The former head of interrogations at Guantanamo Bay found that records of an al-Qaeda suspect allegedly tortured at the prison camp were mysteriously lost by the US military, according to a new book by one of Britain’s top human rights lawyers.
Retired General Michael Dunlavey, who supervised Guantanamo for eight months in 2002, tried to locate records on Mohammed al-Qahtani, accused by the US of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, but found they had disappeared.
The records on al-Qahtani, who was interrogated for 48 days — “were backed up ... after I left, there was a snafu and all was lost,” Dunlavey told Philippe Sands QC, who reports the conversation in his book Torture Team.
Saudi-born al-Qahtani was sexually taunted, forced to perform dog tricks and given enemas at Guantanamo.
The CIA admitted last year that it destroyed videotapes of al-Qaeda suspects being interrogated at a secret “black site” in Thailand. No proof has so far emerged that tapes of interrogations at Guantanamo were destroyed, but Sands’ report suggests the US may have also buried politically sensitive proof relating to abuse by interrogators at the prison camp.
Other new evidence has also emerged in the last month that raises questions about destroyed tapes at Guantanamo.
Cameras that run 24 hours a day at the prison were set to automatically record over their contents, the US military said in court papers. It is unclear how much, if any, prisoner mistreatment was on the taped-over video, but the military admitted that the automatic erasure “likely destroyed” potential evidence in at least one prisoner’s case.
The erased tapes may have violated a 2005 court order to preserve “all evidence [of] the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees” at Guantanamo.
The order was retroactive, so it also applies to the 2003 loss of al-Qahtani’s records. Lawyers representing other detainees are asking whether tapes of their clients’ treatment may also be erased.
David Remes, a lawyer for 16 Guantanamo prisoners, said the CIA’s destruction of interrogation videos shows the US is capable of getting rid of potentially incriminating evidence.
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