BEHIND THE WALLS

Declassified Guantánamo Court Docs Reveal Talk of Torture, CIA: Report

The declassified transcripts are from secret death-penalty-case sessions.

Declassified documents from closed death-penalty case sessions at the U.S. military’s Guantánamo Bay prison reveal new details about the notorious detention center and the treatment of prisoners in CIA custody overseas, according to a McClatchy investigation. “Essentially the United States government is running a Turkish prison. And that’s an insult, probably, to Turkey, frankly,” Navy Cmdr. Brian Mizer, a defense attorney, said during a court appearance in May 2014. One court transcript includes discussion about an alleged Sept. 11, 2001, terror-plot deputy who, while in CIA custody, “was stripped of his clothes and photographed while nude; he was subjected to long periods of nudity; he was interrogated while nude,” documents cite his defense attorney as saying. “When not forced to urinate and defecate into a diaper, he was forced to urinate and defecate into a bucket while monitored,” the lawyer said. The documents also reveal that Guantánamo’s top-secret Camp 7 prison was constructed in 2004. Camp 7 detainees, which included those who allegedly planned the Sept. 11 attacks, were deprived of sleep, waterboarded, and had their heads slammed into walls while in the custody of the CIA, according to the documents.