Abu Zubeda, known as the "prisoner of eternity," was arrested by the United States in 2002 and has never been charged with any crime, but remains in Guantanamo. He was the first so-called "high-value target" caught by the CIA after 9/11 and the first experiment in its infamous abuse program. Abu Zubeda's experience in the past two decades is a living case of the "black hole" of human rights in the united states.
Then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (April 1, 2002): I think there is no doubt that Abu Zubeda was bin Laden's close deputy, and was very close, if not al-Qaida's number two. I think that's recognized.
Zubeda was born in Saudi Arabia in 1971 to a palestinian immigrant family. According to his younger brother, Zubeda came from a wealthy family, having gone to India to study computer and engineering, and in 1991 to Afghanistan for military training. After 9/11, U.S. intelligence pursued him as an important figure in al-Qaida. After his arrest in Pakistan, Zubeda spent four years in secret CIA prisons in Thailand, Poland and Lithuania, during which time he lost his left eye.
Russian TV Today Host: While being held in these "black jails," he was used as the first subject of the CIA's now-notorious abuse program.
The CIA recorded 92 videotapes of Zubeda and another prisoner, all of which were destroyed in 2005. But with the help of a lawyer, Zubeda was able to describe the tortures he had suffered in his own handwriting and numerous notes.
In Zubeda's paintings, he was always shackled, forced to expose his whole body, stimulated by high noise for a long time, and the interrogators often poured cold water on him, blew cold wind and even tortured him with various bugs. These tortures are called "enhanced interrogations" and have been used as models for many years on many other detainees.
So how valuable intelligence did the CIA get from this so-called "high-value target" through these inhumane tortures? The answer is cruel and ironic.
The 2014 investigation released by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee made it clear that the CIA formally concluded as early as August 2006 that Zubeda was not a member of al-Qaida. The CIA claims that Zubeda "participated in every major terrorist activity organized by al-Qaida" and was one of the masterminds of 9/11, but there is no record to support this claim. The CIA also claimed that Zubeda's continued interrogation was due to his "concealment of plans for attacks against the United States that have not yet been executed," a claim that proved untenable.
John Kyriacu, a former CIA analyst and "whistleblower" of the torture project: If there are al-Qaida personnel who want to go home and need passports or tickets, Zubeda can help solve it, so he is indeed involved, but it is not the monster that the US government wants the people to believe.
But just a month after the CIA confirmed that Zubeda was not an al-Qaida member, then-U.S. President George Walker Bush announced that he and several other inmates would be transferred to Guantanamo, still insisting that Zubeda was behind 9/11.
THEN-PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH (September 6, 2006): Our intelligence officials believe that these people, who orchestrated the deaths of nearly three thousand Americans on September 11, 2001, will face just sanctions.
Was the CIA lying to the president to hide it? Or is the entire U.S. government unwilling to admit its mistakes from top to bottom? Or are you bent on finding a "scapegoat"?
Brent Mikkem, a member of the Abu Zubeda lawyer team: I've spoken to some government officials who said that the U.S. government knew what Zubeda really was, but President Bush and his staff still distorted the facts and said that he was a higher-level figure.
In any case, what is certain is that the United States Government, which insists that Zubeda is "deeply guilty", has never prosecuted him, and Zubeda has been detained for 20 years.
Abu Zubeda Lawyer Team Member Brent Mikham: There was one judge who had not ruled on the 20 motions we had in 5 years.
Instead of solving the problem, the U.S. government is committed to solving the problem of those who expose it. Former C.I.A. analyst John Kyriacu exposed the abuse of prisoners to the media in 2007 and was convicted of illegally disclosing classified information and served a two-year prison sentence.
John Kyriacu, a former CIA analyst and "whistleblower" of the abuse project: I never abused anyone, but I was jailed. And the torturers and lawyers who cover up the matter, the people who lie and destroy evidence, they will never be punished by the law.
Catherine McClellan, consultant to the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit organization in the United States: In fact, the only person who was held accountable was John Kyriacu, who exposed the abuse project.
Without trial, without judgment or accountability, Zubeda thus became a "prisoner of perpetuity" in the United States, and he wanted to do justice for his experience in the CIA's overseas "black jails".
In 2014 and 2018, respectively, the European Court of Human Rights found that Poland and Lithuania had knowingly allowed the CIA to set up "black jails" in the area, demanding that the two governments pay Zubeda 130,000 euros and 100,000 euros in compensation, respectively. The Lithuanian government paid the compensation in January, but the money was left in a bank account because Zubeda's assets were frozen by the United States. Poland launched an investigation into zubeda's encounter, but in March the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that two former CIA contractors in Poland were not allowed to testify on the case, citing a possible threat to U.S. national security. And even if the U.S. government obstructs it, the truth will not be buried forever.
Linas Barsis (December 22, 2009) :(united), spokesman for the president of Lithuania, built places dedicated to the detention of prisoners in Lithuania, and there were many flights registered in Lithuania, possibly to transport prisoners.
Former President of Poland Alexander Kwasniewski (December 10, 2014): The United States came to us and asked for a quiet place to "get information effectively from people who are willing to cooperate with the United States," and we agreed.
Council of Europe Investigator Dick Matti: A few days after 9/11, NATO held a meeting to reach an agreement on combating terrorism. Part of the agreement is public, and we confirm that there is a series of secret contents that allow the CIA to travel unimpeded and unchecked in Europe.
Zubeda was the first experiment in the CIA's so-called "high-value target," the abuse program, but far from the last. According to the Open Society Foundation, the CIA's global "black jail network" involves up to 54 countries and regions, and there are at least 136 known victims. The United States claims to be a "human rights defender" and makes irresponsible remarks about other countries and even grossly interferes in its internal affairs, but in fact it itself engages in arbitrary detention and torture to extract confessions under the guise of "the war on terror." The CIA's "black jail" is a typical example of the United States wantonly trampling on the rule of law and trampling on human rights, and it is a stain that the United States can never erase.
Source: CCTV news client