Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

had almost no light. He told Human Rights Watch, “[i]t was so dark I couldn’t find the
bucket to use as a toilet. I banged my head against the wall.” Loud Western music blared
almost constantly the entire time of his detention. At some point, he overheard Shoroeiya
and Sharif talking loudly over the music, and they were able to converse a little. 219 He said
he was denied food for the first five days after his arrival. He was so sick he called for a
doctor, but when the doctor came he behaved like an interrogator. One night the “doctor”
stripped him of all his clothes, shackled him to the wall naked, and took away his blankets.
Maghrebi said he was left in that position the entire night.
After being held in the first cell, he was taken to a different room and interrogated particularly
harshly. He said his interrogators cut off his clothes with scissors, shaved off all his
body hair, and put him in diapers. 220 They handcuffed his arms to something above his
head and shackled his legs beneath him to the floor. They kept him in that position for
what he said felt like about 15 days, only taking him out of the room roughly five times for
questioning. He said,
“I was there for 15 days, hanging from my arms, another chain from the
ground. They put a diaper on me but it overflowed so there was every type
of stool everywhere, the temperature was freezing.” 221
219 Maqtari recalled that Maghrebi (Adnan al-Libi) was one of the more vocal prisoners who made constant attempts to
communicate with his fellow detainees. “I later found out that the person calling was Adnan al-Libi, he had a strong voice. He
kept saying ‘number 19, talk to us, number 19’ but I didn’t know that I was number 19 yet.” Amnesty International, A Case to
Answer, p. 20.
220 Number 10 on the list of 12 Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) the CIA requested permission to use was the “Use of
Diapers.” See DOJ OPR Report, July 29, 2009, p. 35-36 (The request from the CIA read: “Use of diapers: The subject is forced to
wear adult diapers and is denied access to toilet facilities for an extended period, in order to humiliate him.” (emphasis added)).
The Department of Justice does not appear to have approved the use of diapers as part of the 10 techniques it approved on
August 1, 2002. See Office of Legal Counsel, “Memorandum for John Rizzo,” p. 11. See also DOJ OPR Report reference to a
“classified Bybee memo” approving 10 techniques. DOJ OPR Report, July 29, 2009, p. 68. However the use of diapers appears to
have been approved at some point according to a memo from George Tenet dated January 28, 2003. See CIA Office of the
Inspector General, “Special Review: Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities (September 2001 – October 2003),”
May 7, 2004, declassified in August 2009, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20090825-
DETAIN/2004CIAIG.pdf (accessed July 2, 2012), appendix E; See also, Spencer Ackerman, “The Mysterious Eleventh Torture
Technique: Prolonged Diapering?” Washington Independent, August 24, 2009,
http://washingtonindependent.com/56394/the-mysterious-eleventh-torture-technique-prolongued-diapering (accessed
August 26, 2012).
221 Maghrebi’s abuse at the facility is corroborated by Bashmilah, who wrote that he heard the screams of prisoner Adnan al-
Libi (Maghrebi’s alias). “I began to hear the screams of detainees being tortured there, particularly the prisoner called Adnan
al-Libi [Maghrebi]. On their way to the torture and interrogation room, American officials, including ‘Kojak’ [because of his
shaved head] would first stop by my cell with a female interpreter and tell me that when I hear people screaming that I
63 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012