Abu Zubaydah, Tortured Guantánamo Detainee, Makes Case for Release
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON Over 14 years in American custody, Abu Zubaydah has come to symbolize, perhaps more than any other prisoner, how fear of terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks changed the United States.
He was the first detainee to be waterboarded, and his brutal torture was documented in a Senate report. He is among those held without charges and with no likelihood of a trial. The government long ago admitted that he was never the top leader of Al Qaeda it claimed he was at the time of his capture in 2002, but it insists that he may still be dangerous.
In all that time, Mr. Zubaydah, now 45, had never been seen by the outside world. That changed on Tuesday, as his calm face was beamed via video feed from the Guantánamo Bay military prison to a Pentagon conference room.
In a long-postponed hearing, he argued, through a statement read by a uniformed soldier, that he posed no threat and should be released. A profile prepared by the Defense Department, also read aloud, concluded with unsettling ambiguity that he probably retains an extremist mind-set.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/us/abu-zubaydah-torture-guantanamo-bay.html?_r=0
Solly Mack
(90,740 posts)Nihil
(13,508 posts)> A profile prepared by the Defense Department, also read aloud, concluded
> with unsettling ambiguity that he probably retains an extremist mind-set.
14 years without charge.
No trial.
Repeated torture throughout that time - both brutally physical & sadistically psychological.
The US Armed Forces, Government & supporters are 100% to blame for any
"mind-set" that he possesses now. No ambiguity there indeed.
He would be totally justified in any act of revenge - as would anyone who may
choose to treat him as a cause - but, should it take place, there will be the usual
bleats of "Why did this happen?" ...
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)Let the man go