawda al-Mehdi ............
Page 7 and 8: This report is based mostly on Huma
Page 9 and 10: These stories provide new details a
Page 11 and 12: Gaddafi opponents in Libya. Ten of
Page 13 and 14: treatment. Nor did they protect det
Page 15 and 16: two more the following April. Commu
Page 17 and 18: esponsibilities. Mehdi and Shoroiey
Page 19 and 20: identified in this report to Libya,
Page 21 and 22: of compiling the names of those who
Page 23 and 24: Libya from the 1970s to the 1990s I
Page 25 and 26: Gaddafi also made major changes to
Page 27 and 28: Abu Salim massacre, in which prison
Page 29 and 30: insurgency, mainly in eastern Libya
Page 31 and 32: In late autumn of 2007, these repor
Page 33 and 34: econciled with Gaddafi and a number
Page 35 and 36: PLACES OF ARREST, DATES OF TRANSFER
Page 37 and 38: Shoroeiya and Sharif said that once
Page 39 and 40: Arrest and Detention Shoroeiya and
Page 41 and 42: CIA Rendition Transportation Proced
Page 43 and 44: Both were detained in this first lo
Page 45 and 46: Abu Yasser al Jazairi, from Algeria
Page 47 and 48: Sharif also said he learned the nam
Page 49 and 50: Afghanistan on April 25, 2004. Both
Page 51 and 52: Shoroeiya and Sharif both alleged t
Page 53: The Interrogators Shoroeiya said th
Page 57 and 58: Mohammed Shoroeiya said his interro
Page 59 and 60: stan.” 191 Both thought they migh
Page 61 and 62: Shoroeiya said there were intrusive
Page 63 and 64: “The biggest suffering for any pr
Page 65 and 66: Majid Mokhtar Sasy al-Maghrebi Maji
Page 67 and 68: him in Pashto, they spoke to him in
Page 69 and 70: Loud music was blaring constantly.
Page 71 and 72: On various occasions while detained
Page 73 and 74: he was in Karachi, Pakistan. After
Page 75 and 76: faces. He said he saw from the eyeh
Page 77 and 78: His interrogators would come to him
Page 79 and 80: He again went on hunger strike, ask
Page 81 and 82: Di’iki was detained in solitary c
Page 83 and 84: Mustafa Salim Ali el-Madaghi Mustaf
Page 85 and 86: took photos of him; put him in diap
Page 87 and 88: flight plan to go into Nouakchott,
Page 89 and 90: Mehdi said he first went to Saudi A
Page 91 and 92: Pakistanis responded in Pashto. He
Page 93 and 94: There were about 12 interpreters, p
Page 95 and 96: know what’s going to happen to yo
Page 97 and 98: Departure from Libya Belhadj was bo
Page 99 and 100: ‘This is it.’ I thought I would
Page 101 and 102: information with you [Libyan securi
Page 103 and 104: equests for information from Abu
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subsequently was able to receive vi
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Sami Mostefa al-Saadi © 2012 Human
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making harsh statements against the
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denied permission for the Libyan ai
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Saadi said he was held without char
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complicity in his transfer back to
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Abu Farsan spent the next decade at
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They noted in the fax that they und
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On June 7, 2006, Abu Farsan was tra
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Safrani in Afghanistan, said that t
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V. The Case of Ibn al-Sheikh al-Lib
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In late 2001, Pakistani authorities
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2004, al-Libi recanted the informat
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held until December 2006, when the
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It is not clear when Ibn al-Sheikh
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Mostafa al-Mehdi (see above) saw al
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VI. Detainees Rendered From Other A
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appointed a lawyer who he said did
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In early 2008 he was charged with b
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government. After 1992, when the go
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governments during the Gaddafi gove
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conflict or emergency, may “opt o
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them to Libya in violation of their
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each country to which the agency de
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shelving the Gibson Inquiry and wou
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To the US Congress • Create an in
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To the Government of the Netherland
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Acknowledgments This report was wri
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Recreation of Document 2144 SUBJECT
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Translation of Documents 2164-65 Al
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Delivered Into Enemy Hands US-Led A
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