Joe Skipper
Guantánamo detainee Abu Zubaydah is expected to testify Wednesday on the prolonged torture he says he was subjected to at CIA black sites. The testimony is a precursor to his long-delayed trial for war-crimes charges connected to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The pretrial hearing has been organized under the military commission system. Zubaydah, also known as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, is just one of five Guantánamo inmates who will be heard at the impending trial. During his hearing, he will address the dispute over conditions at Gitmo’s Camp 7, the highest-security branch at the military prison where “high-value detainees” like Zubaydah—and others who stand accused of organizing the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon—are held. The 46-year-old Palestinian, who wears an eye patch after a “disputed” incident during his CIA captivity in Thailand, has not been seen in public since his arrest 15 years ago in Pakistan. He was once believed to be al Qaeda’s third-ranking leader, but that assessment was found to be exaggerated. Other aspects of his torture are not dispute, including that he endured at least 80 rounds of waterboarding in one month and was kept inside a coffin-size box without clothes.