Senate Torture Investigation Fails to Interview Key Torture Victims

The soon-to-be-released Senate inquiry into CIA torture has failed to investigate the experience of those who felt that treatment first hand: Guantanamo’s highest level detainees, according to Monday reporting by the Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman, who spoke with attorneys for the imprisoned men.

“If you’re conducting a genuine inquiry of a program that tortured people, don’t you begin by talking to the people who were tortured?” David Nevin, who represents accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, told Ackerman. According to Nevin, his client along with accused al-Qaeda members Walid bin Attash, Abu Zubaydah, and suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were never approached by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), led by committee chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), which is conducting the investigation on the CIA’s abusive interrogation practices.

The report, a summary of which is due to be released in December, has faced myriad criticisms and setbacks, and is currently being reviewed by White House officials. Last week, Senate Democrats accused the Obama administration of siding with the CIA over the classification of pseudonyms for intelligence officers mentioned in the report. According to reports, some lawmakers, including lame-duck Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.), have threatened to bypass the executive branch’s edits and read the report into record in the Senate floor.

“It’s apparent to me that the United States government has absolutely no desire to credibly investigate or in any other way hold accountable the people who tortured my client,” Cheryl Bormann, a Chicago attorney who represents bin Attash, also told Ackerman.

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