Bush administration: 'We tortured Qahtani'

[cal04]

• President expected to issue last-minute pardons
• Politicians risk being arrested and tried abroad

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/15/guantanamo-bush-administration-torture-qahtani

US lawyers battling against torture and other abuses at Guantánamo Bay are braced for George Bush issuing last-minute pardons to protect those in his administration most closely implicated.

The lawyers' warning came after a senior member of the Bush administration, Susan Crawford, admitted for the first time that torture had been carried out. Until now, the Bush administration, in particular the vice-president, Dick Cheney, had denied the interrogation techniques at Guantánamo constituted torture.

Crawford's admission of torture is in relation to the case of a Saudi national, Mohammed al-Qahtani, 30, accused of involvement in the 9/11 attack. He is often referred to by US authorities as the "20th hijacker". He was denied entry to the US in August 2001 and captured in Afghanistan in 2002. He was tortured for a month and then kept in isolation.

Crawford, a Pentagon official who last year was put in charge of military commissions that decide whether detainees should be tried, told the Washington Post: "We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case ." She added: "The techniques they used were all authorised, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent."

Bush can issue a pardon to anyone he chooses between now and leaving office at midday on Tuesday. But lawyers warned yesterday that although such a pardon would prevent the politicians and officials from being prosecuted in the US, they would face the risk of being arrested in other countries, as was President Augusto Pinochet.

[sakabatou]

1. So when do we prosecute him?

[Fearless]

2. Next week.

[sakabatou]

3. Hopefully