HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARTICLE:
- The CIA black site prison had 20 cells. Described as "stand-alone
concrete boxes," the cell block was outfitted with stereo speakers that
played music 24 hours a day to prevent captives from communicating with
each other. Captives, who first arrived there in September 2002, were
often held in total darkness. Some were subjected to mock executions.
- The prison is where a 34-year-old Afghan militant and suspected al-Qaeda
operative named Gul Rahman froze to death in November 2002 after
undergoing a brutal torture regimen that included being beaten, doused
with cold water, and left half-naked while chained to the floor of his
cell. Several of the techniques CIA interrogators used on Rahman were
unauthorized; in August 2002, a Department of Justice attorney named
John Yoo had written a legal memo sanctioning nearly a dozen torture
methods for use on high-value captives.
- The graphic description of the conditions of Rahman's confinement and
the disastrous operations of COBALT were laid bare in 14-year-old,
closely guarded CIA reports that probed the circumstances of his death;
those reports [pdf at the end of this article] were just turned over to
VICE News in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
Separately, the CIA also declassified and publicly posted to its website
a trove
of other documents related to its so-called "rendition, detention, and
interrogation" program and the treatment of detainees in custody of the
agency in response to separate FOIA lawsuits filed by VICE News and the
ACLU.
- Dr. Bruce Jessen, was present at COBALT prior to Rahman's death and
performed a psychological evaluation on Rahman, deciding what torture
techniques should be used on him "to render him compliant."
- "The CIA and Jessen considered Gul Rahman to have a 'sophisticated level of resistance training' because he 'complained about poor treatment' and said he couldn't 'think due to conditions (cold)....' When they decided he wasn't sufficiently 'broken,' CIA personnel brutalized, starved, and froze him to death, then lied about it."
- According to the newly declassified CIA Inspector General (IG)
report, a CIA detainee "begins his confinement with nothing in his cell
except a bucket used for human waste."
- During his first two days of detention, he underwent 'rough treatment,'
consisting of being 'pushed and shoved' while hooded in order to
'disorient him.'
- He was subjected to sleep deprivation "almost immediately" after his
arrival at COBALT and was often held in a "sleep deprivation cell" when
he wasn't being interrogated.
- "According to [redacted], Rahman's clothes were taken from him... and he
was left wearing a diaper," the IG report said. "During this period of
sleep deprivation, Rahman's arms were shackled to a bar that ran between
the walls of the cell. This prevented Rahman from sitting down."
- Rahman was given a cold shower "because the heater at the black site was
not working." But, according to the report issued by the CIA's
Associate Deputy Director for Counterintelligence/Operations,
investigators interviewed a person at the black site who said Rahman was
"deliberately given a cold shower as a deprivation technique." He then
began to show signs of hypothermia.
- On November 19, 2002, at about 3pm, guards brought food to Rahman's
cell. The last meal he'd eaten had been the day before. When the guards
entered the cell, he was nude from the waist down. The captive
threatened to kill the guards and proceeded to throw his food, water
bottle, and waste bucket at them.
- The guards, acting on BOP
recommendations, shackled Rahman to the wall "in a short chain position,
which prevents prisoners from standing upright." Rahman was chained to a
"metal grill located low on the wall of his cell" on orders from the
CIA officer who managed the black site.
- When the officers entered Rahman's cell, they saw "a small amount of
blood coming from his nose and mouth." A CIA officer checked Rahman's
pulse, but there was none.
- Rahman, according to an autopsy performed by a CIA pathologist, likely
died of hypothermia, a "diagnosis of exclusion." On the night Rahman
died, the outside temperature was 31 degrees Fahrenheit (-0 Celsius).
- Remarkably, the CIA's Associate Deputy Director for
Operations/Counterintelligence concluded that Rahman's "actions likely
caused his own death."
- Rahman was secretly buried; the location of his remains remain unknown.
TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE WITH THE PDF REPORT FINDING, CLICK SOURCE:
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