U.S. tells Supreme Court Guantanamo detainee can give limited testimony
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[October 18, 2021]
By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) - The administration of U.S.
President Joe Biden informed the Supreme Court that a suspected
high-ranking al Qaeda figure held at the American naval base at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could provide limited testimony about his torture
at the hands of the CIA.
Earlier this month, U.S. Supreme Court justices questioned why the U.S.
government will not let the detainee, Abu Zubaydah, testify.
Zubaydah, a Palestinian man captured in 2002 in Pakistan and held by the
United States since then without charges, repeatedly underwent
waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning widely considered torture.
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In response to questions from three justices during oral arguments
earlier this month, Acting Solicitor General Brian Fletcher wrote a
letter to the court on Friday informing the justices that Zubaydah could
provide a declaration in the pending case.
"Nonetheless, the government would permit Abu Zubaydah, upon his
request, to send a declaration that could then be transmitted to the
Polish investigation", Fletcher wrote in the letter seen by Reuters on
Sunday.
However, he added that any information could be subject to redaction if
it might "prejudice the security interests of the United States."
Poland is believed to be the location of a "black
site" where the CIA used harsh interrogation techniques against Zubaydah.
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![](../images/101821PIX/news_g47.jpg)
The United States flag flies inside of Joint Task Force Guantanamo
Camp VI at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, March 22,
2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
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Zubaydah, now 50, has spent 15 years at Guantanamo and is one of
many detainees still held there. He lost an eye and underwent
waterboarding 83 times in a single month while held by the CIA, U.S.
government documents showed.
He was "an associate and longtime terrorist ally of Osama bin
Laden," the leader of the al Qaeda Islamist militant group killed by
U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2011, a Justice Department filing said
earlier.
Fletcher said in his letter that Zubaydah's testimony would not
resolve the dispute that is currently before the justices concerning
the scope of the "state secrets" privilege, a legal doctrine
available to the government to protect information that it says may
threaten national security.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen
Coates)
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