Justices Ask to Hear From First Detainee Subjected to Torture by the CIA
The case hinges on balancing the request of Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah to describe his waterboarding with the need to conceal information that could jeopardize national security or intelligence operations.
Landwebs
Struggling to balance issues of torture and government secrecy presented in the recent attempt by Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah to subpoena two CIA contractors who he says were instrumental in his brutal interrogation almost two decades ago, three Supreme Court justices have suggested sidestepping the question of whether the government had to allow the CIA contractors to appear by allowing Zubaydah to describe what he had endured before the court, reports the New York Times.
Zubaydah, who was waterboarded more than 60 times, is being held without charge at Guantánamo Bay. He sought to subpoena the contractors in connection with a Polish criminal investigation. The inquiry was prompted by a determination by the European Court of Human Rights that he had been tortured in 2002 and 2003 at secret sites operated by the C.I.A., including one in Poland. The U.S. government invoked the state secrets doctrine to bar the contractors from testifying in an apparent effort to avoid formally admitting what is common knowledge: that Poland was host to one of the so-called black sites. Zubaydah’s lawyer said that tesifying was not possible as his client is currently being held incommunicado in Guantanamo. See also: Is It a State Secret If Everyone Knows It?
