Abd al Rahim Hussein Muhammad Abdu: Allegation of Abuse

The Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing for Abd al Rahim Hussein Muhammad Abdu (or 'Abd al-Rahim al- Nashiri) took place in Guantanamo on March 14, 2007. A redacted version of the verbatim transcript thereof was subsequently made available to the public. According to this transcript, Abd al Rahim Hussein Muhammad Abdu claimed that he was tortured for five years. The passages from this transcript pertaining to this abuse are as follows.

PRESIDENT: Al Nashiri, you may begin your statement and the Personal Representative may proceed as outlined.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

PERSONAL

REPRESENTATIVE: Responses to the Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review for Abd Al Rahim                                Hussein Mohammed al Nashiri, dated 20 February 2007

Opening Remarks

The Detainee states that he was tortured into confession and once he made a confession his captors were happy and they stopped torturing him. Also, the Detainee states that he made up stories during the torture in order to get it to stop. The Detainee confessed under torture to the following events:

    1. The French Merchant Vessel Limburg incident.
    2. The USS COLE bombing.
    3. The rockets in Saudi Arabia.
    4. The plan to bomb American ships in the gulf.
    5. Relationship with people committing bombings in Saudi Arabia.
    6. Usama bin Laden having a nuclear bomb.
    7. A plan to hijack a plane and crash it into a ship.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): No.

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Enclosure (3)
Page 10 of 36

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PRESIDENT: Al Nashiri, there are a few thing [sic] I would like to speak to you now about regarding your allegations of                       torture.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator):   Yes.

PRESIDENT: Alright. I need some more details about that.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator):   I have a lot of information.

PRESIDENT: Alright. I'll ask questions and then please respond to them.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): Okay.

PRESIDENT: Do you know, the ah, who your captors were?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): No. I do not.

PRESIDENT: Were they Americans, Yemenis?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): They were Americans.

PRESIDENT: And ah. When did this occur?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me. It happened during                 interviews. One time they tortured me one way and another time they tortured me in a different way.

PRESIDENT: Please describe the methods that were used.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): [REDACTED] What else do I want to say? [REDACTED] Many things happened. There were doing so         many things. What else did they did [sic] ?

        [REDACTED] They do so many things. So so many things. What else did they did [sic] ?

        [REDACTED] After that another method of torture began. [REDACTED] They used to ask me questions and the                 investigator after that used to laugh. And, I used to answer the answer that I knew. And, if I didn't reply what I                 heard, he used to [REDACTED]. So many things happened. I don't [sic] in summary, that's basically what happened.

PRESIDENT: Alright. Let me ask. So then since the time of capture 2002 until you came to Guantanamo you experienced         these types of events?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): Yes.

PRESIDENT: Are you under any pressure or duress today?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): No. Not today.

PRESIDENT: You mentioned in your statement that there were seven things you admitted to. The French Merchant Vessel         Limburg incident and the rest.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

PRESIDENT: Do you have that there in front of you?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): Yes.

PRESIDENT:  You admitted to these seven things. You're telling us because the treatment you received?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator):   Yes. That's the meaning.

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PRESIDENT: It, ah. You said you made statements about bombing American ships or about planning to attack ships. And about Usama bin Laden having a nuclear bomb and a plan to hijack a plane.

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): I just [sic] this, I just said those things to make the people happy. They were very happy when I told         them those things. But when they freed me, I told them all I only told you these things to make you happy.

PRESIDENT: So what your [sic] telling us today is those statements, those statement [sic] are not true?

TRANSLATOR: (TRANSLATION OF ABOVE).

DETAINEE
(through translator): For example the rockets in Saudi Arabia. In general it [sic] the truth there was a man who took                 rockets from Yemen to Saudi Arabia. But I know nothing about things. I only know the person only. But doing the             investigation they [REDACTED] and tortured. And I said yes I know these things. I used to say yeah, yeah we did             those things to hit you in the peninsula [...]