Camp seven (Guantanamo)

WRAP WH on Gitmo torture claims, Pentagon official says Saudi 9/11 man tortured ADDS Cheney

• Report rights infringement
• published: 21 Jul 2015
• views: 45

Washington DC - Jan. 14, 2009 1. Wide shot of Gitanjali S. Gutierrez 2. Cutaway 3. Gitanjali S. Gutierrez during interview 4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, Attorney, Centre for Constitutional Rights, represents Mohammed al-Qahtani: "He was actually subjected to a very systematic and prolonged set of interrogation tactics that began really in August of 2002 with isolation, sleep deprivation. He was threatened with military working dogs, subjected to a variety of psychological stress, ranging from religious abuse to sexual humiliation. And that continued into what's more commonly known during the period of his interrogation log, and that log documents extreme physical stress, the kind of humiliations that mentally breaks someone down when they're subjected to sleep deprivation." FILE - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Date unknown 5. Wide shot Guantanamo Bay 6. Guantanamo Bay sign 7. Soldiers with detainee 8. Detainees seen through fence Washington DC - Jan. 14, 2009 9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, represents Mohammed al-Qahtani: "It left him a broken man. When I first met him he had incredible difficulty having a rational conversation, he cannot concentrate, he has entire periods of time when he's lost his memory, and he still to this day suffers from the effects of that." FILE - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Date unknown 10. Fence 11. Soldier and detainee 12. Detainees 13. Soldiers Washington DC - Jan. 14, 2009 14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, represents Mohammed al-Qahtani: "He needs the rehabilitation because the United States subjected him to torture and he still suffers from the effects of that. I think that anyone who has worked with torture survivors can tell you that they need assistance re-entering back to normal life, and I think he certainly is an extremely broken man that is going to need the kind of assistance that the Saudi government has provided." 15. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino enters 16. Cutaway 17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dana Perino, White House Press Secretary: "You know, obviously I saw that report in the -- that story in The Washington Post today, and DOD has commented. Let me just make sure it's clear and I'll say it on the record one more time, that it has never been the policy of this president or this administration to torture. DOD has commented, and they have made the point about their revisions that they've made over the years. Because of command influence concerns, I have not commented about individual cases from this podium, and I just -- that's as much as I can say about it today." 18. Perino at briefing STORYLINE: A US Pentagon official said in an interview published on Wednesday that the United States tortured Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi man who allegedly had hoped to become the "20th hijacker" in the September 11, 2001, attacks. "We tortured Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, a retired judge who was appointed convening authority of military commissions in February 2007. Crawford was interviewed by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward. White House press secretary Dana Perino defended the president's anti-terrorism policy. "Let me just make sure it's clear - and I'll say it on the record one more time - that it has never been the policy of this president or this administration to torture," Perino said on Wednesday. She referred reporters to the US Defence Department for further comment. The Pentagon had no direct comment on Crawford's remark and would not speculate on its possible effect on other cases or the whole of the Bush administration's legal structure for so-called enemy combatants. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/f6a6893ec5552db23e0553be41a6bb69 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork