Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was subjected to the CIA’s harshest interrogation methods while he was held in secret prisons around the world for more than three years, part of an interrogation regimen that the International Committee of the Red Cross has called “tantamount to torture,” according to a New Yorker article published on the magazine’s Web site Sunday.
The article analyzes the development of the CIA’s secret interrogation techniques and writes that a confidential Red Cross report to the U.S. government details Mohammed’s assertions that he was tortured by the CIA.
Unnamed Washington sources are quoted as saying that Mohammed said he was held naked in his cell, attached to a dog leash and made to run into walls, and put in painful positions while chained to the floor.
Mohammed also said he was “waterboarded” – a simulated drowning – in addition to being held in suffocating heat and painfully cold conditions.
President Bush last month signed an executive order that requires the CIA to treat detainees humanely, but a list of techniques approved for the agency’s use has been classified.
Asked about the interrogation methods described in the article, CIA spokesman George Little responded, “The program is about more than specific methods of questioning. It’s about the use of the CIA’s collected knowledge of al-Qaida and its affiliates to elicit additional information from detainees, and to do so in accord with U.S. law.”
Sources also have told The Post that the detainees almost universally told the Red Cross that they made up stories to get the harsh interrogations to stop.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
