Prisoner not seen publicly since 2002 at Gitmo hearing

[Judi Lynn]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by NancyBlueINOklahoma (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Associated Press

Prisoner not seen publicly since 2002 at Gitmo hearing

Robert Burns, Ap National Security Writer

Updated 3:29 pm, Tuesday, August 23, 2016

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first high-profile al-Qaida terror suspect captured after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 appeared Tuesday at a U.S. government hearing called to determine whether he should remain in detention at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian not seen publicly since his capture by the CIA in 2002, sat expressionless during the brief hearing. Zubaydah was also the first to vanish into the CIA's secret "black site" prison network and was subjected to "enhanced interrogation."

. . .

Following his capture, the CIA under President George W. Bush initiated an interrogation program, now widely viewed as torture. Under this once-secret program, Zubaydah was subjected to what the Bush administration called "enhanced interrogation" in the belief that he was withholding information about al-Qaida. A Senate report released in 2014 said that belief was false.

Zubaydah was subjected to the torment of waterboarding 83 times in August 2003. Straining under a waterlogged cloth clamped over his face, Zubaydah became "completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth," according to CIA emails cited in the Senate report. He was body-slammed by his captors. He was hooded, then unmasked and ominously shown a coffin-like box.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Abu-Zubaydah-appears-at-Gitmo-hearing-to-review-9179334.php

[Rex]

1. After what happened at Abu Ghraib, nothing shocks me anymore.

George Bush and Dick Cheney had no right to do this to a person. Even worse, they did it under the pretext of defending our nation's security. We did it, as a nation.

Obama tried to force Congress to close down Gitmo and the GOP wailed about it...you know those folks that pretend to be for law and order.

[NanceGreggs]

3. No, we "as a nation" did NOT do this.

A group of people in the Bush Administration did "this". That group of people allowed others to do "this", by sanctioning their behaviour.

I understand what you're saying. But the truth is that attributing guilt to ALL Americans only serves to dilute it, to "spread it out" over 300 million citizens as though we are all responsible for a tiny (i.e. easily ignored) fraction of what happened.

Lets keep the guilt focused where it belongs - on Dubya, Cheney, and those who went along to get along.

There is a false equivalence in saying, yeah, we as a nation were responsible. We as a nation NEVER sanctioned this, and I find the idea that we should all shoulder the blame after-the-fact abhorrent. The only purpose in that kind of thinking is to excuse those guilty by adopting the "we're ALL responsible" meme.

We KNOW who did this. And "we" were never a part of "them".

[Curtis]

4. We were never part of "them"

But, we never forced the conviction of "them" either

[NanceGreggs]

5. That's a whole n'other discussion.

The fact remains that the guilt of the few should not be diminished by attributing that guilt to the many.

[Nihil]

6. Must remember to use that quote ...

> the guilt of the few should not be diminished by attributing that guilt to the many

... every time that someone mentions Syria, Germany, Russia, Palestine, Iran, Japan, ...

It's a lovely little facile twist that means absolutely nothing - especially when your avatar contributed
to spreading that guilt across your whole country by her support - and thus excuses yet another case
of American Exceptionalism ...

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[OKNancy]

7. Duplicate topic - Locking

older thread here: http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10141557631