Tag Archives: Bob Woodward

“We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani… His treatment met the legal definition of torture” – Susan Crawford, overseer of military commissions, appointed by Bush

“The United States does not torture” -George W. Bush

Mohammed al-Qahtani, a detainee held at Guantanamo Bay, who has not been charged with a crime, who has never been proven guilty, was threatened with a dog, put on a leash with chains and forced to perform tricks, subject to forty-eight of 54 consecutive days of 18-to-20-hour interrogations, stripped naked in front of female guards, forced to wear a bra with a thong on his head, subjected to long term freezing conditions, waterboarded, and beaten according to the Washington Post and abridged by the AP.  This doesn’t come from a detainee, or from the ACLU, it comes from a Bush-appointed life-long Republican who is so insensitive to the torture issue that she wouldn’t have even called this torture but for the fact that the combination of these de-humanizing attacks left Mr. Qahtani in a “life-threatening position” where he was repeatedly hospitalized for low heart-rate.

It’s Abu Gharaib all over again, but this time the defense isn’t so robust from the White House.  “A few bad apples” has been replaced by a statement saying that the torture techniques were legal when they were performed.  That’s a war crime, authorized by the Bush Administration, right here in the United States of America.  And, the good-will this will buy us in the Muslim world is a fitting farewell for an administration who has spent eight years burning bridges.