04 March 2022 - Supreme Court sides with government in Guantánamo Bay case
Supreme Court Sides With Government In Gitmo State Secrets Case
Jessica Gresko (The Huffington Post, 0303/2022)
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for the U.S. government in a case involving a Guantanamo Bay detainee seeking what the government said is secret information.
Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002, was once thought to be a high-ranking member of the terrorist group al-Qaida. He was tortured while being held at so-called CIA black sites abroad before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Zubaydah was seeking to get the testimony of two former CIA contractors as part of a Polish investigation into his treatment.
Supreme court blocks men behind CIA’s ‘enhanced interrogation’ from testifying
Ed Pilkington (The Guardian, 03/03/2022)
Two psychologists who devised the CIA’s post-9/11 system of US “enhanced interrogation”, which has been widely denounced as torture, cannot be called to testify in a case in Poland brought by a terrorism suspect subjected to the abuses, the supreme court has ruled.
In a 6-3 ruling on Thursday, the court allowed the US government to block the psychologists from giving evidence in a case brought by Abu Zubaydah, a Guantánamo prisoner who was arrested in 2002 and has been held without charge ever since. The majority of the justices granted the government the privilege of “state secrets” – a power that prevents the public disclosure of information deemed harmful to national security.
Supreme Court blocks Guantanamo detainee from seeking details about CIA 'black sites'
John Fritze (USA Today, 03/03/2022)
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a Guantanamo Bay detainee for subpoenaing two former CIA contractors involved with his detention at a European "black site," citing concerns the move would have compromised national security.
Abu Zubaydah, who has been held at Guantanamo since 2006, wanted to subpoena the former CIA contractors who developed the program of waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other techniques used by President George W. Bush's administration in overseas prisons – or black sites – following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Justices dismiss Gitmo detainee's pursuit of evidence on post-9/11 torture
John Kruzel (The Hill, 03/03/2022)
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a Guantánamo Bay detainee’s request for information about his alleged torture at the hands of CIA contractors in Poland following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
In a fractured opinion, the justices sided with the U.S. government, agreeing to block subpoenas sought by detainee Abu Zubaydah that would have shed light on his treatment in a CIA "black site."
Zubaydah had sought to question two CIA contractors, James Mitchell and John Jessen, key architects of the U.S. government’s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, or torture program, who personally waterboarded Zubaydah dozens of times.