MJC Attorney Represents Guantanamo Prisoner at Center of Torture Debate
Update (May 5, 2009)
MacArthur Justice Center attorney Joseph Margulies represents Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, also known as abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo prisoner who was the subject of the infamous torture memo. Husayn is the only prisoner subjected to all ten of the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques."
These brutal techniques have been the subject of intense media reporting and were described in a secret report prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The torture memo is available here, along with other memos prepared by the Justice Department that authorized abu Zubaydah’s torture.
Husayn’s case illustrates the many pitfalls in the use of torture. Not long after his arrest, President Bush described him as "one of the top three leaders" in al Qaeda, and "al Qaeda’s chief of operations." But abu Zubaydah, we now understand, was nothing like what the President believed. He was never al Qaeda. The journalist Ron Suskind was the first to ask the right questions. In his 2006 book, The One Percent Doctrine, he described abu Zubaydah as a minor logistics man, a travel agent.
Later and more detailed reporting in the Washington Post, quoting Justice Department officials, said he provided "above-ground support. ... To make him the mastermind of anything is ridiculous." More recently, the New York Times, relying on current and former intelligence officers, said the initial assessment was "highly inflated" and reflected "a profound misunderstanding" of abu Zubaydah. Far from a leader, he was "a personnel clerk." The Post article also quoted Margulies:
The government doesn’t retreat from who [Khalid Sheik Mohammed] is, and neither does [he]…. With Zubaida, it’s different. The government seems to finally understand he is not at all the person they thought he was. But he was tortured. And that’s just a profoundly embarrassing position for the government to be in.
To view the Post article, click here. To view the Times article, click here.
To view an op-ed by Joseph Margulies about torture and abu Zubaydah, click here.
