| Mohammed al-Qahtani | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1979 (age 32–33) Dalam, Saudi Arabia |
| Detained at | Guantanamo |
| ISN | 63 |
| Charge(s) | Charged February 2008, after six years of extrajudicial detention -- was subjected to torture in 2002; charges dropped in May 2008; habeas case reinstated. |
| Status | Still held in Guantanamo |
Mohammed Mana Ahmed al-Qahtani (Arabic: محمد مانع أحمد القحطاني) (sometimes transliterated as al-Kahtani) is a Saudi citizen who is currently detained in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Qahtani allegedly tried to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks as a "muscle hijacker". Mustafa al-Hawsawi, one of the alleged organizers of the September 11 attacks, referred to Qahtani in intercepted telephone calls as "the last one" to "complete the group". Mohammed al-Qahtani was refused entry due to suspicions that he was attempting to immigrate. Since January 2002, Qahtani has been detained at Guantanamo Bay.
In 2008 the Bush administration admitted that it had tortured Qahtani. In an interview with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, Susan Crawford said that the US government had so systematically abused Qahtani through isolation, sleep deprivation, forced nudity and exposure to cold that he was in a "life-threatening condition."[1][2][3] Gitanjali Gutierrez, who works for the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many of Guantanamo's inmates, said she thought Qahtani's torture constituted a war crime.[4][5]
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Mohammed al-Qahtani was born in 1979 in Dalam, Saudi Arabia. He is a Saudi national from a large Bedouin family. His father served as a police officer for 28 years. His mother remained at home to raise her thirteen children. He has eight brothers and four sisters, who range in age from 42 – 14 years of age. According to family members, his favorite class in school was art. He has no criminal record and no record of any violence.
On August 3, 2001, Qahtani flew into Orlando, Florida, from Dubai. He was questioned by officials dubious he could support himself with only $2,800 cash to his name, and suspicious that he intended to become an illegal immigrant as he was using a one-way ticket.[6] He was sent back to Dubai, and subsequently returned to Pakistan.
Captured in the Battle of Tora Bora, Qahtani was sent to the United States Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He continued giving a false name, and insisting he had been in the area solely pursuing an interest in falconry.[6]
After ten months, U.S. authorities took a fingerprint sample and discovered that he was the same person who had tried to enter the United States just before the September 11th attacks. Seizing the airport surveillance tapes, the FBI claimed they were able to identify the car of Mohamed Atta at the airport, ostensibly waiting to pick up Qahtani.[6]
He was interrogated.[7] After details of his status were leaked, the US Department of Defense issued a press release stating that Qahtani had admitted:
Another military account stated that Qahtani was identified as someone who had previously been turned away due to visa problems -— by fingerprints, "taken in Southwest Asia".[8]
Shortly after September 26, 2002, a Gulfstream jet carrying David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, John A. Rizzo, William Haynes II, two Justice Department lawyers, Alice S. Fisher and Patrick F. Philbin, and the Office of Legal Counsel's Jack Goldsmith flew to Camp Delta to view Qahtani, then to Charleston, South Carolina to view Jose Padilla, and finally to Norfolk, Virginia to view Yaser Esam Hamdi.[6]
At Guantánamo, Qahtani was subjected to a regime of aggressive interrogation techniques, known as the “First Special Interrogation Plan” that were authorized by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and implemented under the supervision and guidance of Secretary Rumsfeld and the commander of Guantánamo, Major General Geoffrey Miller.[9]
In November 2006, senior investigators with the Defense Department's Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF) told msnbc.com that military prosecutors said Qahtani would be "unprosecutable" because he was tortured during interrogation.[10]
Susan J. Crawford, a senior Pentagon official, stated on January 14, 2009 that "his treatment met the legal definition of torture...The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive". As convening authority of military commissions, Crawford is responsible for overseeing Guantanamo practices.[11]
On March 3, 2006, Time magazine published the secret log of 49 days of 20-hour-per-day interrogation.[12][13] The log described how Qahtani was forcibly administered intravenous fluids, and drugs, and was forcibly given enemas, in order to keep his body functioning well enough for the interrogations to go on.
The log, titled SECRET ORCON INTERROGATION LOG DETAINEE 063, offers a daily, detailed view of the interrogation techniques used to obtain confession from him from November 23, 2002, to January 11, 2003. These include the following:
At no point during the interrogation log does Qahtani explicitly admit to being a member of al-Qaeda, although his stated reasons for travelling to the United States and Afghanistan - what the US interrogators refer to as his cover story - appear inconsistent. Furthermore, the entry for January 1, 2003 relates how Qahtani blames Osama bin Laden for deceiving the 19 9/11 hijackers ("his friends"):
When asked about his greatest sins in his life, Qahtani responded that he had not taken care of his parents properly, had not finished school and had not been able to repay $20,000 he had borrowed from his aunt.
On March 3, 2006, Qahtani's lawyer was allowed to reveal that her client had recanted the accusations he had levelled against his fellow detainees.[15] He had told his lawyer that he was forced to falsely confess, and name names, in order to get his "extended interrogation" to end. He had accused 30 other detainees of being former bodyguards of Osama bin Laden.
On September 6, 2006, President Bush announced that 14 detainees who had been held in previously secret overseas CIA interrogation centres, and subjected to torture techniques, like waterboarding and mock executions, had been sent to Guantanamo. The Washington Post reports that the new inmates will be held in conditions similar to those imposed on Qahtani, including isolation and 24 hours of continuous light.[16]
The New York Times reported on February 9, 2008 that the Office of Military Commissions was close to laying charges against six of the more high value detainees, including Qahtani.[17]
He was charged on February 11, 2008 with war crimes and murder, and faced the death penalty if convicted.[17]
Gitanjali Gutierrez, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), will be representing Qahtani against the war crime and murder charges. Attorneys at CCR denounce the systematic use of torture as well as challenge the validity of the military commission and the use of evidence obtained via torture in his death penalty case. In a recent press release, CCR claimed that “the military commissions at Guantanamo allow secret evidence, hearsay evidence, and evidence obtained through torture. They are unlawful, unconstitutional, and a perversion of justice.” [18]
On May 11, 2008 the charges against al-Qahtani were dropped.[19][20] Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that it was possible for the charges to be re-instated, at a later date, because they had been dropped "without prejudice". The reasons for the dismissal were not made public.
On November 18, 2008, Chief Prosecutor Lawrence Morris announced that he was filing new charges against Qahtani.[21] When announcing the new charges Morris stated that the new charges were based on “independent and reliable evidence”. He stated:
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Susan Crawford, the senior official in charge of the Office of Military Commissions has the final authority over whether charges were laid. On January 14, 2009 Crawford ruled that charges could not be laid against Qahtani because the interrogation techniques he was subjected to in Guantanamo rose to the level of torture.[22] Bryan Whitman, a DoD spokesman, claimed the techniques were legal, at the time they were applied.
Mohammed al-Qahtani's habeas corpus case was reinstated in July 2008 after the Supreme Court ruled on Boumediene v. Bush and al-Odah v. United States, stating that Guantanamo detainees have a constitutional right to habeas corpus.[23]
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