Torture is still in practiced in Guantanamo

Mr. James Connell, the lawyer of 36-year old Ammar al Baluchi who is detained in Guantanamo, stated that his client has been tortured for years.

Mr. Connell has based this statement on two unclassified medical documents that show signs of apparent torture. However, according to prosecutor Clay Trivett, everything that concerns interrogations is classified as ’’sources and methods’’ of the CIA. Discretion also applies to interrogatios carried out in secret off-shore prisons, located on Navy boats in international waters. The lawyer is therefore not allowed to refer to the incidents or the methods proving that his client was tortured.

Mr. Connel asked that the president of the military court come to inspect the prisoner’s cell inside the Guantanamo 7 camp (the secret part reserved for the CIA). But the military judge refused, since officially torture is no longer being practiced there.

Ammar al-Baluchi is a Yemeni immigrant. He was arrested in Pakistan on April 29th 2003, then detained illegally and tortured in a secret CIA prison for over two years. He was transfered on September 2006 to Guantanamo where he’s been illegally imprisoned for 7 years.

According to the National Commission on the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Ammar al-Baluchi is supposed to have purchased the tickets for and provided the air pirates with various tips about life in the United-States. In addition, he purportedly served as a straw man in numerous money transactions.

The case of Ammar al-Baluchi has been evoked in the debates about the possible closing of Guantanamo. Senator Mitch McConnel had concluded that he would have to be freed at the closing of the camp, for lack of evidence against him.