Detainee details claim of torture at Guantanamo

In a transcript, American says he was so upset by his treatment that he tried suicide twice

NANCY A. YOUSSEF

A Pakistani citizen who grew up in suburban Baltimore, where his father still lives, told a U.S. military hearing last month that he was tortured at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after he was transferred there from secret CIA custody, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon Tuesday.

Majid Khan, who denied he had ever been a member of al-Qaida, said he was so upset by his treatment at Guantanamo that he twice tried to commit suicide by gnawing through arteries in his arm, according to the transcript.

Khan’s April 15 hearing to determine whether he should be held as an enemy combatant — the last for 14 so-called high-value detainees who were transferred to Guantanamo last September — provided the most detailed allegations yet of mistreatment at Guantanamo.

During the hearing, U.S. officials accused Khan, who graduated in 1999 from Owings Mills High School outside Baltimore, of belonging to al-Qaida. They cited testimony from a witness who said Khan had discussed fighting in Afghanistan during a dinner at his family’s home and had told him he wanted to kill Pakistani President Pervez Musharaff in a suicide attack.

During the 2 1/2 -hour hearing, Khan denied those allegations and presented written statements from the witness denying the conversations took place.

He also said he’d begun several hunger strikes after he was transferred to Guantanamo in an effort to push U.S. authorities to either release him or send him back to Pakistan.

He said prison officials shaved his head twice, confiscated a photo of his daughter and engaged in a variety of forms of “mental torture” by limiting his exposure to sunlight and providing sub-par soap and deodorant.

Among the allegations against Khan was that he worked with al-Qaida operatives to move people across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and planned to attack U.S. water reservoirs and gas stations.

Officials also charged that he planned to use his U.S. travel documents to help an al-Qaida operative enter the United States. Khan denied that was his plan, but he was vague about what he intended to do with the documents and denied al-Qaida membership.

“To be al-Qaida, a person needs to be trained in Afghanistan and needs to take an oath in front of Osama bin Laden,” Khan said. “I have never been to Afghanistan and I have never met (bin Laden). I cannot possibly be a member of al-Qaida.”

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