©Luis Goncalves

Surviving the Darkness:
_______________________________________

Testimony from the U.S. “Black Sites”

© 2007
CHRGJ, NYU School of Law
New York, NY

About the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice/International Human
Rights Clinic
The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (“CHRGJ”) brings together and
expands the rich array of teaching, research, clinical, internship, and publishing activities
undertaken within New York University (NYU) School of Law on international human
rights issues. Philip Alston is the Center’s Faculty Chair; Smita Narula and Margaret
Satterthwaite are Faculty Directors; Jayne Huckerby is Research Director; and Veerle
Opgenhaffen is Program Director.
The International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law provides high-quality,
professional human rights lawyering services to individual clients and non-governmental
and intergovernmental human rights organizations, partnering with groups based in the
United States and abroad. Working as legal advisers, counsel, co-counsel, or advocacy
partners, clinic students work side-by-side with human rights activists from around the
world. The Clinic is co-directed by Professor Smita Narula and Professor Margaret
Satterthwaite of the NYU faculty; Amna Akbar is Clinical Fellow.
For more information see: www.chrgj.org.
This report should be cited as: Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Surviving the
Darkness: Testimony from the U.S. "Black Sites” (New York: NYU School of Law,
2007).
About this Report
This Report is the most recent in a series of CHRGJ publications that address human
rights violations in the “War on Terror.” This Report is available at: www.chrgj.org.
For other CHRGJ reports on this subject, see:
ƒ

Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights,
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Human Rights Watch, and Reprieve,
Off the Record: U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the “War on
Terror” (New York: NYU School of Law, 2007).

ƒ

Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Enabling Torture: International
Law Applicable to State Participation in the Unlawful Activities of Other States
(New York: NYU School of Law, 2006).

ƒ

Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Fate and Whereabouts Unknown:
Detainees in the “War on Terror” (New York: NYU School of Law, 2005).

ƒ

Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Torture by Proxy: International Law
Applicable to “Extraordinary Renditions”, Briefing Paper for U.K. All Party
Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Renditions (New York: NYU School of
Law, 2005).

ƒ

Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Beyond Guantánamo: Transfers to
Torture One Year After Rasul v. Bush (New York: NYU School of Law, 2005).

ƒ

Association of the Bar of the City of New York & Center for Human Rights and
Global Justice, Torture by Proxy: International and Domestic Law Applicable to
“Extraordinary Renditions” (New York: ABCNY & NYU School of Law, 2004).

Acknowledgements
Project Directors:
Prof. Margaret L. Satterthwaite, Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and
Global Justice and the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law.
Jayne Huckerby, Research Director, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, NYU
School of Law.
International Human Rights Clinic Project Team:
Reena Arora
Lama Fakih
Michael Price
Brenda Punsky
Additional Research, Writing, and/or Production Assistance:
John Sifton, Executive Director, One World Research
Veerle Opgenhaffen
Priyanka Palani
Kelly Ryan
Michelle Williams
Translation:
Fuad Yahya
Cover Photo:
© Luis Goncalves
We are particularly grateful for the ongoing collaboration of Anne FitzGerald, Senior
Advisor, Amnesty International, whose influence is felt in all aspects of this Project.
CHRGJ would like to thank the JEHT Foundation for its generous support of this Project.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1
II. Statement of Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah………………….5
Detention, Interrogation and Torture in Jordan………………………………………6
Rendition to Afghanistan………………………………………………………………13
Detention, Interrogation, and Torture in Afghanistan………………………………17
Figure 1: Cell Rows in Afghanistan Facility
Figure 2: First Cell in Afghanistan Facility
Figure 3: Second Cell in Afghanistan Facility
Figure 4: Third Cell in Afghanistan Facility
Figure 5: Bathroom in Afghanistan Facility
Figure 6: Section of Afghanistan Facility
Figure 7: Overall Layout of Afghanistan Facility
Rendition to CIA “Black Site” Prison…………………………………………………31
Figure 8: First Cell in CIA “Black Site”
Figure 9: Shower Room in CIA “Black Site”
Figure 10: Interrogation Room in CIA “Black Site”
Figure 11: Second Cell in CIA “Black Site”
Figure 12: Exercise Hall in CIA “Black Site”
Detention, Interrogation, Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading
Treatment in the CIA “Black Site”……………………………………………………33
Transfer to Yemen……………………………………………………………………...55
Proxy Detention, Trial and Release in Yemen………………………………………..57
My Family’s Efforts to Locate Me…………………………………………………….59
Impact of Secret Detention on Life Post-Release……………………………………..62

I. Introduction
On September 6, 2006, President George W. Bush acknowledged that the United
States operates a program of secret detention in the “War on Terror.”1 In the same
statement, President Bush indicated that fourteen of the individuals held in the program
had been transferred to Guantánamo Bay and that “…there are now no terrorists in the
CIA program.”2 President Bush did not disclose the fate and whereabouts of the other
individuals known or believed to have been secretly detained at some point by the U.S.
government, and he left open the possibility that the CIA program would be used again.

A number of the individuals known or suspected to have been held secretly by the
United States are still missing.3 The fate and whereabouts of a smaller number is known
as a result of the efforts of human rights organizations.4 Since 2006, the International

1

See White House Office of the Press Secretary, News Release: President Discusses Creation of Military
Commissions to Try Suspected Terrorists (Sept. 6, 2006), available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906-3.html [hereinafter White House News
Release] (“In addition to the terrorists held at Guantánamo, a small number of suspected terrorist leaders
and operatives captured during the war have been held and questioned outside the United States, in a
separate program operated by the Central Intelligence Agency …”); White House Office of the Press
Secretary, Press Release: The White House Fact Sheet: Bringing Terrorists to Justice (Sept. 6, 2006),
available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906-2.html. See also Office of the
Director of National Intelligence, Summary of the High Value Terrorist Detainee Program (Sept. 6, 2006),
available at http://www.dni.gov/announcements/content/TheHighValueDetaineeProgram.pdf; Office of the
Director of National Intelligence, Biographies of High Value Terrorist Detainees Transferred to the US
Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay (Sept. 6, 2006), available at
http://www.dni.gov/announcements/content/DetaineeBiographies.pdf.
2

White House Office of the Press Secretary, White House News Release, supra note 1.

3

See Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York University
School of Law Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (“CHRGJ”), Human Rights Watch, and
Reprieve Off the Record: U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the “War on Terror” (June
2007), available at http://chrgj.org/docs/OffRecord/OFF_THE_RECORD_FINAL.pdf; CHRGJ, Fate and
Whereabouts Unknown: Detainees in the “War on Terror” (Dec. 2005), available at
http://www.chrgj.org/docs/Whereabouts%20Unknown%20Final.pdf; Human Rights Watch, List of “Ghost
Prisoners” Possibly in CIA Custody (last updated Dec. 1, 2005), available at
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/30/usdom12109.htm; Human Rights Watch, The United States’
“Disappeared”: The CIA’s Long-Term “Ghost Detainees” (Oct. 2004), available at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/us1004.
4

See Human Rights Watch, Ghost Prisoner: Two Years In Secret CIA Detention (Feb. 2007), available at
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0207/us0207web.pdf; Amnesty International, United States of America,
Below the Radar: Secret flights to torture and ‘disappearance’ (Apr. 2006), available at
http://web.amnesty.org/library/pdf/AMR510512006ENGLISH/$File/AMR5105106.pdf; Amnesty

1

Human Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law5 has represented two such
individuals—Yemeni nationals Mohammed Abdullah Saleh al-Asad and Mohamed Farag
Ahmad Bashmilah. Their stories exemplify the nature and breadth of the U.S. system of
detention in the “War on Terror,” as well as the treatment that individuals targeted in the
“War on Terror” suffer.

Both men were illegally apprehended by foreign governments in the latter half of
2003 and after initial detention and interrogation by local authorities, extraordinarily
rendered into the U.S. secret detention network. Each man was then transported between
multiple secret facilities run by the CIA before being sent back to Yemen on May 5, 2005
for continued proxy detention at the behest of the U.S. government until their release in
March 2006.6

Neither man was ever charged with a crime of terrorism. While in U.S. prisons,
neither man was ever visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross or any
other humanitarian organization. And neither man was given the benefit of any kind of
process to determine the legality of his transfer and detention—no arraignment or habeas
corpus hearings, no extradition proceeding, no combatant status review tribunal. Neither
man ever had the opportunity to contest his treatment.

The secret and irregular apprehension, transfer and detention of these two men
involved myriad human rights violations, including, violations of the prohibition on
torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the prohibition against refoulement, or
transfer to a risk of torture; the prohibition against enforced disappearances; and the

International, United States of America/Yemen: Secret Detention in CIA “Black Sites” (Nov. 2005),
available at http://web.amnesty.org/library/pdf/AMR511772005ENGLISH/$File/AMR5117705.pdf.
5

Washington Square Legal Services, Inc. is the corporation that supports the International Human Rights
Clinic of New York University School of Law. The Clinic is a project of New York University School of
Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.
6

See, e.g., Amnesty International, United States of America, Below the Radar: Secret flights to torture and
‘disappearance,’ supra note 4; Amnesty International, United States of America/Yemen: Secret Detention
in CIA “Black Sites,” supra note 4.

2

requirement to prevent, criminalize, investigate and punish acts of torture, conspiracy in
torture, and aiding and abetting in acts of torture. While the responsibility for these
violations lies primarily with the U.S. government, the abuses were inflicted by multiple
actors, including the authorities that initially detained the two men, the governments in
whose territories the “black sites” were operated, and the private companies that enabled
illegal governmental action.7

On August 1, 2007, on behalf of Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, the
International Human Rights Clinic joined an American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”)
lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of the Boeing Company.8 Filed in
the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit alleges that
Jeppesen knowingly provided extensive flight services that enabled the rendition of
Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah and four others into the U.S. secret detention
program, where they were subjected to enforced disappearance, torture, and other cruel
and inhuman treatment.

On October 19, 2007, the U.S. government filed motions to intervene and to
dismiss the lawsuit, or in the alternative, for summary judgment on the basis that the
lawsuit pertains to matters so secret that it must be immediately dismissed. On December
7

For further detail concerning the content of human rights obligations owed to detainees in the “War on
Terror,” as well as the legal standards governing foreign government co-operation in the “War on Terror”
and the nature and scope of the violations visited upon detainees, see the following CHRGJ publications:
Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, CHRGJ, Human Rights Watch,
and Reprieve Off the Record: U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the “War on Terror,”
supra note 3; CHRGJ, Enabling Torture: International Law Applicable to State Participation in the
Unlawful Activities of Other States (Feb. 2006), available at
http://chrgj.org/docs/BriefingPaperEnablingTorture.pdf; CHRGJ, Fate and Whereabouts Unknown:
Detainees in the “War on Terror,” supra note 3; CHRGJ, Torture by Proxy: International Law Applicable
to “Extraordinary Renditions”, Briefing Paper for U.K. All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary
Renditions (Dec. 2005), available at http://chrgj.org/docs/APPG-NYU%20Briefing%20Paper.pdf; CHRGJ,
Beyond Guantánamo: Transfers to Torture One Year After Rasul v. Bush (June 2005), available at
http://chrgj.org/docs/Beyond%20Guantanamo%20Report%20FINAL.pdf; CHRGJ, Torture by Proxy:
International and Domestic Law Applicable to “Extraordinary Renditions” (Oct. 2004) (modified June
2006) (with Association of the Bar of the City of New York), available at
http://chrgj.org/docs/TortureByProxy.pdf.
8

See ACLU, Two More Victims of CIA’s Rendition Program, Including Former Guantánamo Detainee,
Join ACLU Lawsuit Against Boeing Subsidiary (Aug. 1, 2007), available at
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/31165prs20070801.html (containing legal documents, news and
features concerning the lawsuit, Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.).

3

14, 2007, a declaration by Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah (“Declaration”) was filed
with other documents in support of the plaintiffs’ opposition to the U.S.’ motion to
dismiss.9

The Declaration is a ground-breaking and harrowing narrative of the real impact
of the U.S. system of extraordinary rendition and secret detention on the lives of
individuals caught up in the system and the lives of their family members. The 60-page
Declaration is supported by over 100 pages of exhibits, including correspondence from
governments, reports of inter-governmental and non-governmental bodies, and diagrams
of cells and facilities.

This report— Surviving the Darkness: Testimony from the U.S. “Black Sites”— is
a condensed version of the Declaration. It omits references to, and copies of, most
exhibits to the Declaration10 but is otherwise unchanged.

After more than eighteen

months of being held “off the record” by the U.S. government, the Declaration and this
report is Mohamed Bashmilah’s opportunity to tell his own story. Here, he puts back on
the record the truth about the extensive human rights violations he and his family have
suffered as a result of his enforced disappearance.

9

See CHRGJ, Declaration of Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, available at
http://chrgj.org/projects/docs/declarationofbashmilah.pdf (last visited Dec. 17, 2007).
10
All diagrams of cells and facilities appear in Surviving the Darkness: Testimony from the U.S. “Black
Sites” alongside the text that references them as Exhibits in the Declaration.

4

II. Statement of Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah
I am thirty-nine years old and am a citizen of Yemen. I live in Aden, Yemen with
my second wife and my mother, Ni’ma Naji Ali Al-Sabri (“Mrs. Ni’ma Al-Sabri”). I also
have an eight year-old daughter, who was born to my first wife.

From 1996 until 2000, I ran a business selling clothing in Yemen along with my
uncle. Towards the end of 2000, I moved to Indonesia, where I began working in a
clothing factory that belonged to my cousins who were already living there. One of my
uncles had moved to Indonesia a number of years ago and my cousins, with whom I
began working, were born and raised there.

Six months later, after learning some

Indonesian and getting to know places of business, I began working as a businessman,
buying and selling clothing.

During my time in Indonesia, I lost my passport.
I was issued a replacement passport dated March 17, 2003,
which I collected from the Embassy of the Republic of
Yemen in Jakarta.

In late 2003, I was arrested and detained by
Indonesian immigration authorities in Surabaya,

Mohamed Farag
Ahmad Bashmilah
©Amnesty International

Indonesia because I had used a forged Indonesian identity
card in my name, which falsely stated that I was an Indonesian citizen. I used this card to
marry my wife, an Indonesian citizen, and to continue working as a ready-to-wear
clothing merchant.

After my apprehension, I was taken to Jakarta, where the Indonesian authorities
held me for many weeks and questioned me about my Indonesian identity card.
Eventually, I paid a fine to avoid having to go to court, and I was ordered to leave
Indonesia on a flight of my choosing.

5

As my Indonesian wife and I made arrangements to leave Indonesia for Yemen
we decided to stop in Jordan on the way so that I could assist my mother in obtaining
needed heart surgery at the Islamic Hospital in Amman, Jordan. My father, who was
visiting me in Indonesia at the time, made arrangements from Indonesia for my mother to
arrive in Jordan one day after my wife and I were due to arrive there. On September 26,
2003 my wife and I left Indonesia to meet my mother in Jordan.

Detention, Interrogation and Torture in Jordan

When my wife and I arrived in Jordan, officials at the airport asked me questions
about my passport because it did not have an exit stamp from Yemen or an entry stamp to
Indonesia. I explained that this was because I had lost my passport in Indonesia and had
been given a replacement passport there. Despite this explanation, Jordanian officials
took my passport without giving any legal justification and gave me a receipt that told me
to report to the Da’irat al-Mukhabarat al-‘Amah (“General Intelligence Department” or
“GID”) for return of my passport. Without hesitation, I went there on the stated date and
was told to come back another day. This happened more than once.

Not having my passport was a big problem because I needed it as proof of identity
to arrange for my mother’s operation. I continued to visit the GID office and to make
those limited preparatory arrangements for my mother’s surgery that I could make
without my passport. Without my passport, the only thing the doctors were able to do
was to complete the pre-surgery workup.

On October 21, 2003, I visited the GID office again. This time I had with me the
paperwork for my mother’s surgery. My wife and mother also came with me as we had
planned to go straight to the hospital together as soon as I had my passport. I was
surprised this time when instead of being told to come back another day, I was taken
upstairs to a men’s area while my mother and wife remained in the women’s area
downstairs.

6

I have learned from my attorneys at Washington Square Legal Services, Inc. that
Jordan has confirmed to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that I was “…brought in to the
Department for questioning on 21 October 2003.”

I have also learned that in

correspondence to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights dated March 22, 2007, Jordan again confirmed that I was brought in for
questioning by the General Intelligence Department on October 21, 2003.

After taking me to the men’s waiting area, Jordanian officials took me to another
building to what seemed to be the office of a high intelligence official. I attempted to
explain to this official that I needed my passport to sign for my mother’s heart surgery,
and showed him the paperwork concerning the procedure. I asked him why my passport
had been taken but instead of answering me he told another official, who was with us in
the office, to escort me to another section of the building.

My escort took me into another office and began asking me strange questions,
including accusing me of involvement in arms trafficking from Indonesia to Malaysia and
of being a member of Al-Qaeda.

When I explained that I was not involved in arms trafficking and that I was not a
member of Al-Qaeda, the official struck me so hard that he knocked me off the chair to
the floor. He gave me a kick after which I could not get up. He asked me whether I had
ever been to Afghanistan and I said yes.

In the middle of 2000, I traveled to Afghanistan seeking spiritual enhancement and
the chance to further my Quranic studies because at this time Afghanistan was known for
being free of worldly distractions. I left after a few months because I had kidney
problems that required me to spend time in the hospital in Afghanistan. I then moved to
Indonesia in late 2000.

7

As soon as I answered truthfully that I had been to Afghanistan, the Jordanian
official slapped me, knocked me off of the chair to the floor, and kicked me in the back of
the leg. He then shouted for another guard to enter and left the room. He returned with
three guards. Without another word I was handcuffed, chained, and blindfolded and then
taken outside of the GID building to a car. As we were getting into the car I heard
someone address the Jordanian official who hit me as “Faisal.”

As the car sped away from the building, GID officials removed my blindfold and
told me to show them the way to the place of residence I was renting with my wife and
mother, which I did, as I had nothing to hide. I believe that they did not want to be seen
with a blindfolded person in the city center as they were in civilian vehicles and dressed
in civilian clothing. Once my blindfold was off I saw that there was another vehicle
behind us carrying my mother and wife.

After both vehicles arrived at the residence, GID officials began to search our
apartment from top to bottom. They took out all the clothes that were in my suitcase and
my wife’s suitcase as well as my mother’s suitcase, which had her clothes and some
medications, and dumped everything on the floor. Then they took my wallet which
contained the money that I had made from working in Indonesia and which I had set
aside for my mother’s heart operation. They told me to hand it to my mother and wife,
which I did, but I also kept two hundred U.S. dollars with me. I offered to help them find
whatever it was they were looking for. Instead of accepting my offer “Faisal” slapped me
and pushed me forcefully, telling the others to “silence him.” They sat me down roughly.
Although I was already handcuffed, they tied my hands tightly from the back in a painful
position. I was hurt by that hold.

When my mother and wife began to cry, the officials locked them in another room.
My mother and wife were screaming and crying in the room.

Once the search was complete and nothing had been found, I was again blindfolded
and taken out of the apartment while my wife and sick mother continued to scream. At

8

that point, I wished I was dead rather than hear my mother and wife scream any more.
My mother and wife later told me that once I left, my mother began protesting my
detention and was painfully slapped. When my wife tried to defend her, she was slapped
as well.

As I was being taken away I heard the GID officials tell the landlord that if he
wished, he could just throw my wife and mother out of the apartment. Indeed, he replied
affirmatively and this horrified me because my mother had a serious heart disease and my
wife could not speak Arabic well. I pleaded with “Faisal” to leave my wife and mother
alone and to let them stay in the apartment so that when I got back I would know where
to find them. I wondered how they would manage and where they would go. I was
willing to give anything they wanted in return for ensuring my mother and wife would be
safe after I was taken.

They returned me to the GID facility and I expected the Jordanians to realize their
mistake as they had seen that I had nothing incriminating in my residence. Instead, I was
taken to what appeared to be a personal belongings deposit room where my Yemeni ID
card, my wedding ring, and the two hundred U.S. dollars that I had brought back from the
apartment were taken. Here they forced me to strip, shouting at me “Come on! Get
undressed!” and roughing me up.

It was the first time that I had undressed in front of other people and because of my
hesitation and embarrassment they cursed me and pushed me up against the wall. Once I
was naked they took pictures of me from every direction. This was the first of many
occasions in which I was humiliated in this way. They then dressed me in a light blue
outfit and took my fingerprints and a footprint before taking me to a solitary confinement
cell on a lower level of the same GID facility.

That evening, Jordanian officials handcuffed and blindfolded me and took me by
elevator to a room for interrogation. There were two Jordanian officials there and they
were different from the ones who had taken me to my residence. I thought they would be

9

better than those who were with me in the morning, but I was surprised by the threatening
approach they took from the outset. They demanded that I “confess,” and told me that if
I did not do so, they would rape my wife and mother, who they had in their custody.
After I heard this I began feeling faint, my head started to spin, my vision became blurry,
and I lost consciousness and fell to the floor.

I regained consciousness when the officials splashed water on my face.

I

immediately told the two officials that I would confess to anything they wanted, so long
as they let my wife and mother leave Jordan. I told them to leave my wife and mother
alone and said that I would sign anything they wanted me to sign.

They picked me up from the floor, tied my hands behind the chair, and began
asking me about names of individuals. When they asked me about individuals that I did
not know and I answered truthfully to that effect, one of the interrogators slapped me
while the other was kind towards me. In this state, I could not tell how much time passed
while I was being slapped and cursed. Afterwards, the interrogator who was nice at first
told the other that bringing my wife and raping and assaulting her in front of me would be
the safest way to have me confess. He said this knowing that there were no accusations
against her and that she had no connections to anything improper. I screamed at the top
of my voice when I heard this, imploring them to write whatever they wished and I would
sign it. They called the prison guard after telling me to think about the matter. I was
returned to the cell, and I threw myself in it while thinking about my mother and wife
being in custody.

A few days later, after having endured extensive abuse at the hands of the
Jordanians, I was taken upstairs blindfolded and handcuffed. While I was blindfolded,
someone who I believe was one of the two officials who had interrogated me told me that
I must not mention the beatings, the threats and the accusations I had endured. I was then
taken to a room where I was allowed to see my wife and mother for less than ten minutes.

10

I was overcome with relief to see that they had not been detained as the Jordanians
claimed. My mother explained that she had been allowed to meet with me because she
had sought and received assistance from the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in
Amman. During this brief meeting, I asked my mother to seek further assistance from
the Embassy to secure my release. I did not tell them what had happened to me because I
wanted to spare them. After this meeting I did not see my mother again until I was
returned to Yemen in 2005. I did not see my wife again until I was released from
Yemeni detention in the Spring of 2006.

Soon after seeing my mother and wife, some guards came and took me from my
cell to a large hall in the same building, known as the Yard, where several guards were
waiting in a circle, holding canes. The guards surrounded me and commanded me to run
around in circles. When I became too fatigued to run any further they beat me with their
canes. When I could no longer withstand the pain of being beaten by the canes I
collapsed into the middle of the circle.

The guards in the Yard tried to demean me by ordering me to imitate animals. They
forced me to imitate a donkey’s bray and the antics of dogs.

After torturing me in the Yard the guards then took me to another room and
suspended me, upside down, from the ceiling. They took a clip which was attached to a
long chain and clasped it to a leather belt that they tied around my ankles. Then they
pulled the chain and lifted me into the air. They left me hanging there like a piece of
meat in a butcher shop for about twenty minutes with my hands tied in front of me. As I
hung there the guards pushed me and let me spin. They slapped my face. They beat me
with canes in sensitive places, like the bottoms of my feet and the sides of my stomach.
The guards seemed to know that beating me in these places would hurt a lot but that their
beating would not leave permanent marks. I remember hearing them laugh all the while.
They continued hitting me until I could not feel anything. They also brought electric
wires and threatened to shock me. After this painful, terrible beating they lowered me
down.

11

To end this abuse, which took place over the course of two days, I told them to take
me to the interrogator, and said that I would make a confession, without knowing what to
confess. All I was thinking was that I needed relief from this suffering. The guards
eventually returned me to my cell and threatened that they would come again for me and
do worse things to me if I did not confess to the interrogator.

On the night of October 25, 2003 the guards took me to the interrogator who I had
seen on the first night, and another official. Remembering the guards’ threats, I told the
interrogator that I would sign everything they wanted me to sign. He said, “Tell us! You
will sign on everything we want you to, whether you like it or not.” I said, “Yes sir!”
Although I said I would confess, at this time I did not confess to anything. All I wanted
was to get some relief from the guards’ abuse.

The interrogator began asking questions, to which I answered yes or no, although he
always wrote down more than the answer that I gave. He asked about my travel to
Afghanistan and demanded that I “confess” to knowing individuals who belonged to AlQaeda. I refused, explaining that I did not have any associations with Al-Qaeda. Any
time I gave an answer in the negative, the interrogator or his colleague would kick or slap
me. The interrogator threatened to hand me over to U.S. intelligence. At that time I did
not give much heed to this threat. I thought they were making it up to make me feel
worse, just as they did when they said they were detaining my wife and mother.

I was in pain because one of them had slapped me as hard as if I had killed his
relative. He kicked me in the back of my thigh and knocked me over. He said, “You are
a man. Why do you scream and cry like women?” He cursed God and said things I
cannot bear to utter or write. After he cursed God it was terrible for me but I exerted as
much effort as I could to refrain from exploding or collapsing. I tried to compose myself
and wished that the interrogation would end, that I would be taken to Guantánamo, or
that I would even be killed. I did not know then that there were secret prisons that were

12

harder and more horrific than Guantánamo, where you would be shut away from the
entire world.

After two hours of questions, slaps, and kicks, with no answers from me, they asked
me to do the very thing I had wished for since they began abusing me in Jordan, namely
to sign a statement and close the case. I signed under threat and without seeing the
crimes to which I was confessing, but I know that I signed on each page of the confession
and that it was between six and nine pages long. I felt sure it included things I did not
say, but I knew what the answer would be if I were to request time to go over the
statement.

I was willing to sign a hundred sheets so long as they would end the

interrogation. I also thought I would later have the chance to go to court where I would
explain that I signed under coercion. I did not realize that this was my last day in the
Jordanian intelligence prison and that this was just the beginning of my suffering. There
were other transfers to other prisons and other interrogations to come.

Rendition to Afghanistan

A few hours after signing the false confession, in the early morning hours of
October 26, 2003, at around 1:30am, a guard came and gave me the good news that I was
being released. I was taken to the personal belongings deposit room, where I was given a
piece of paper to sign, like a receipt for my items, but all the things they took from me,
except for my wedding ring, were never actually returned to me. Instead, they put in an
envelope my passport, my Yemeni ID card, and the two hundred U.S. dollars that I had
brought back from the apartment, blindfolded me and tied my hands behind me. I was
then led down a corridor among a group of people, two of whom were speaking English.
One of them was speaking in an American accent and the other sounded like a Jordanian
speaking broken English. When I heard them speak I thought to myself, “Perhaps they
do not want me to know what they are saying.”

I then asked one of the guards who was leading me down the hall to ask the
interrogator where I was being taken and for an update about my wife and mother. The

13

guard replied that I should “ask the interrogator,” and lifted my blindfold to reveal the
interrogator who had made me sign the false confession standing with a tall, heavy-set,
balding white man wearing civilian clothes and dark sunglasses with small round lenses.
I was struck by the man’s sunglasses, since he was inside the GID building, and it was
night time. In the man’s hand was the envelope that I recognized as the one in which the
Jordanians had placed my belongings. He seemed angry that I had been allowed to see
him.

I felt apprehensive when I saw the two men together. I was certain I was being
handed to U.S. intelligence and was not being released as I had been told. My blindfold
was repositioned and covers were placed on my ears, like the ones used by pilots. I was
taken out of the GID facility and put in a vehicle that turned left after exiting the GID
building, and then turned right after about twenty meters. When the vehicle turned right I
knew for sure that I was going to the airport and not to the city center, which is what
would have happened if I was being released.

Also, while I couldn’t see or hear

everything, I could hear the muffled voices of two men in the front seat and could feel the
presence of two men sitting in the back of the vehicle with me, one on either side. The
two in front were speaking English and I could hear that one of the men had an American
accent while the other spoke broken English.

I was driven for about thirty minutes to the airport. At the airport I was pulled
from the car and placed in a room. I was seated on a chair with my hands still in cuffs
and my blindfold still on.

Very shortly thereafter, I was taken violently to another room where my clothing
was rapidly cut off until I was entirely naked. My blindfold was taken off and strong
light beams were directed at my face while someone put their hand over my eyes. I was
not able to see clearly because of this, but I could see some things in the room by peeking
through the fingers of the hand over my face. There were at least three people there. One
of them was the one holding me from behind and covering my eyes with his hand. I
didn’t see the person holding me, but the other two that I did see were dressed head to toe

14

in black, with black masks covering their faces and surgical gloves on their hands. They
beat me and kicked me, roughing me up badly. Another person took pictures of me, and
then one of them forcefully stuck his finger into my anus. I was in severe pain and began
to faint.

After this ordeal I was put in a diaper like a baby and dressed in a blue shirt and
pants that came below the knee, to about the mid-shin. Both the shirt and the pants had
been cut to be about three-quarters length and were made of sweatshirt material. I was
forced to go without shoes. They stuffed my ears with spongy material and taped all
around that before putting headphones on. They blindfolded me by putting dressing, like
you would on a wound, over my eyes and then taping over it. Later this tape was
painfully removed, and with it clumps of my hair. They tied my legs together and
chained them to my waist. Then they tied my hands together and also chained them to
my waist. I was also hooded. I was in a lot of pain at this time, but I was mostly worried
about my mother and wife because I did not know what was happening to them.

I was taken up six or seven steps to get on board a plane where I was forced to lie
on my back. I was then strapped across the chest and legs to a metallic board, which was
like a hospital gurney. This plane traveled for about four hours before landing. During
the flight, I suffered pain in my head, sides, and knees from blows and kicks from the
men who prepared me for the transfer and forced me onto the plane.

I was also

consumed with worry about my wife and my mother and what was to become of them.

I have learned through the investigation that my attorneys conducted that I was
flown out of Amman at 4.15 a.m. on October 26, 2003 on a Gulfstream V aircraft,
registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as N379P. This flight arrived
in Kabul, Afghanistan at 8.25 a.m. the same day.

I have learned through the investigation that my attorneys conducted that flight
records show that on October 24, 2003 this aircraft departed from Washington D.C., at
6:03 p.m. and arrived at Prague, Czech Republic at 1:46 a.m. on October 25, 2003 before

15

taking off again at 8:48 p.m. that same evening for Bucharest, Romania, arriving there at
10:16 p.m. Less than an hour later, at 11:12 p.m., the same aircraft departed Bucharest
for Amman, Jordan, from where it then transported me to Kabul, Afghanistan. At 8:45
a.m. on October 29, 2003 the same aircraft departed from Kabul arriving in Baghdad,
Iraq at 12:55 p.m. before taking off again at 1:33 p.m. that same afternoon for Porto,
Portugal, arriving there at 8:04 p.m. At 1:00 p.m. on October 30, 2003 the same aircraft
departed Porto for Washington D.C., arriving there at 7:53 p.m.

I also learned that on November 17, 2003, the Foreign Ministry of Jordan sent a
letter to the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in Amman confirming that I exited
Jordan on October 26, 2003.

I have further learned that on October 10, 2006, and March 22, 2007, Jordan
confirmed this date again, informing the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the United Nations
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights respectively that I had been
questioned by the GID before departing from Jordan on October 26, 2003.

Additionally, I recently learned about another letter describing what the Jordanian
officials told Yemeni authorities about where I had gone when I left Jordan. In a letter
dated March 27, 2006, the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in France informed the
Council of Europe that on March 11, 2004, the Jordanian General Intelligence
Department told the Central Organization for Political Security in Yemen that I had been
released from custody and had been allowed to depart for Iraq. The Embassy of the
Republic of Yemen in France informed the Council of Europe that the Jordanians handed
me over to another agency at a Jordanian airport and that I was then transported by
aircraft to an unknown destination.

16

Detention, Interrogation, and Torture in Afghanistan

After the flight landed, two men untied the chains that affixed me to the metallic
board. Then they untied my handcuffs and shackles from the chain around my waist,
removed them, and replaced them with tight plastic bindings. Then they removed the
chain around my waist and brought me down the steps of the plane. I was put into the
back of a vehicle that was like a jeep and I was forced to lie down while someone sat on
my back so I couldn’t raise my head.

As I was being transferred I kept wondering why I was being taken to another
place and why the Jordanians would lie about what I had said.

I was then driven for ten to fifteen minutes over a bumpy road to an American
detention facility. I remained here from October 26, 2003 until about April 24, 2004.

When I arrived at the detention facility, I was still dressed only in the diaper,
pants and shirt from Jordan. It was very cold. It took only a few steps to enter the
building from the vehicle. I was taken straight away to a room where I had my blindfold,
ear covers, and plastic bindings removed and someone took pictures of me. The plastic
bindings were replaced with metal cuffs.

I was also examined by an American medical doctor who was about forty to fortyfive years old and had a disfigured right hand with a deep scar. I concluded that this
doctor was American because on a later occasion, after he was absent for a time, he
revealed to me that he had been vacationing in Washington with his family. This doctor
conducted an initial exam in which he checked my ears, eyes and weight and drew my
blood. During this medical examination I am sure that he saw bruises and other signs of
torture on my body. There were also several other people around me but I did not know
who they were or where I was.

17

After the initial medical examination and photographing I was taken to be
interrogated, but I was in such an inconsolable state that the interrogator recognized he
couldn’t get any information from me.

After this failed interrogation, I was taken to the first of the three different cells in
which I would be held in this facility in Afghanistan. My first cell was Cell No. 6. I
worked this out because on one occasion when I was taken from my cell to the
interrogation room my blindfold slipped and I could see the number “6” painted in white
on the door. I also knew that I was in Cell No. 6 because after I arrived I heard the other
prisoners talk about me as the new person in Cell No. 6.

By listening to the other prisoners, and through careful observation when I was
taken out of my cell for interrogation or to go to the bathroom, I worked out that there
were two rows of cells in the area where Cell No. 6 was located. While I never saw that
there were two rows, I believe that in one row, the cells were numbered evenly from “2”
to “20” and in the other row the cells were numbered with odd numbers from “1” to “19,”
such that I was in between cells “4” and “8” and across from cell “5.” I believe that the
cells were numbered in this way because I heard people in my row call out even numbers
and people in the other row call out odd ones when they said what cell they were in. I
understand that some of the detainees who were in these cells are still missing.

I have drawn a diagram of this part of the facility, which is based on all the details
I could figure out and can remember. This and all of the subsequent electronic renderings
are based on my hand drawings. My attorneys have arranged to have my hand drawings
rendered using architectural software to more clearly depict my recollection of the
facilities. I have reviewed these renderings.

18

Figure 1: Cell Rows in Afghanistan Facility

My first cell—Cell No. 6—was tiny, less than two by three meters (6.56 by 9.84
feet), and old.

19
Figure 2: First Cell in Afghanistan Facility

In the cell there was a bucket that I used as a toilet, which was emptied out only
once a day. There was a foam mattress and one thick blanket. I was given Nestlé
bottles— they had their outside wrapper removed but still had the Nestlé logo embossed
on the bottle—that were filled with water from a container outside the cells. I never
knew if the water was clean but had to use it for drinking, for my ablutions for prayer and
for cleaning myself after using the toilet.

There were no windows in the cell.

The only ventilation came through an

opening in the wall near the floor that was about the size of a computer keyboard and had
a grate over it, and two openings near the ceiling, one above the door and one directly
across from the door, through which they would pipe music into my cell. This cell had
two doors, one right after the other. The interior door was made of metal and the exterior
one was a door with metal bars.

Between my cell and the neighboring cell there was a gap of about one meter to
one meter and a half (3.28 to 4.92 feet) that I could see through the keyboard-sized
opening. The ceiling of the cell was low, much lower than the ceiling outside the cell.
The ceiling of the cell was about two to two and a half meters (6.56 to 8.2 feet) high in
contrast to the ceiling outside the cell which seemed to be very high, as if we were in a
hangar. The cell seemed to be made of stone and had a dirt floor with a red covering.
When they brought me to this cell I was wearing the same blue clothes and diaper
that they had dressed me in at the airstrip in Jordan. For the first fifteen days or so, my
hands were cuffed together, and my legs were shackled together, severely restricting my
movement and causing me great pain. The entire time I was in this cell I was also
shackled to the wall by a chain attached to my leg. I counted that the leg chain had
twenty-four links in it and it was just long enough to enable me to reach the bucket I used
as a toilet.

20

Because my hands and legs were tied, I could not take off the diaper in which I
had arrived. Instead, for the first fifteen days in Afghanistan, I was kept in the same
diaper that had been put on me at the airport in Jordan. To go the toilet, I would have to
shuffle over to the bucket, stand over it, lower the diaper down with my tied hands, use
the bucket and pull the diaper back up. After the fifteen days the guards brought me a
change of clothes and removed my hand ties so that I could remove the dirty diaper. My
legs remained shackled for about another two weeks. Afterwards these leg chains were
opened while I was in my cell but refastened whenever I was taken for interrogations.

After I was taken to Cell No. 6 and still on my first day in Afghanistan, the doctor
with the disfigured hand came to my cell with an Arabic-speaking interpreter and some
guards because I was crying uncontrollably. The doctor came into the cell and tried to
comfort me. He gave me a pill, which the interpreter said would make me feel better. I
think it was a tranquilizer. At this time I asked the doctor for the direction of Mecca and
he pointed toward the cell door, so that is the orientation I used for prayer, without
knowing if it was right or not.

Initially the only light in the cell was a brief flicker every half hour when the
guards came in to wake me and turned the lights on. After the first week or ten days, the
bare light bulb in the cell was turned on and left on at all times, except that when the
guards came to the cell and the lights would be turned off briefly.

I was kept in this cell for about three months. Excruciatingly loud western rap
and Arabic music was played twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for
approximately the first month I was in Cell No. 6. After that they would pipe in the
sound of waves or birds chirping. Sometimes in between music or sound recordings I
could hear a call to prayer from a mosque in the distance. The guards would not let me
sleep, and routinely woke me every half hour, requiring me to raise my hands to show
that I was still alive. I was subject to constant surveillance by the camera that sat above
the cell door. There was no heating in the cell and it was very cold.

21

When the weather got colder an electric heater was placed in front of the door of
my cell. In the evening they would open the little grate in the cell door that they used to
pass food to me and heat would pass through. I think one of these heaters was placed in
front of all of the cells because at night I would try to see through the grate and would
look to the left and right and see that there was a heater in front of the cells to my left and
right. On one occasion another prisoner who was in a poor mental state managed to
throw a blanket on one of the heaters and caused a fire.

The maltreatment I suffered during my first three months in Afghanistan had a
serious impact on my mental state, which was already extremely bad following my
torture in Jordan and rendition to Afghanistan. I was in such a bad state for the first three
months that I did not eat very much food. I became so depressed that I tried to take my
life three separate times during the first few months that I was in detention here. One
time I tried hanging myself with a string I pulled out of my blanket. On another occasion
I tried to overdose by swallowing pills I was given daily, and the third time I tried to
slash my wrists. At one point I was so distraught that I banged my head against the wall,
trying to lose consciousness. Every time the guards saw that I had tried to take my life or
was behaving irrationally, I was taken to see a psychiatrist, one of whom looked Asian
and spoke English with an American accent. One time I heard the other detainees talking
about him and they had nicknamed him “Jackie Chan.”

I think that once it became clear that my mental state was very bad, I was
transferred to another cell that was not part of the two rows of cells of which my first cell
was a part. Here there was still constant noise twenty-four hours a day, seven days a
week but it was not as loud as it had been in the first cell because there was not a speaker
and it was not directly piped in. This cell was approximately three by four meters (9.84
by 13.12 feet). Inside the cell there was a bucket which I used as a toilet, Nestlé bottles
filled with water, a foam mattress, and a camera above the door. This was to be my home
for about one and a half to two months.

22

Figure 3: Second Cell in Afghanistan Facility

In this second cell the bare light bulb was kept on all the time except when guards
brought food or entered the cell for some other reason. My hands and feet were
constantly shackled. In addition to my hands being chained, there was a chain attached to
an iron post in the wal that attached to my right hand. The chain that held me was long
enough to allow me to reach the bucket I used for a toilet. It was very heavy, which
made it hard to move. The chain was so heavy that I could not even lift my right hand to
my chest during prayer. I was kept under constant surveillance by the camera above the
cell door.

After one and a half to two months three prison officials came into my cell and
began discussing something in English. One of these individuals was an interrogator who
I later learned was named “Frank.” Another was a man who I nicknamed “Kojak”
because he was balding and had the rest of his head shaved. I gathered from watching
them talk, and from the metal apparatus which I saw just outside the cell door when they
opened it, that they were going to convert this room into a torture and interrogation room.
They appeared to be discussing where best to affix the chains in that room.

Shortly afterwards I was moved from this second cell to a cell right across the
corridor. Once I left the second cell they began to use it as a torture and interrogation

23

room. While I myself was not beaten in the torture and interrogation room, after a while
I began to hear the screams of detainees being tortured there, particularly the prisoner
called Adnan al-Libi. On their way to the torture and interrogation room, American
officials, including “Kojak,” would first stop by my cell with a female interpreter and tell
me that when I hear people screaming that I should not be afraid because this treatment
was just for people who did not cooperate. They told me that they had a way of dealing
with people who did not cooperate. I concluded that it was “Kojak” who was so harshly
interrogating Adnan al-Libi because when he came into my cell he would be wearing
surgical gloves.

The third cell was approximately the same size as the second cell, and I
recognized it as an interrogation room in which I myself had been interrogated
previously. In this cell, cloth was hung on the wall, and in addition to the bare light bulb
that lit the room, there were strong interrogation-style lights that were on constantly for a
time.

Eventually the interrogation-style lights were removed because they were

producing a lot of heat, and instead a heater was put outside the room. There was a table
in the room but I could not reach it since I was shackled by a chain to the wall and that
chain did not extend far enough. In this cell the camera was on a tripod, and when I was
brought into the cell the guards changed the camera’s location so that it was directed
toward me when I slept. In this room I also had to use a bucket as a toilet and there were
Nestlé bottles filled with water from which I drank and which I used to do my ablutions.
As with the second cell, here there was still constant noise but it was not as loud as it had
been in the first cell because there was no speaker.

24

Figure 4: Third Cell in Afghanistan Facility

Throughout the time I was at this prison I did not have all of the information and
materials that I needed for prayer and just had to make the best efforts that I could.
While I was given a copy of the Quran about one month after I arrived, I didn’t have a
prayer mat and I didn’t know when to pray. The constant light that was on for the
majority of my time here meant that I could not tell what time of day it was, or keep to a
prayer schedule. Sometimes I could see light through cracks in the window outside of
Cell No. 6 so I knew it was sunrise, but I would not of course know that an hour before it
happened, which is the time at which the first prayer of the day is meant to happen.
Sometimes if the music cut out, I could hear other prisoners calling to prayer but
sometimes this call to prayer was too early, for example one and a half hours before
sunrise. When I was detained in the second and third cells there was a clock in the cell
that played a recording of the call to prayer in the morning. Based on this I tried to
determine the subsequent prayer times for the day.

During the entire period of my detention here, I was held in solitary confinement
and saw no one other than my guards, interrogators, and other prison personnel. The only
time I was taken out of my cell was for interrogations, for washing once a week, for

25

medical and psychiatric visits when they were needed, and to be “sunned” once a week.
This means that about once a week I was blindfolded, hooded and shackled and taken to
an outside courtyard to sit on a metal chair facing a wall for about ten minutes. I believe
the purpose of this “sunning” was to give detainees like me some exposure to the sun to
ensure we did not get sick.

Figure 5: Bathroom in Afghanistan Facility

During these “sunning” sessions, the guards would remove my hood and stand
behind me to ensure that I did not turn my head away from the approximately two meterhigh (6.56 feet) wall that was directly in front of me. They would then give me nail
clippers so that I could cut my nails. While I wasn’t allowed to see anything except the
wall, I could hear planes taking off and landing, and I always heard children’s voices
speaking outside the wall in a language I believe was Pashto. I could also hear some light
traffic.

On one occasion while I was in this position I turned my head slightly without
letting the guards know, to try and feel the sun on my face, and saw a guards’ watchtower
just to the left of my chair. The tower was raised about two and a half meters (8.2 feet)
and had two floors. The entrance was on the lower floor but the guards were upstairs.
These guards were dressed in military uniforms and their faces were unmasked. They

26

appeared to be Afghan. In the same way I was also able to see a few things in the
courtyard, such as a broken down Russian-looking vehicle and water tank.

Figure 6: Section of Afghanistan Facility

27

In addition to my encounters with guards, I saw medical personnel several times
during my detention. I saw the doctor with the disfigured hand twice on my first day
there—on arrival and then afterward when I was in my cell.

After the first day,

sometimes I would be blindfolded, hooded and shackled and taken to the interrogation
room for examination. Other times the doctor would come to my cell, such as when I
refused to take my medication or when I needed a doctor urgently.
The doctor with the disfigured hand, who was like a general practitioner, would
give me pain relievers or tranquilizers and would sometimes try to comfort me because of
all that I was going through. He would try to give me hope that one day I would be
released, go back home, see my mother, my daughter, and my wife. In addition to the
doctor with the disfigured hand, there were also three psychiatrists, one of whom was the
Asian-American psychiatrist that I have already mentioned. This Asian-American
psychiatrist once came into my cell with a female psychiatrist after one of my suicide
attempts to ask me about my psychological state.
I was interrogated frequently while I was in Afghanistan. There were three
interrogation rooms (one of them became my third cell) and there was also the one room
for torture and interrogation that was opposite my third cell and was previously my
second cell.

28

Figure 7: Overall Layout of Afghanistan Facility

29

On one occasion an interrogator accused me of accompanying a specific
individual to an express mail office in Indonesia to mail letters to England. I denied these
accusations, explaining that I did not know the person in question or anyone in England.
The interrogator threatened me and insisted that I was lying. The interrogator told me
that he was as certain of it as he was certain that there was a red carpet behind me on the
wall. When he said that I yelled at him and told him that he didn’t know what he was
talking about. Afterwards he returned me to my cell. When I got back to my cell I was
in a bad state because of the encounter. Shortly thereafter the doctor with the disfigured
hand and “Frank” came into my cell with an interpreter. I told them what happened to
me and that I was upset and they told me not to worry about it. The doctor told me not to
worry since I had said what I wanted to say, namely that I wasn’t involved, and also that
it had been recorded. In the evening “Frank” and the doctor with the disfigured hand
returned to my cell without an interpreter. They brought me some shwarma and the
doctor, who spoke some Arabic with an Egyptian accent, told me that they learned that I
was in fact telling the interrogator the truth.

Generally during interrogations, the interrogators asked me about specific
individuals, showed me pictures, and wrote down my responses.

At first, the

interrogators were lenient with me and I thought this was because they knew that I had
been tortured in Jordan and was not in a very good psychological state. But when I tried
to tell them details about my treatment in Jordan and the false confessions that I was
made to sign, the interrogators told me to “forget about Jordan.” I also asked a number of
times to be assured of my family’s safety, but the interrogators told me that they knew
nothing about it.

The Americans did not allow me to have any contact with my family, my
government, a lawyer, or any humanitarian organization such as the International
Committee of the Red Cross. I suffered greatly from not being able to contact my family
or anyone in the outside world, and I endured enormous psychological pain. I used to try

30

to distract myself by concentrating on the smallest of details in my environment. I think
this is partly why I remember so many things about what it was like in secret detention.

I am certain that I was being held by the U.S. Government in Afghanistan. While
I was in U.S. detention in Afghanistan, I overheard other detainees guessing that the
prison was part of Bagram Air Base but of course these were just guesses as we were
never told exactly where we were. I believe the interrogators and medical personnel in
this prison were all American. The interrogators, the medical doctors and the psychiatrist
all spoke English with American accents and always required an interpreter to speak with
me in Arabic.

The interrogators also frequently referred to reports coming from

Washington.

In addition, while I am sure that the prison was being run by the Americans, I also
believe the guards—who were always masked—were Afghan. When the guards took me
to the bathroom once a week, I sometimes caught glimpses of dark skin beneath their
masks and black clothing.

I also once saw a guard who came into my third cell

unmasked—he looked Afghan. Additionally, I overheard guards speaking to one another
in language I believe to be an Afghan language. I also overheard other prisoners saying
that the guards were speaking to each other in Pashto and Farsi.

Rendition to CIA “Black Site” Prison

On or about April 24, 2004 at around noon, I could hear a lot of commotion,
which made me think that people were being prepared for a transfer. I was taken from
my cell to Interrogation Room Two. After being stripped, I was examined by the
American doctor with the disfigured hand who shined a light on me and noted my
distinctive marks and injuries on a diagram of the human body. The doctor told me that I
was going to a “better place” and I wondered to myself whether that meant that I was
being sent to Guantánamo, since the doctor might have thought that was a better place
than Afghanistan. I asked if he would be going with me and he said that hopefully we
would meet there.

31

The guards then came into Interrogation Room Two and took me to Interrogation
Room Three where people wearing black masks forced me to wear a diaper, a cotton
shirt, and pants that came below the knee, to about the mid-shin. They blindfolded,
shackled, and hooded me before placing a pair of headphones over my ears.

This process, along with the medical exam, took about twenty minutes, after
which I was taken to an area in the courtyard which I felt was near the facility’s inner
gate. I sat waiting in this state for an hour to an hour and a half. While I was waiting, I
could feel the presence of others joining me in the area. After this long wait, I heard
someone yell, “five by five” in English. I believe this was an instruction to move us out
in groups of five.

I was then forced into what seemed to be a jeep, where I could feel other
detainees very close to me. As we entered they made us lie down head to feet such that
my head was next to someone else’s feet and someone else’s head was next to my feet. I
think there were four to five persons in the car with me, as well as there being more than
one carload of prisoners because of the instruction to move us “five by five.” Every time
someone got into the jeep I could feel the jeep sag under that person’s weight.

In the vehicle we were packed together very closely and I reached out to the
person who was next to me. I put my hand on his thigh and with my finger wrote “who
are you?” He responded by writing that he was “Naser.” I knew that this was Salah
Naser Salem Ali Darwish (“Mr. Darwish”), a Yemeni national who had also lived in
Indonesia and who had been held in the two rows of cells in which my first cell was
located. Mr. Darwish was later sent back to Yemen with me on May 5, 2005.

We were driven for less than half an hour and then forced onto a waiting plane at
the airport. I was taken up several steps to the plane’s entrance and was seated on the
right side of the plane, where my knee touched the knee of the person to my right. It took

32

about half an hour to load the plane before it took off and flew for several hours. During
the flight I could feel two other people brush up against me as the plane swayed.

After landing, I waited on board for about thirty minutes and began to hear
helicopters arriving. I am sure that there was more than one helicopter as the sound was
loud enough that I could hear it through my headphones and because as I heard one leave
I could hear another one coming in, and it would take seven to eight minutes for the
sound of the departing helicopter to fade away. I believe that I was being made to wait
on board while the other detainees were unloaded.

I was taken off the plane and could feel the tarmac under my shoeless feet and
very strong wind from the helicopter blades. Two people carried me to the helicopter and
then one person from inside the helicopter picked me up through what felt like the back
and put me on the floor of the helicopter.

The noise was deafening despite the

headphones.

The helicopter flew for a couple of hours and after landing, I was taken to a
vehicle that was right next to the helicopter—as soon as I got off I took only a couple of
steps before being put inside. Inside the vehicle I was forced to lie down just as I had
been when leaving the facility in Afghanistan, with my head to someone else’s feet. We
traveled for about ten minutes, first over a dirt road and then a paved road. The unpaved
part of the road was very short.

Detention, Interrogation, Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading
Treatment in the CIA “Black Site”

On arrival at the detention facility, I was forced up several stairs and then I was
shackled and made to wait. I was then forced to walk down a ramp inside the facility. I
think I was made to wait after climbing the stairs because they were taking the detainees
down the ramp one by one. The ramp was a steep metal slope with a special surface, one

33

that is designed for traction. As I had no shoes I could feel this bumpy surface distinctly
under my feet.

I was then taken into a room and stripped.

My hood was removed for

photographs, which were taken from all sides and I saw that there were about ten to
fifteen people around me. All of them except for the person taking photographs were
dressed in the kind of black masks that robbers wear to hide their faces. The person
taking photographs was unmasked and was about one hundred and sixty centimeters tall
(5 feet 2.5 inches) with a white complexion, and black hair. I recognized him from the
facility in Afghanistan.

I was then taken naked into another room and examined by a doctor who was not
the same doctor who examined me when I left Afghanistan. Although he was not the
same doctor, he had the exact same human diagram that had been used before my transfer
out of Afghanistan: for example, I could see that the vaccination scar on my right arm
had been marked on the diagram. The doctor examined my ears, eyes, nose, and throat. I
was then taken, still completely naked and disoriented, to a very cold cell.

Figure 8: First Cell in CIA "Black Site"

34

I was left completely naked in this cell for two to three days with only a blanket to
protect myself from the cold before the guards finally brought me some clothes. This cell
appeared to be new or refurbished and had a stainless steel toilet and a stainless steel
wash basin. In this cell there were two video cameras, one above the door and one on the
wall in the corner diagonal to the door. The camera on the wall in the corner was
directed at the door, while the camera above the door followed me when I moved in the
cell. There was also a speaker next to the camera above the door.

The speaker above the cell door blasted white noise much like the sound of radio
interference into my cell twenty-four hours a day except for when the guards came in and
the noise was shut off. There was also a large stereo near the entrance of the shower
room that was used to blast music into the room. I was taken to this shower room once a
week to wash for about two minutes.

Figure 9: Shower Room in CIA “Black Site”

Except for when the guards came in and the noise was turned off, the only break
from the constant sound came when the generator stopped working and there was a
power outage. This happened several times during the first two weeks that I was in this
facility. During those times it was quiet enough for me to hear two other detainees being
held in the cells next to me talking. At these times I could also hear the voices of other
detainees but they were too far away to hear very well. The guards patrolled with
flashlights at these times and if they heard anyone talking they would go and knock on

35

that person’s door. When they came and knocked on my door I could see the glow from
their flashlights beneath the door.

During my first three to four weeks in this cell my hands were cuffed all of the
time. Additionally, there was a metal ring in the floor with a heavy chain on it that was
attached to my ankle.

This heavy chain had one hundred and ten links on it and

constricted my movement in the tiny cell. The metal ring was located below the camera
on the wall and the chain was only long enough for me to reach the mattress and the
toilet. This cell was roughly two by three meters (6.56 by 9.84 feet).

To enter and exit the cell you had to pass through two doors, one right after the
other. As the guards would enter my cell they would open the first exterior door outward
toward them and then the second inner door inward into the cell. The inner door had an
opening at the bottom which they would use to pass me food or anything else they
wanted to give me without coming into my cell. Above this opening there was a narrow
pane of clear glass which extended about a foot above the floor of the cell.

My cell was part of a cluster of three cells. In addition to the double doors that
led to my cell there was another door at the entrance to the cluster. There were two other
detainees in my cluster whose voices I recognized from the detention facility in
Afghanistan and who I heard identify themselves as Hazem and Raba’i (Rib’i). When
the door to the cluster opened you could hear a metal clanging sound which suggested to
me that the door was like a metal gate.

The cell’s condition—its newness, the stainless steel sink and toilet, the cameras
and the sophisticated double doors—immediately made me think that I was in a western
country. I also suspected that I was in a western country because in Afghanistan I had
overheard another prisoner named Yassir al-Jazeeri describing a detention facility like
this one. He told other detainees that he was taken to an American-run facility in a
western country where he was held for four months after he arrived in Afghanistan,
before being brought back to Afghanistan. He said that he thought the facility may have

36

been in Europe. The way that he described that facility was identical to this one,
including the camera set up, what the shower room looked like, and even the way the
guards acted.

After a couple of days in this cell, an interrogator I had seen in Afghanistan and
who I later determined was in charge of the rest of the interrogators came into my cell
with an interpreter and three guards to give me instructions on detainee protocol. The
interrogator was not masked and he was a strong-looking white man with blue eyes and
grey hair. He appeared to be about forty-five years old. He spoke in English with an
American accent and told me that when I heard the door to the cell cluster opening, I was
to go to the corner farthest from the door, place my hands on the wall and wait. Then the
guards coming into my cell would look through the glass near the bottom of the inner
door to ensure that I was standing where I was supposed to be before then coming in.
When they came in one guard would hood me, one guard would cuff me, and another
guard would unlink my ankle chain from the metal ring on the floor. They would then
shackle my legs together in such a way that I could walk. He told me that if any
information came to mind that I wanted to tell them that I should wave at the camera
above the door in the cell. This interrogator then said one of the worst things I could
have heard: “welcome to your permanent home.”

About a day or two later this same head interrogator, along with an interpreter and
three guards, came through my cell cluster, making the rounds to all the detainees to tell
them the direction of Mecca. When I heard the door to the cell cluster open I went
straight to the corner of my cell as I had been instructed and waited while I heard the
doors of the two cells next to me open. When the interrogator eventually came into my
cell he indicated the direction of Mecca as being the same direction that the toilet faced,
which is something that would not happen in a Muslim country. This confirmed my
suspicion that I was being held in a prison that had been built by westerners or in a
western country.

37

Any time I was taken outside of my cell in this facility, I was handcuffed and
hooded. In accordance with the instructions the head interrogator gave me, there were
always three guards who came to collect me. They would do exactly as he had said and
then as we left the cell, two of them would guard me on either side while the other
walked behind us and made sure the doors to my cell and my cluster were closed. We
would always have to wait until the guard walking behind me and the two guards finished
locking the doors and could join us.

The guards were always dressed in black from head to toe. They wore black
pants with several pockets, their shirts were long sleeve black tee-shirts and they wore
black face masks and black or surgical gloves. These face masks completely covered the
head and the neck. The back of the mask was elastic whereas the front, from the
eyebrows to just above the lips was tinted yellow plastic. When I first arrived at this
facility, I used to really stare at the guards to try to understand their gestures and I could
see through the tinted yellow plastic that their skin was white.

There were both male and female guards at this facility. I first began to realize
that some of the guards were women when I was being unshackled once. When the
guard approached me to unshackle my hands I noticed that she was wearing lipstick
because I could see through the porous fabric of the mask that covered her mouth. Then,
when she bent down to unshackle my feet I saw a bulge at the back of the mask where
her hair was pulled back. Once I noticed this, I looked for other signs that she was a
woman and also saw a bulge in her chest area.

I also discovered that another way of telling the difference between the female
and the male guards was that the mask the female guards wore was different from the
mask the male guards wore. The women and men’s masks differed in that the tinted
plastic on the men’s mask seemed to be a part of the mask whereas the women’s mask
seemed to be two pieces. Additionally, I noticed that some of the male guards had a
device next to the ear with about ten small flashing red and green lights on it.

38

The guards were bigger than the Afghan guards. The male guards were at least
one hundred and eighty centimeters tall (5 feet 9 inches) and the female guards were
between one hundred and seventy to one hundred and eighty centimeters tall (5 feet 5.7
inches to 5 feet 9 inches). They were all big and strong bodied, and seemed to have no
body fat at all.

At one point I saw the guards take a combative stance. This happened when on
one occasion an interrogator showed me a lecture by an Islamic scholar on a laptop that
he had with him. The interrogator wanted to know if I knew the person giving the
lecture, which I did not. The three guards who were in the room with us gave me the
impression that they thought I would do something to the laptop because their posture
was very defensive. They seemed to assume a fighter’s stance, with their hands at chest
level and their legs ready to spring. Based on this experience, and the physical build of
the guards, I think they may have been trained in self-defense or martial arts.

I never heard the guards speak to each other and they never spoke to me, not even
when I tried to hurt myself or went on hunger strike. If they wanted to communicate with
each other they would do it through hand gestures and when it came to dealing with me,
most of the time they relied on the fact that I would comply with the instructions given by
the head interrogator.

When the interrogators and the medical personnel wanted to communicate with
the guards in my presence they would speak to them in English. Additionally one time
when two interpreters—one with a North African accent and one with a Levantine accent
—came into my cell without an interrogator, but with the three guards, to tell me about
the changes in the food schedule because of Eid al-Fitr they explained that we could not
all speak in Arabic. Instead, they explained that one would speak to me in Arabic and the
other would translate everything that was said into English so that the guards would know
what we were saying. The interpreter with the North African accent who came into my
cell on this occasion was the same person who interpreted for the doctor with the
disfigured hand during my final medical exam in Afghanistan.

39

Ten or eleven days after I arrived at this facility, I was given a digital Casio watch
made in either Japan or Malaysia, which displayed a map of the earth. When I pushed a
button on the watch it indicated that it was set to Greenwich Mean Time. The watch also
had the date on it, and on the day I received it, the date read 05 May 04. Using this date I
was able to verify, based on knowing how many days I had been in this facility, that I had
been transferred out of Afghanistan on or around April 24, 2004.

I was also given a prayer schedule in English that had been printed from the
internet and had the web address and the location for which the schedule was made
blotted out with a black marker. For a short period of time, I was able, to the best of my
knowledge, to determine the appropriate times to pray with the watch and these
schedules. However, I think my captors decided that the watch was too useful and it was
soon taken away. I also found discrepancies in the prayer schedules that led me to
believe they had been falsified or were wrong. For example, when they gave me a new
prayer schedule at the beginning of the month, I would notice that there was a jump of
about an hour between the prayer times on the last day of the previous month and the first
day of the current month. This is very unusual, considering prayer times normally only
change by a few minutes each day. Every month I would see a big jump when they gave
me a new prayer schedule.

After they took the watch away they mounted a second wrist watch on the outside
of the glass near the bottom of the inner door to my cell. This watch was made of black
plastic and was taped up so that I could see the watch face from inside my cell. This
watch showed the date and time but there was no world map and the straps had been
removed. Constantly seeing this watch caused me some difficulty because it made me
see how slowly time was moving.

Being by myself all the time, not being told where I was, and thinking that I might
never leave, caused me to suffer enormous stress and psychological torment. One time I
used a piece of metal that I smuggled from Afghanistan to slash my wrists; I got this

40

piece of metal from a key which the guards there broke when they were in my cell and
hid it in my papers which were transferred to this prison. After cutting myself, I used my
blood to write “I am innocent” and “this is unjust” on the walls of my cell. Someone
must have seen me cutting myself on the camera because after I cut myself deafening
music was blasted into my cell and the guards rushed in.

As soon as I saw the guards rushing into the cell I went to the spot I was supposed
to be in when someone came into the cell. The guards then blindfolded, cuffed, and
shackled me. Once I was cuffed and shackled they took my blindfold off, pointed to the
cut, and gestured with their hands meaning to say that I should not cut myself and that if I
did this again they would bind both of my hands so that I couldn’t do anything. They
extended my hands and directed light from their flashlights at the incision to see how
deep and extensive it was. Then they cleaned up the writing on the wall and looked for
what I had used to cut myself, which they could not find because I had put it in the toilet.

Out of desperation and a sense of injustice I also went on hunger strike for ten
days about three or four weeks after I slashed my wrists. To end the strike, prison
personnel first tried to oblige me to eat but I refused. A doctor came to my cell on about
three different occasions to tell me that I had to eat or else they would try different
measures to force me to eat. When I continued to refuse they took me with my hands tied
to the interrogation room.

41

Figure 10: Interrogation Room in CIA “Black Site”

In the interrogation room there was me, the doctor with the disfigured hand, an
interpreter, an interrogator, and three guards. I was weighed on a scale that used pounds
as its unit of measure and the scale showed that I was about ninety pounds. Then the
guards untied my hands and sat me in a chair and strapped my arms to the arms of the
chair. They then used a chain to connect the shackles on my feet to a metal ring in the
floor. I saw blue cans on the table that contained what looked like pink colored liquid.
There were also tubes like those used for IVs and a metal IV pole. After I was strapped

42

to the chair and chained to the floor they shoved a tube up into my nose and I began
screaming because of the pain. I resisted because I was beginning to choke and the
guards held my head back. In this way they forced the tube all the way into my stomach.
After this tube was inserted where they wanted it to be they taped it to my nose and
connected it to whatever the material was that they were going to feed me. They emptied
five or six cans of this liquid into a plastic container that they hooked to the IV pole.
They then put this material into my stomach.

After they emptied this material into my stomach, I told them my stomach was
bloated and they took the tube out. When they pulled the tube out my nose started to
bleed. Then the doctor told me that this was the way that it would be, once in the
morning and once at night, until I started eating again. After they force-fed me, they
weighed me again, and then took me back to my cell. When I got back to my cell I made
myself vomit. I think they were watching me vomit on the camera because afterwards
they stopped taking me back to my cell right after they force-fed me. Instead they would
make me sit in the interrogation room, stretch my legs, and wait for the food to settle for
about an hour to an hour and a half. I would then go back to my cell and try to vomit but
not very successfully. This lasted for about three days. After I went on the hunger strike
I was given tranquilizers, which I took because I was in such a poor mental state.

Around September 2004, I was cuffed and blindfolded and walked to a run-down
cell with a filthy mattress where I stayed until I was transferred to Yemen in May 2005. I
initially believed that I was being taken to the interrogation room but as I was being
transferred I noticed turns that were different than what they would have been if I was
going to the interrogation room. I believe the two cells were in the same building, but
cannot be completely sure because the guards did not take a straightforward route to get
there and I had the impression that they were trying to confuse me.

This second cell was approximately two and a half by four meters (8.2 by 13.12
feet) and contained the same camera and speaker arrangement as the previous cell.
Again, there was a mattress, a stainless steel toilet, and a stainless steel wash basin. At

43

some point, I was told by an interrogator who came into my cell that Mecca was in the
direction of the door. This cell was also in a cluster of three. Although there was also a
metal shackle in this cell, I was not chained to the floor as in the previous cell, but instead
had shackles on my ankles chaining my legs together. Although there was a speaker in
this cell as in the other cell, no noise came out of the speaker except for during the last
month or month and a half when Quranic verses were played about once a week.

Figure 11: Second Cell in CIA “Black Site”

Unlike in my first cell, where I would sometimes hear the people in my cluster
speaking to one another, in my second cell cluster each of us abided by the rules and did
not talk at all. However, I still believe that there were two other detainees in my cluster
because when the guards opened the door to the cluster to bring me food they would not
come to my cell straight away. Instead, I would hear another set of doors open, then a
second set and after that they would come to my cell. It was the same when they would
take me to the shower room once a week.

44

When I first arrived the showers were on Sundays but then the day changed to
Fridays instead. When the guards would come to my cell to take me to the shower room
they would bring a change of clothes and a towel which they would leave with me for the
entire week. When I noticed that they were about to come into the cell I would move to
the corner as I had been instructed and then they would put the towel around my waist
and pull my pants down and cuff me. When I got back to my cell they would put my
pants on themselves as they did not want to untie my hands to let me do it myself. In this
way I was constantly demeaned.

Even though I never heard the people in my second cluster speak, I could hear
voices that seemed very far off. When I heard someone far off raise his voice I would
then hear them blast loud Western music into his cell. Hearing these detainees, and
hearing detainees both within and outside of my first cell cluster, led me to believe that
there were more detainees than the three who were in my cluster at any given time.

I also worked out that there were detainees in addition to the ones in my cluster
by counting each Friday the number of cotton swabs in the trash bin that was in the
corner under the camera in the shower room. Every week I was given two cotton swabs
and after my shower I would regularly count ten to twelve cotton swabs in the bin which
meant that at least five or six people had showered before me.

It was also clear to me from the problems I sometimes had in getting access to
books that there were additional detainees. Toward the end of my detention, I was given
a list of books about five pages long with about a hundred books on it. The way it
worked is that when I requested a book from the list they would bring it to me that day, or
the following day if the request was made at the time of the evening meal. The list
included Islamic books, Arabic fiction and some fiction translated into Arabic and I
would read books from all of these categories. I also sometimes asked for bilingual
books printed in Arabic and English to help me improve my English. The books seemed
brand new and each one had a page that was imprinted with a stamp from a Bookshop in
Washington D.C. However, sometimes when I requested a particular book they would

45

indicate that it had already been reserved and from this I understood that there were more
detainees than just myself.

In addition to the books, there were also movies that I was allowed to watch that I
do not think would have been brought there just for me. I was taken to the interrogation
room to see a movie by myself about three times. At these times, the guards would seat
me on the interrogation chair, chain me to the floor and show me pre-selected shows like
films with Jackie Chan in them and a European soccer game. While I viewed the screen
the guards would watch me from behind a one-way glass window which looked like a
mirror to me.

This facility also had an exercise hall in which I was allowed to exercise for about
fifteen to twenty minutes once a week in the month or two before I was sent to Yemen.
Three guards would come to my cell and we would go through the usual hooding and
shackling procedure before they would take me to a large empty hall with balls in it.

46

Figure 12: Exercise Hall in CIA “Black Site”

To enter the exercise hall I would first pass through an outer door and then go
through a door in the metal mesh fence that ran the length of the room. The fence
separated the main part of the exercise hall with the balls in it from the place the guards
stood watching me while I exercised. Once I was in the main part of the exercise hall I
would put my hands through a metal opening in the fence and a guard would remove my
cuffs. I would do the same with my feet, and then I would play by myself by kicking and
bouncing the balls off of the walls. The guards would silently watch me do this from
behind the fence until a guard would bang on the fence and point to his or her wrist to
indicate that my time was up. When this happened I would approach the opening in the
fence to have my cuffs put back on again and then be taken back to my cell.

47

Aside from the exercise I got in the exercise hall the only other exercise I
managed to get the entire time I was in custody, both here and in Afghanistan, was in my
cell. In the cells in which I wasn’t chained to the wall, I would try to run around. This of
course was really difficult since my legs were shackled and the cells were so small.

Although I had determined that there were other detainees, the whole time I was
in this facility I never saw another prisoner. I was kept in constant isolation and this gave
me a lot of time to worry and despair. The thing that occupied my mind the most was
thinking about the condition of my mother and wife. The other thought that constantly
occupied my mind was simply: I am innocent, why are they doing this to me?

Even though I was alone, I never had any privacy because of the constant
monitoring by video cameras, including the video camera in my cell that followed every
little movement I made, and because my cells were regularly searched.

Often my cell was searched when I was taken to the shower room once a week. I
always made sure to organize everything in my cell before I was taken to the shower
room so that they could see everything I had and would not have to rummage through all
of my belongings. I was particularly concerned about preventing them from touching or
mishandling the Quran. I would always place the Quran on the top of my pile of books,
yet when I returned from the shower room I would find that they had moved the Quran—
sometimes it would be in the middle or at the bottom of the pile, or in a completely
different place. This caused me great dismay

I was also almost always cold and by the end of December 2004 it was so cold
that I had to pray wearing the blanket I had been given. The blanket was black, marked
“Made in Mexico” and was just like the blanket I was given in Afghanistan but seemed
new because of the way it smelled.

Generally the food here was what I would describe as European. They gave me
boiled rice and tinned/sliced meat and bread, triangles of cheese, boiled potato, slices of

48

tomato, and olives, all served in a plastic plate with different compartments. To drink, I
was given juice in cups and large bottles of water without the label. The cups were
checkered blue and red and made out of waxy cardboard and had what looked like a
phone number that began with 00 33 on the inner rim of the bottom of the cup. Even
though the water bottles came without the label, I figured out that, as in the facility in
Afghanistan, they were Nestlé bottles because they had the Nestlé logo embossed on
them. I also noticed that the logo was on the inside of the cap.

At first I did not eat much of the food, especially the lunch meal because it
consisted primarily in poor quality mashed white rice and canned meat. I could not eat
the meat because I did not know what type of meat it was and it could have been pork for
all I knew. I also didn’t know whether it was properly butchered halal meat. They never
told me what type of meat it was or whether it was halal; rather, after I was transferred to
the second cell, they eventually substituted the meat for sardines, which I could eat.

The quality of the food was generally poor except for towards the end of my
detention. For instance on New Year’s Day 2005, the director of the prison, who I met at
the detention facility in Afghanistan and had nicknamed “Kojak,” came to the cell with
an interpreter, three guards, and a young female interrogator who was carrying a tray with
fresh juice, a milkshake, and a slice of cake for me. I also received a visit from “Kojak”
on Eid-al-Adha, when he brought me a better meal of rice and meat and allowed me to
have a second portion.

“Kojak” spoke English with an American accent and he was about 175
centimeters tall (5 feet 7.4 inches). He was always dressed in black. At one point he
gave me a Rubik’s Cube so that I had something to do to pass the time. I finished it in
two or three days because I had nothing else to do.

As a result of my treatment, my psychological balance and well-being became so
severely damaged that psychiatrists were sent to consult me in the interrogation room on
a number of occasions. I identified these people as psychiatrists because they were the

49

ones who would consult with me after I asked to see a psychiatrist and because they acted
like psychiatrists.

The psychiatrists asked me to talk about why I was so despairing, interpreted my
dreams, asked me how I was sleeping and whether I had an appetite, and offered
medications such as tranquilizers. Four or five of the psychiatrists that saw me in this
facility had also seen me in Afghanistan. One of them was a woman and one of them
was the Asian-American male that I have already mentioned who was nicknamed “Jackie
Chan.” In addition to those four or five that I had seen in Afghanistan, I saw two other
psychiatrists in this facility.

Shortly after being transferred to my second cell in September 2004 I woke up at
three in the morning feeling as though I was inside a grave, buried alive. I tried to shake
off the feeling as best I could, but this was difficult because there was no way for me to
turn on the lights. I tried to improve my mental state through prayer but I still could not
escape the dreadful feeling. In the morning I asked for a psychiatrist and was taken to see
one.

I told the psychiatrist that I had a feeling that something bad had happened to my
family, and that I was almost certain that something had happened to my mother because
of her heart problem. The psychiatrist let me talk, and I started to cry. The interpreter
tried to get me to stop crying, I think because she was affected by my suffering but the
psychiatrist told her to let me cry.

The psychiatrist said that it might help to cry if I felt that I needed to. Afterwards
the psychiatrist gave me some yellow pills and I returned to my cell where I continued to
cry.

Eventually, when I was returned to Yemen I learned that my father died in

September 2004, which was the same time at which I had this episode.

In October or November 2004 I was taken to see an English-speaking doctor, who
I assume was an optometrist because he gave me an eye exam. While the optometrist

50

checked my eyesight, he told me that my vision was normal and did not give me
eyeglasses even though I did have, and continue to have, vision problems. At the time, I
had not complained about my vision or asked to see the optometrist and I got the sense
that the optometrist was seeing other detainees because I watched him writing notes
about me on a sheet of paper and there was a pile of many such sheets.

In addition to the optometrist, I also saw a dentist in the prison twice. The first
time I was taken in the usual way by three guards and laid down on a bed to have my
teeth examined in a room that contained medical equipment. During the examination, the
man conducting the exam spoke in English with two other men. All of them had
American accents and were wearing regular medical masks. The second time I was taken
to the dentist it was just before I was transferred to Yemen and I had my teeth cleaned.

There were two to three American medical doctors in this facility. The doctors
gave me three pills every day with breakfast —one was brown and large like a capsule,
another was white and also large, and a third was small and yellow. When I asked what
they were for, they told me that the pills were supplements that I needed to take because I
was not allowed any sun exposure.

I was required to take these pills but sometimes I

would just dump them in the toilet.

In addition to the pills I was given to make up for the lack of sun exposure, and
the tranquilizers I was given for my psychological suffering, at one point when I was in
the interrogation room, a doctor that I had never seen before tried to give me an injection
which he explained would prevent disease. I refused and was taken back to my cell.

I developed hemorrhoids while I was in the second cell in this facility and was
bleeding every time I went to the toilet. I never had this condition before I was in
detention and believe that it may have developed because I was forced to sit a lot of the
time. I did not feel that I could tell the doctors in this facility about this.

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In both cells, the ceiling and floor were all painted the same drab grey color and I
was not once allowed to see the sun or the sky for the more than twelve months I was in
this facility. As a result I felt sealed in and claustrophobic. I also felt extremely
disoriented because I had no idea where I was.

The sealed in nature of this facility and the claustrophobia that I experienced
contributed to my feeling that this detention facility and the facility in Afghanistan were
essentially coffins. It especially felt that way to me because I was innocent. You die a
little every day you are in prison because you are in a coffin for the living where you
don’t see, you don’t hear, and there is nothing.

In this facility, in addition to the American doctors, dentist, optometrist, and
psychiatrists, all of my interrogators were American. The interrogations were always
done in English with an interpreter speaking to me in Arabic and translating my
responses into English. The English spoken by the interrogators was with an American
accent. Also, they constantly referred to “Washington” and discussed “reports from
Washington” that made it clear that all of my interrogators were Americans working for
the U.S. government. For example, when I would respond to the interrogators’ questions
by telling them that I had no connections to the groups they were asking me about, they
would say that they were going to forward my information to Washington to see what the
people in Washington had to say about it, or to see if Washington had contrary
information.

Also, one time a delegation of interrogators came to question me from
Washington. There were three interrogators in the delegation, two men and one woman,
and they had an interpreter with a Levantine accent. These interrogators were wearing
matching long black pants with side pockets, long boots, and both green and black long
sleeved shirts. They dressed the same way that the director of the prison (“Kojak”) and
the head interrogator dressed. The person in charge of the interrogators said these people
had come from Washington and that they wanted to get to know me. These three
interrogators basically asked me the same questions that I had been asked before for

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about an hour to an hour and a quarter. For example they asked when I left Yemen for
Indonesia and about my time in Afghanistan.

Their questions were framed in a

conversational manner and I got the sense that they just wanted to verify things. One
thing about them that was unusual was that they were always staring into my eyes in a
way that made me feel like they were trying to see if I was telling the truth. It seemed to
be a kind of psychological inspection. This was the first and only time that I ever saw
these interrogators.

On another occasion a female interrogator with black hair who looked like she
was from East Asia entered my cell with an interpreter and began asking me questions.
When she learned that I had lived in Indonesia she began speaking to me in Indonesian
and then switched back to English after she explained that she had to speak in English
because the interpreter was there. When I asked her how she knew Indonesian she said
that she learned it in Washington D.C.

The interrogators dressed mostly in black but they did not have a set uniform and
they did not wear masks. Some wore high boots like the guards and others wore regular
shoes. The female interrogators wore civilian tops and pants in regular colors.

In general at this facility I would say that there were what I would describe as
“official” and “non-official” interrogators. I thought of them this way because one set—
those I thought of as “official”—seemed more professional and appeared to have a higher
status than those I labeled “non-official.” The “official” ones assumed the lead role in the
interrogations, particularly the more severe ones, and appeared to be trained in the art of
interrogation. These same interrogators also questioned me in Afghanistan. There were
six to seven “official” interrogators and altogether (“official” and “non-official”) there
were about six to seven female interrogators and four to five male interrogators.

Those I thought of as “non-official” interrogators showed me photographs and
asked me if I recognized individuals, but they did not ask in-depth questions. The “nonofficial” interrogators included some very young female interrogators, who would come

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into my cell and show me pictures of certain individuals. I had the sense that these
interrogators were in training as they did not deal with serious matters.

Their

mannerisms were also different from the male interrogators in that instead of being
adversarial, they were congenial and would sometimes make jokes and even play games
with me in my cell. Also, the way they were dressed in very tight pants and tops and the
way that they spoke seemed intentionally seductive.

I was not extensively or regularly interrogated while I was in this facility. For
much of the time I was left alone. When I was interrogated, it was about my time in
Afghanistan and about my activities in Indonesia and I always answered these questions
truthfully because I had nothing to hide.

I have learned through my attorneys that on March 5, 2005, according to
correspondence from the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in France, the United
States, through its Liaison Officer in Sana’a informed the Central Organization for
Political Security in Yemen that I was being held in U.S. custody.

At about the same time—a few months before my release—things began to
improve somewhat. I was given a softer blanket to keep in my cell. I was brought extra
and better quality food on a few occasions and this was around the time that I got the
books, was allowed to go to the exercise hall and was taken to watch movies.

About a month before my release, “Kojak” along with an overweight man, a
woman, three guards and an interpreter came to my cell with a man they introduced as
someone who had come from Washington D.C. to inspect the prison. I was told that this
man would send a report about me and that hopefully I would be released. He was very
tall, about one hundred and eighty centimeters tall (5 feet 10.87 inches), very well-built
and had medium brown hair. He was dressed in civilian clothing.

I was then asked whether I wanted to be returned to Yemen or to Indonesia, and I
said that I wanted to return to Yemen since I thought my sick mother would be there. I

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was told that chances were good that I would be returned to Yemen since it was the
country of my nationality and that I would be held in prison in Yemen for a short period
and then released.

“Kojak” also said that I would never be released if I told anyone about what had
happened to me in secret detention and he made me promise not to say anything. For a
long time I didn’t tell anyone about this visit since I had promised to keep it a secret, but
the prison director broke his word because I was not held in Yemen for a short period at
all. It was many months after I got back to Yemen before I was released and because he
broke his word I now break mine in order to seek justice for what the Americans did to
me.

A few days before I was sent back to Yemen “Kojak” told me that I could
consider myself as good as having a ticket in my hand for leaving the facility. He came
into my cell with the guards and an interpreter, brought me chocolate and juice, and told
me that I had permission to leave and that they were just waiting for my passport and for
final instructions to arrive from Washington. Although he mentioned my passport, I have
yet to get it back. I last saw my passport on the early morning of October 26, 2003 when
the Jordanians made me sign a receipt for it but never handed it to me.

Transfer to Yemen

Although I did not know about my exact moment of transfer to Yemen until just
before it happened, the Americans apparently gave advance notice to the government of
Yemen. Amnesty International has reported that Rajih Hunaish, the Undersecretary of
the Central Organ for Political Security, informed them that the Yemeni government was
notified by the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen of my return 24 hours before the plane
landed in Sana’a, Yemen. According to Amnesty International, the U.S. government told
the Yemeni authorities that I was being sent to Yemen for continued detention.

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On May 5, 2005, approximately one year and seven months after being detained
in Jordan, I was dressed, cuffed, hooded, and otherwise prepared in the usual way and
bundled onto a plane that flew non-stop for about seven hours, arriving in Sana’a, Yemen
in the late evening at about 10:30 pm. This transfer date has been confirmed by the
government of Yemen in correspondence with the Council of Europe.

On the plane they took off my headphones and hood and when I got off the plane
I heard someone cry out and I immediately recognized from the smells and sounds that I
was home. I was very happy as after all that I had been through, I had not believed the
Americans when they said they were sending me to Yemen.

I was then transferred to a vehicle on the tarmac and when the guards asked us to
say where we were from I could make out the voices of two other detainees in the
vehicle. I later learned that I had been transferred to Yemen alongside two other Yemeni
nationals, Mohammed Abdullah Saleh al-Asad (“Mr. al-Asad”) and Mr. Darwish, and
that it was Mr. Darwish who had cried out when we arrived. The fact that I was
transferred with Mr. Darwish and Mr. al-Asad has been confirmed by the government of
Yemen in correspondence with the Council of Europe.

We were then taken to the Central Organization for Political Security in Sana’a,
Yemen, where we were held in a Political Security detention facility until the early
morning hours the next day. At around 4:00 am Mr. Darwish, who was also from Aden,
and I were taken to the airport and forced to board a normal passenger plane where the
passengers stared at us, especially because I was tied to one person, and Mr. Darwish to
another. We were flown to Aden and placed in detention in the Political Security prison
(Fateh Prison) in Aden.

While I was detained in Aden I was constantly dizzy, suffered nose bleeds, and
often felt like I was floating on water. I believe these things happened because I had not
been exposed to the sun for such a long time and was now suddenly in a place with
abundant sunlight.

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With my family’s persistence, my mother and sisters were allowed to visit me
about a month to a month and a half after my arrival in Yemen. The joy of seeing them
was indescribable and the experience was overwhelming. My mother tried to comfort me
to show that she was strong but I later learned that she collapsed after leaving the prison.

Proxy Detention, Trial and Release in Yemen

I was detained by the government of Yemen, apparently at the behest of the U.S.
government, from May 5, 2005 until March 27, 2006.

While I was detained in Yemen, Amnesty International worked to find out why I
was being held. Amnesty International has reported that a number of Yemeni officials,
including the Chief of the Central Political Security Department, Ghalib Mathar alQamish, told Amnesty International that U.S. officials had given them “explicit
instructions” for my continued detention, and that the Yemeni authorities were “awaiting
files” from the United States so that I could be tried for whatever it was I was supposed to
have done.
I have learned that on November 30, 2005, the United Nations Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention adopted an Opinion concerning my detention and that of Mr.
Darwish and another detainee, Walid Muhammad Shahir Muhammad al-Qadasi. The
Working Group stated that in official communications, the government of Yemen
confirmed that I was handed over by the United States and that I was detained
“…pending receipt of their [the persons’] files from the United States of America
authorities in order to transfer them to the Prosecutor.”

I have learned that in official correspondence dated December 20, 2005 the
government of Yemen confirmed that I was handed over to them by the United States,
that I had been detained by the Yemeni authorities for questioning and to verify the

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allegations made against me by the United States, and that on November 10, 2005, the
Yemeni authorities received files on me from the United States authorities.

Both the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism and the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment have publicly confirmed the content of the December 20, 2005
letter. This letter was in response to a request for information about me and Mr. Darwish
from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, and the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment.

In early 2006 the Special Penal Prosecution of the Special Penal Court in Yemen
interviewed me to determine whether I had committed any crimes. I admitted to the
Special Penal Prosecution that I had used a false identity document in Indonesia. I also
explained that I had not committed any acts of terrorism or joined Al-Qaeda.

On February 13, 2006, I was tried in the Special Penal Court for the crime of
forgery, based on my admission to the Special Penal Prosecution. I had not had the
opportunity to meet with a lawyer or to obtain advice at the time of my interrogation by
Political Security or my interview with the Special Penal Prosecution.

There was no evidence provided against me by the Americans in court, and no
terrorism-related charges were brought against me.

At trial I admitted to the forgery I had already disclosed to the Special Penal
Prosecution, pointing out that I had paid a fine in Indonesia and had been penalized for
this offense through deportation from Indonesia on a flight of my choosing. I also
explained to the court that I had been arrested in Jordan for no legal reason while carrying

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a Yemeni passport in my own name and that I was transferred to the Americans who held
me in a secret prison where the conditions were very bad.

The judge sentenced me to two years in prison, but ordered that I be released
because the time I spent in detention—inside and outside of Yemen—exceeded this
sentence. I was instructed to report to Political Security every month, although three to
four months after my release Political Security told me that I no longer had to report
because I was observing all of the rules. I was also instructed not to leave Aden without
permission.

At about midnight on the evening of March 27, 2006, I was released from
custody, never once having faced any formal charges relating to terrorism.

On the very same day that I was released from custody in Yemen the Embassy of
the Republic of Yemen in France informed the Council of Europe that Yemeni authorities
received me from the U.S. authorities on May 5, 2005 and that I had since been held
pursuant to Penal Procedure No. 13 of the year 1994 for questioning and, according to the
Arabic portion of the correspondence, so they could look into the Americans’ allegations
against me.

My Family’s Efforts to Locate Me

Since I returned to Yemen, I have learned from my wife and mother about all of
the efforts they undertook to find me while I was in secret detention. I include here
information based on what they have told me, and on documents that I mention here,
which I have seen.

From the moment I was detained in Jordan, my family tried as hard as they could
to find out what had happened to me. Soon after I was taken into custody by the GID,
my mother asked to see me, but the Jordanian officials lied to her, saying that they did
not have me in custody. She challenged this since she had seen GID officials take me

59

away with her own eyes. The GID told my mother, “He’s not here with us. We can’t say
if he’s gone to the Emirates or Yemen.”

My mother was terribly afraid for me when the Jordanians denied that they were
holding me. She went to the Embassy of Yemen in Amman, Jordan for help, and they
talked to the Jordanians on her behalf. As a result, the Jordanians let her and my wife
visit me for less than ten minutes while I was in GID custody. My mother’s request for
assistance from the Embassy and their subsequent intervention was confirmed by the
Embassy of the Republic of Yemen in Amman to the Republic of Yemen Foreign
Ministry.

The letter further states that when my mother tried to visit me again, Jordanian
intelligence officials told her that I had “left the Kingdom.”

In October and November 2003, at my family’s insistence, the Embassy of the
Republic of Yemen in Amman and the Jordanian Foreign Ministry exchanged letters
concerning my fate and whereabouts. According to the Embassy of the Republic of
Yemen, the Embassy prepared memoranda dated October 27, 2003 and November 12,
2003 requesting further information about me from the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

On November 17, 2003, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the
Embassy of the Republic of Yemen, Amman stating falsely that while I had been
instructed to report to the GID, I had not been detained. Instead, the letter asserted that
“…he was ordered to leave the Kingdom, which he did on October 26, 2003.” Of course
this was the actual day that the Jordanians handed me over to the Americans and the day I
was flown out of Jordan by the Americans.

My mother also sought assistance from the Republic of Yemen Foreign Ministry
in Yemen. On December 3, 2003, she personally wrote a letter to the Republic of
Yemen, Foreign Ministry, Department of Consular and Expatriate Affairs requesting that

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it would “Please be so kind as to direct our embassy in Jordan to follow up for the sake of
releasing my son and transporting him to Yemen…”

Also on December 3, 2003, apparently as a result of the letter from my mother,
the Republic of Yemen Foreign Ministry faxed a letter to the Republic of Yemen
Ambassador to Jordan. That letter explained that my mother had “…filed a complaint
stating that her son…was detained by Jordanian authorities on October 21, 2003, for no
known reasons.” The letter asked the Ambassador to “Please address this matter with the
concerned Jordanian agencies to expedite his release and to find out the reasons for the
detention.”

The Republic of Yemen Foreign Ministry again sent a fax dated December 10,
2003 to the Republic of Yemen Ambassador to Jordan asking for a reply to their letter
“…as quickly as possible, as his family members are very worried about him.”

In response, the Republic of Yemen Ambassador to Jordan outlined the actions
taken by my mother in Jordan to locate me, actions taken by the Embassy on my behalf,
the November 17, 2003 statements by the Jordanian government indicating that I had left
Jordan, and stated that the Embassy had followed up persistently on the issue with the
concerned offices, including through a letter dated December 4, 2003 requesting to know
to which destination I was deported. The Republic of Yemen Ambassador to Jordan
stated that the Embassy was “…still persistently following up on the matter by raising the
issue with the concerned agencies, the Foreign Ministry, Intelligence, and the Ministry of
Interior.”

In response to this letter, on December 15, 2003, the Republic of Yemen Foreign
Ministry explained that my “…family members have been called to the office, and they
have looked at the memorandum, but they have stated that the aforementioned has not
arrived in Yemen. They now want to know to where he has been deported.”

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The whole time I was held by the Americans—from October 2003 to May 2005—
my family had no idea where I was. All they knew was that the last time they had seen
me was in GID custody and that now the Jordanians were saying that I was no longer
there without explaining the truth about where I went. This caused them a great deal of
hardship and despair.

My family was never contacted by the U.S. government or the International
Committee of the Red Cross. As a result of this lack of information, combined with the
misinformation my mother received about my departure from Jordan, my mother was in
anguish. She cried every night and worried about where I might be and how I was being
treated. She became ill and was hospitalized for some time. Eventually, she gave up
hope, convinced I had been killed. My wife was also hospitalized due to stress and
anxiety.

My wife spent about three months in Yemen struggling to get information about
where I might be, but when her efforts proved futile, she and my family determined that it
would be better for her to return to Indonesia, which she did with my family’s assistance.
When my wife returned to Indonesia she was so destitute that she had to go through trash
to collect aluminum foil to sell in order to sustain herself.

Impact of Secret Detention on Life Post-Release

During the time I was held in secret detention, my father died, leaving my mother
without financial support. The knowledge that my father died without ever knowing
where I was, why I was detained, and whether I was dead or alive causes me
immeasurable pain that continues until today.

My health deteriorated significantly while I was in detention. To this day I suffer
the mental and physical scars of prolonged uncharged detention, torture, and cruel
treatment with tremendous consequences for my emotional, psychological, and physical
health.

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In addition to the adverse impact on my health, being in secret detention has
adversely impacted my financial situation.

My financial situation remains strained

because being in secret detention has tarnished my reputation and because my passport,
which indicated that I am a business man, has never been returned to me.

These impacts, which my family and I continue to suffer, are augmented by the
suffering we endure from not having received an acknowledgement from the U.S.
government that they illegally detained and tortured me. The only indication that I have
that the U.S. government has recognized its egregious and unlawful error has been
through the statements about my innocence made by U.S. officials in the CIA black site
and through their apparent return of the two hundred U.S. dollars which was taken from
me while I was in the Jordanian GID detention facility and put in the envelope that was
handed to the American agent who was there.

This money was returned in August 2007 after I was contacted by an official from
the Sana’a office of Yemen’s Political Security, who informed me that the money was
ready for me to collect. I subsequently retrieved the two hundred U.S. dollars which had
been taken from me and signed a receipt indicating that I received the two hundred U.S.
dollars which had been held by U.S. Intelligence.

I see this as only a very small beginning toward achieving recognition of the harm
that has been perpetrated against me and my family. I will continue to seek justice from
all parties who were involved in my detention, torture, and loss of future until the
circumstances of my detention are fully acknowledged, those responsible for my
treatment are held to account, my family and I are compensated for all that we have
endured, and the system of illegal transfer and secret detention is brought to an end.

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Surviving the Darkness:
Testimony from the U.S. “Black Sites”

On September 6, 2006, President George W. Bush acknowledged that the United States operates
a program of secret detention in the “War on Terror.” While many of these individuals are still
missing, the fate and whereabouts of a smaller number is now known as a result of the efforts of
human rights organizations.
Based on research by NYU School of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and
International Human Rights Clinic, Surviving the Darkness is the first in-depth personal testimony
of one such individual—Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, a survivor of enforced
disappearance and torture at several CIA “black sites.”
Along with the harrowing details of his mental and physical suffering, the report contains excerpts
from more than 100 pages of documents substantiating the U.S. government’s role in torturing
and illegally detaining Bashmilah, including hitherto unseen diagrams of “black site” cells and
facilities.
Surviving the Darkness presents the real human impact of U.S. “disappearances”—the suffering
of ghost detainees and their family members that results not only from the enforced disappearance
and torture but from the failure of the U.S. government and their collaborators to accept
responsibility for these violations.