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Memos: CIA Kept Prisoner Awake, Chained for 6 Days

By the Associated Press

Posted Aug 27, 2009 10:26 AM CDT

(AP) – In late 2007, a year after the Bush administration abandoned its harshest interrogation methods, CIA operatives used severe sleep deprivation tactics against a terror detainee twice, keeping him awake for 5 and then 6 straight days, with permission from government lawyers to go over the 4-day limit. Interrogators kept the unidentified detainee awake by forcing him to stand with his arms chained above heart level, jerking on the chains if he nodded out, according to an internal CIA report released this week.

The CIA kept the prisoner—most likely Mohammed Rahim al-Afghani, Osama bin Laden's translator and the only person known to be in CIA custody at that time—in diapers, allowing interrogators to keep him chained continuously without bathroom breaks. Officials noted in the documents that the sleepless prisoner remained "alert and oriented" and seemed to be "adhering to a well-developed, robust and capable resistance strategy."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Shackles are chained to the floor inside an interrogation room on a cell block in Camp 5 maximum security detention facility, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, Dec. 5, 2006. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

A Guantanamo detainee glances up while resting on a foam pad inside a fenced-in outdoor exercise area at the Camp 6 high-security detention facility on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

In this April 25, 2006, file photo, John Durham speaks to reporters. John Durham has been ordered to investigate CIA mistreatment of terror suspects. (Bob Child)

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The documents are particularly disturbing because they were issued even after the Supreme Court held that these prisoners were entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions. - Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU

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