WASHINGTON, 13 June 2005 — A Saudi held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on suspicion of terrorism, was forcibly injected with fluids, grilled in the proximity of military dogs and straddled by a female soldier, according to secret logs obtained by Time magazine.
Mohammed Al-Qahtani was forcibly injected with an undisclosed volume of fluids after refusing food and water in late 2002 at the Guantanamo camp, according to US interrogation logs obtained by Time and released yesterday.
The logs — parts of which are incomplete — provide a detailed account of some of the measures used against a detainee at the prison, many of which have been harshly criticized by rights groups.
Al-Qahtani was captured fleeing Tora Bora, Afghanistan in December 2001 and transported to Guantanamo two months later, Time said.
US authorities subsequently discovered he was deported from Florida in August 2001 and believe he had sought entry to America to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Time said.
The logs detail how Al-Qahtani was interrogated for 50 days from early November to early January 2002-2003, during which 16 additional interrogation methods were approved by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Often woken at 4 a.m. and probed until midnight, Al-Qahtani was forced to stand or sit on a chair, shown pictures of 9/11 victims, and told he could not pray.
At one point, Al-Qahtani mounts a food and water strike and becomes so dehydrated that medical corpsmen “forcibly administer fluids by IV (intravenous) drip.”
After a struggle, the Saudi is restrained, strapped down and “given an undisclosed amount of fluids,” according to Time.
Al-Qahtani subsequently tells his interrogators he works for Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, before urinating in his pants.
After Rumsfeld approved the new interrogation measures on Dec. 2, 2002, he was subjected to a drill known as an “Invasion of Space by a Female.” “He was laid out on the floor so I straddled him without putting my weight on him. He would then attempt to move me off him by bending his legs in order to lift me off but this failed because the MPs were holding his legs down with their hands,” one log entry states.
On Dec. 7, Al-Qahtani’s condition deteriorated so badly that he was not interrogated for 24-hours. Over the next month Al-Qahtani — after his condition improves — is stripped naked, told to bark like a dog and pictures of scantily clad women are hung around his neck. The logs recount Al-Qahtani saying he wants to commit suicide.
He was probed in the presence of a military dog, but “no details are given beyond a hazy reference to a disagreement between the military police and the dog handler,” Time said.
