al Qahtani v. Bush, al Qahtani v. Gates

Synopsis

Mohammed al Qahtani is a Saudi citizen who has been detained in Guantánamo for over six years and who was the subject of the “First Special Interrogation Plan”, a regime of “aggressive interrogation methods” approved by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that constituted torture.

Al Qahtani v. Bush is a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Mr. al Qahtani in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and al Qahtani v. Gates is a petition for review under the Detainee Treatment Act of his Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) at Guantánamo filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

In early 2008, the government announced military commission charges against Mr. al Qahtani for alleged involvement in the September 11 attacks, however, all charges against him were dismissed three months later.

Status

Mr. al Qahtani's habeas case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction by the district court in May of 2007, but was reinstated in July 2008 after the Supreme Court ruled that Guantánamo detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus in Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States. Mr. al Qahtani currently has a petition for review pending under the Detainee Treatment Act, but the government has sought to delay producing any records in response to his petition. There are no military commission charges pending against Mr. al Qahtani. The government had announced charges in February 2008 and intended to seek the death penalty, but all charges against Mr. al Qahtani were dismissed without prejudice in May 2008.

Description

Mohammed al Qahtani is a Saudi Arabian citizen who was taken into U.S. custody in December 2001 and transferred a few months later to Guantánamo. While at Guantánamo, Mr. al Qahtani was subjected to aggressive interrogation methods amounting to torture specifically authorized by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, partially detailed in a military interrogation log leaked by a government source and ultimately publicly released by TIME Magazine on March 2, 2006.

Prior to the time period covered in his interrogation log, from August 2002 through October 2002, the military held Mr. al Qahtani in severe isolation in a cell with constant bright lights. At some point in early September 2002, military intelligence personnel at Guantánamo began planning a new, more aggressive interrogation regime for Mr. al Qahtani. Military intelligence officials wanted to apply the training tactics used in the “SERE” program, the Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training program for U.S. Special Forces. The SERE program is designed to teach U.S. soldiers how to resist torture techniques if they are captured by enemy forces. In Guantánamo, though, military intelligence officials wanted to use the training methods as interrogation techniques against Mr. al Qahtani and others.

The SERE training program involves forms of torture such as religious and sexual humiliation, and waterboarding. As a first step in implementing this new interrogation program, military intelligence personnel from Guantánamo attended SERE training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on September 16-20, 2006. In response to these developments, Criminal Investigation Task Force leaders -- a separate team of interrogators seeking information through lawful means that could be introduced in criminal proceedings -- memorialized in writing in September 2002 orders prohibiting their agents from engaging in coercive interrogations, especially those involving SERE techniques.

In October 2002, military intelligence interrogators used military dogs in an aggressive manner to intimidate Mr. al Qahtani. As a result of witnessing this treatment, on July 14, 2006, FBI Deputy Assistant Director T.J. Harrington, reported to the Army that in November 2002 he observed a detainee, later identified as Mr. al Qahtani, exhibiting symptoms of “extreme psychological trauma”: "In September or October of 2002 FBI agents observed that a canine was used in an aggressive manner to intimidate detainee [redacted] and, in November 2002, FBI agents observed Detainee [redacted] after he had been subjected to intense isolation for over three months. During that time period, [redacted] was totally isolated (with the exception of occasional interrogations) in a cell that was always flooded with light. By late November, the detainee was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma (talking to non-existent people, reportedly hearing voices, crouching in a corner of the cell covered with a sheet for hours on end). It is unknown to the FBI whether such extended isolation was approved by appropriate DoD authorities."

Despite this trauma, Mr. al Qahtani was not provided with any break in the isolation or his interrogations, nor treatment for his symptoms of “extreme psychological trauma” in November 2002. Instead, on or around November 23, 2002 through January 11, 2003, Mr. al Qahtani was subjected to an official interrogation regime known as the “First Special Interrogation Plan” that is detailed in his interrogation log. The 84-page log describes interrogations during a six week period, including how military intelligence interrogators stressed Mr. al Qahtani to physical and psychological limits. The methods used against Mohammed include:  

• Severe sleep deprivation combined with 20-hour interrogations for months at a time;
• Severe isolation;
• Religious and sexual humiliation;
• Threats of rendition to countries that torture more than the United States;
• Threats made against his family, including female members of his family;
• Strip searching, body searches and forced nudity, including in the presence of female personnel;
• Denial of the right to practice his religion, including prohibiting him from praying for prolonged times and during Ramadan;
• Threatening to desecrate the Koran in front of him;
• Humiliating him by forcing him to bark like a dog, dance with a mask on his face, and pick up piles of trash with his hands cuffed while he was called “a pig”;
• Placing him in stress positions for prolonged times;
• Placing him in tight restraints repeatedly for many months or days and nights;
• Threats and attacks by dogs;
• Beatings;
• Exposure to low temperatures for prolonged times;
• Exposure to loud music for prolonged times; and
• Forcible administration of frequent IVs by medical personnel during interrogation, which Mr. al Qahtani described as feeling like “repetitive stabs” each day.

On one occasion described in the interrogation log, Mr. al Qahtani was rushed to a military base hospital when his heart rate fell dangerously low during a period of extreme sleep deprivation, physical stress and psychological trauma. The military flew in a radiologist from the U.S. Naval Station in Puerto Rico to evaluate the computed tomography (“CT” or “CAT”) scan. After being permitted to sleep a full night, medical personnel cleared Mr. al Qahtani for further interrogation the next day. During his transportation from the hospital, Mr. al Qahtani was interrogated in the ambulance.

Military personnel’s mistreatment of Mr. al Qahtani, and the command authority sanctioning the use of these interrogation methods, has been the subject of several military investigation into reports of abuse and was the subject of a lengthy memo prepared by the former General Counsel of the Navy, Alberto J. Mora, who warned that the use of these impermissible interrogation methods could make U.S. personnel vulnerable to war crimes prosecutions.

The U.S. government has accused Mr. al Qahtani of being a member of Al Qaeda and of intending to come to the U.S. to take part in the September 11 attacks; in actuality, he has adamantly and consistently denied ever taking up arms against the United States, or ever being a member of the Taliban or Al Qaeda. Most recently, Mr. al Qahtani presented his first public statement to his 2007 Annual Review Board at Guantánamo and explained that all of the government’s claims against him originate from statements obtained through torture.

On February 11, 2008, six years after he was first brought to Guantánamo, Mr. al Qahtani was charged with involvement in the September 11 attacks, along with five men who had been held in the CIA detention program. All of the men held in CIA detention and charged with Mr. al Qahtani were disappeared for months or years; the extent of coercive interrogation methods to which they were subjected is not known for certain. One of those men, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has stated that he made false statements implicating others under torture, and CIA director Hayden has admitted that the CIA used waterboarding as part of his interrogation program. In the 90 page charge sheet, the allegations relating to Mr. al Qahtani consisted of five paragraphs which did not even allege any actual contribution on his part to the attacks. The government had intended to seek the death penalty against all six men.    

On May 9, 2008, the Convening Authority for Military Commissions issued final charges for the other five men, but dismissed all charges against Mr. al Qahtani.  The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which leaves open the possibility that he will be re-charged in the future, separate from the five men currently facing the death penalty for alleged involvement in the September 11 attacks.  However, the government’s allegations against Mr. al Qahtani are based on unreliable evidence obtained through his torture that cannot be the basis for a fair trial.

Timeline

October 5, 2005, CCR attorneys along with co-counsel from Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Mohammed al Qahtani.

December 2005, a CCR attorney met with Mr. al Qahtani for the first time and began the difficult process of establishing a trusting attorney-client relationship after his extensive abuse and torture at the hands of U.S. personnel.

December 6, 2005, the district court ordered the government to produce documents showing the factual justification for Mr. al Qahtani’s detention. The government sought to delay production until December 27, 2005. After the enactment of the Detainee Treatment Act, the district court stayed its order and the government never produced any information justifying its detention of Mr. al Qahtani.

March 2, 2006, TIME Magazine posted an interrogation log detailing Mr. al Qahtani’s torture and interrogation by the U.S. government on the internet. Rather than challenging the authenticity of the interrogation log, the Department of Defense has used Mr. al Qahtani’s interrogation as an example of the benefits of “aggressive interrogation methods” and claims to have extracted valuable information from him.

October 2006, Mr. al Qahtani became a plaintiff in a case brought in Germany under universal jurisdiction against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other government officials to hold them accountable for war crimes committed at Guantánamo and in Iraq.

May 9, 2007, the district court dismissed al Qahtani v. Bush for lack of jurisdiction subsequent to the D.C. Circuit’s dismissal of Boumediene v. Bush.

August 10, 2007, CCR filed a petition for review under the Detainee Treatment Act.

September 2007, Mr. al Qahtani’s ARB statement was released and was his first public statement since his detention began.

February 11, 2008, the government announced military commission charges against Mr. al Qahtani.

May 9, 2008, the Convening Authority for Military Commissions dismissed all charges against Mr. al Qahtani.

July 29, 2008, Mr. al Qahtani’s habeas case, al Qahtani v. Bush, was reinstated.

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