MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) – Military court at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has ordered the CIA to provide information on secret prisons, Agence France-Presse reported Friday.
Judge James Pohl asked the US government to turn over the information on names and locations of secret CIA prisons where Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is currently on trial before a military tribunal in Guantanamo, was held from 2002 to 2006.
This ruling directs the US authorities to reveal “a huge amount of material pertaining to the RDI [Rendition, Detention, Interrogation] program,” Nashiri’s lawyer, Rick Kammen, told AFP.
Pohl’s order is concerning the turning over of nine categories of data, including a chronology of locations, the names of involved personnel, procedures, requests and authorization of enhanced interrogation techniques usage, said James Connell, attorney for another Guantanamo detainee.
"It is important to know what happened, who did it, where did it happen, who authorized it, who knew about it and what was the results," he told AFP.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian citizen of Yemeni descent, has been charged with "organizing and directing" the bombing of the US Navy destroyer USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors and injured 37 people. He was captured in November 2002 by the CIA's Special Activities Division. Since 2006, Al-Nashiri has been held in the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
The US Senate Intelligence Committee report leaked last week revealed that the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program was not approved by the US Justice Department and impeded White House investigations. The techniques included waterboarding, which produces a sensation of drowning, stress positions, sleep deprivation for up to 11 days at a time, confinement in a cramped box, slaps and slamming detainees into walls. The report summary also suggested the CIA failed to present investigators with an accurate number of individuals it detained and subjected to the controversial interrogation methods.
The documents came as a result of a four-year investigation. The final public report has been gone to the president for de-classification.
Moscow has repeatedly expressed deep concern over human rights violations in the US. Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights, said that by delaying declassification of the US Senate Report, the Obama administration has violated the Convention Against Torture.
