Drawings by Guantanamo Bay prisoner expose brutality of US ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’

Abu Zubaydah’s graphic drawings depict in detail various torture methods used by the CIA against him and other detainees at Guantanamo Bay. (Illustration/Abu Zubaydah/Center for Policy and Research)
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Updated 11 May 2023
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Drawings by Guantanamo Bay prisoner expose brutality of US ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’

  • Palestinian detainee described as ‘forever prisoner’ subjected to ‘medieval torture program’ 
  • Abu Zubaydah’s imprisonment condemned as inhumane by UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

LONDON: A Guantanamo Bay prisoner has revealed in detail the abuse and torture he said he suffered at the hands of US security forces at the infamous prison.

Abu Zubaydah, a stateless Palestinian who was detained by US forces in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in 2002, produced drawings of brutal treatment during his imprisonment and interrogation at various US “black sites” and Guantanamo Bay.

They were drawn from memory in his cell and sent to one of his lawyers, Professor Mark Denbeaux.

Denbeaux has co-authored a report based on Abu Zubaydah’s account titled “American Torturers: FBI and CIA Abuses at Dark Sites and Guantanamo,” a summary of which was published in the Guardian newspaper on Thursday, which offered an unprecedented insight into what the CIA calls its “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

His graphic drawings depict in detail various torture methods used by the CIA against him and other detainees, while also highlighting the “complicity” of FBI agents in the abuse and mistreatment of detainees, the report said.

Abu Zubaydah was the first detainee in the post-Sept. 11 terrorist attacks era to be experimented on using the EITs, which include slaps and punches to the body, waterboarding, direction of high-pressure cold water at the genitals and 24-hour use of loudspeakers and cold air while chained to a cell wall. 

Following his capture by US forces, he was moved from Pakistan to a black site in Thailand, and over the course of four years suffered abuse and torture at CIA black sites in Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland and Morocco before being transferred to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2006.

The CIA and FBI have acknowledged Abu Zubaydah was not a member of Al-Qaeda as initially suspected and that his case was one of “mistaken identity,” but he has been imprisoned without charge or trial ever since.

His treatment has been criticized by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention as having “no lawful basis.” The withdrawing of his freedoms constituted a “crime against humanity” and the UK was “jointly responsible for the torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of Mr. Zubaydah,” the group added.

“Not only are these drawings a powerful testament to what the CIA and FBI did in the wake of 9/11, they are the only evidence now,” the Center for Policy and Research report authors Denbeaux and Jess Ghannam said.

“The CIA destroyed the only video evidence of detainee torture, and ‘justice’ moves at a glacial pace in the Guantanamo Bay, Military Commission courtroom, 19 years have been wasted while Mr. Abu Zubaydah and many other GTMO prisoners have neither been charged with a crime, nor allowed to testify,” they added.

Meanwhile, Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner and outreach director at London-based advocacy group for War on Terror victims CAGE, said Abu Zubaydah’s drawings will be key in highlighting what has gone on at Guantanamo Bay.

“They call him the ‘forever prisoner’ because, despite facing no charge or trial in 21 years, they fear to release Abu Zubaydah not because of what he did but what was done to him,” he said.

“In truth, it will be forever be remembered that the US’ 21st-century medieval torture program was invented against a stateless Palestinian and it was his case that caused the United Nations to finally describe Guantanamo as a ‘crime against humanity.’

“Abu Zubaydah is innocent according to the law so he must be released, and when he’s free, his iconic self-portraits of CIA torture featured in the report will have done their job.”


Top Philippine senator to seek dismissal of Duterte impeachment case 

Updated 2 sec ago
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Top Philippine senator to seek dismissal of Duterte impeachment case 

  • Resolution was drafted by Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a staunch ally of Duterte and a former police chief under her father’s 2016-2022 presidency
  • The Senate’s current session ends next week, which the draft resolution said was insufficient time to act on the impeachment case
MANILA: A top Philippine senator has drafted a resolution seeking to dismiss an impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, his office said on Wednesday, which could boost her chances of political survival after an acrimonious fallout with the president. The lower house in February impeached Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, on accusations that included budget anomalies, amassing unusual wealth and an alleged threat to the lives of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the first lady, and the house speaker.
Sara Duterte faces a lifetime ban from office if convicted in a Senate trial. She has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The resolution was drafted, according to his office, by Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a staunch ally of Duterte and a former police chief under her father’s 2016-2022 presidency. A Senate source, who declined to be identified, confirmed the draft was circulating among senators.
The draft seen by Reuters says the Senate did not act promptly to begin proceedings upon receipt of the impeachment article, so the case was “de facto dismissed” as 100 days had already passed.
It was not immediately clear when the resolution would be filed or how much support it would have. If it succeeds, it could intensify an escalating battle for power between Marcos and former ally Duterte ahead of a 2028 presidential election that she is widely expected to contest, with Marcos limited to a single term and unable to run again.
At stake is the legacy and future influence of Marcos, who has waged a decades-long campaign to defend his family’s name from what he says are false historical narratives of plunder and brutality during the 1970s and 1980s rule of his strongman father and namesake. The effort to dismiss the case comes after a stronger-than-expected showing for allies of Duterte in last month’s midterm elections, demonstrating her popularity and unswerving influence, despite the row with Marcos, humiliating legislative enquiries and the arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court of her father in March.
The Senate’s current session ends next week, which the draft resolution said was insufficient time to act on the impeachment case. A new Senate will convene in late July.
“The matter cannot cross over to the incoming 20th Congress,” the draft said.
Marcos has called for unity among all political camps and has distanced himself from the impeachment of Duterte, which was backed overwhelmingly by a lower house controlled by his allies. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Dela Rosa’s proposed resolution.

Ukraine invited to Hague NATO summit, Zelensky attendance unclear

Updated 6 min 29 sec ago
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Ukraine invited to Hague NATO summit, Zelensky attendance unclear

  • NATO chief: ‘I invited Ukraine to the summit. We will as soon as possible bring out the program with more details’

BRUSSELS: Ukraine has been invited to a NATO summit in The Hague this month, Mark Rutte, the military bloc’s chief, said on Wednesday, without specifying whether this meant Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky would attend.

“I invited Ukraine to the summit. We will as soon as possible bring out the program with more details,” Rutte told reporters before a meeting with defense ministers in Brussels.

Asked whether Zelensky personally had been invited, Rutte only said the program would be published in due course.


India’s Modi to visit Kashmir to unveil strategic railway

Updated 04 June 2025
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India’s Modi to visit Kashmir to unveil strategic railway

  • The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the center of a bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan
  • Indian leader set to visit on Friday to open the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-meter-long steel and concrete span that connects two mountains

SRINAGAR, India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to make his first visit to contested Kashmir since a conflict between India and Pakistan last month, inaugurating a strategic railway to the mountainous region, his office said Wednesday.

The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the center of a bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan, divided between them since independence from British rule in 1947.

Modi is set to visit on Friday to open the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-meter-long (4,314-foot-long) steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359 meters above the river below.

“The project establishes all-weather, seamless rail connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Modi is expected to flag off a special train.

Last month, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day conflict, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10.

More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides.

The conflict was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing – a charge Islamabad denies.

Rebel groups in Indian-run Kashmir have waged a 35-year-long insurgency demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan.

The 272-kilometer (169-mile) Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla railway – with 36 tunnels and 943 bridges – has been constructed “aiming to transform regional mobility and driving socio-economic integration,” the statement added.

Its dramatic centerpiece is the Chenab Bridge, which India calls the “world’s highest railway arch bridge.”

While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China.

Indian Railways calls the $24-million bridge “arguably the biggest civil engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history.”

The bridge will facilitate the movement of people and goods – as well as troops – that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and air.

The train line could slash travel time between the town of Katra and Srinagar, the region’s key city, by half, taking around three hours.

The bridge will also revolutionize logistics in Ladakh, the icy region in India bordering China.

India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia.

Their troops clashed in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, and forces from both sides today face off across contested high-altitude borderlands.

The railway begins in the garrison city of Udhampur, headquarters of the army’s northern command, and runs north to Srinagar.


Trump administration rescinds Biden-era guidance on emergency abortions

Updated 04 June 2025
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Trump administration rescinds Biden-era guidance on emergency abortions

  • The Biden-era memo was issued in July 2022, weeks after the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutionally enshrined right to abortion

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has revoked a Biden-era health guideline that protected emergency abortions when medically required, even in states that ban the procedure.

The Biden-era memo was issued in July 2022, weeks after the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutionally enshrined right to abortion.

As health providers suddenly found themselves embroiled in legal uncertainty over abortion, the memo provided an interpretation of the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), arguing it supersedes state abortion laws when needed to stabilize a pregnant patient.

The directive was fiercely contested by anti-abortion advocates.

In a letter Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the EMTALA guidance did not reflect the current administration’s policy.

“CMS is rescinding this memo ... effective May 29, 2025, consistent with Administration policy,” it said.

Offering its own interpretation, CMS said EMTALA provides the right for any hospital patient to receive “either stabilizing treatment or an appropriate transfer to another hospital.”

It said the US Health and Human Services would no longer enforce the Biden-era guidance.

The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute said the Trump administration’s revocation of the EMTALA guidelines showed “callous disregard for the law and people’s lives.”

Lawrence O. Gostin, a health law expert at Georgetown University, wrote in the New York Times that the CMS letter “basically gives a bright green light to hospitals in red states to turn away pregnant women who are in peril.”

According to Guttmacher, 13 US states, mostly in the south and east of the country, have “a total abortion ban” as of May 28.

While these states generally provide narrow exceptions in the event of a threat to the mother’s life, it is unclear what constitutes a life-threatening condition in the eyes of the law.

Since returning to office, US President Donald Trump has taken a series of moves to restrict abortion access.

In his first week back in the White House, Trump revoked two executive orders protecting access to a pill widely used to terminate pregnancies and the ability to travel to states where the procedure is not banned.


Cologne starts its biggest evacuation since 1945 to defuse WWII bombs

Updated 04 June 2025
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Cologne starts its biggest evacuation since 1945 to defuse WWII bombs

  • Even 80 years after the end of the war, unexploded bombs dropped during wartime air raids are frequently found in Germany

COLOGNE: More than 20,000 residents were being evacuated from part of Cologne’s city center on Wednesday as specialists prepared to defuse three unexploded US bombs from World War II that were unearthed earlier this week.

Even 80 years after the end of the war, unexploded bombs dropped during wartime air raids are frequently found in Germany.

Disposing of them sometimes entails large-scale precautionary evacuations such as the one on Wednesday, though the location this time was unusually prominent and this is Cologne’s biggest evacuation since 1945. There have been bigger evacuations in other cities.

Authorities on Wednesday morning started evacuating about 20,500 residents from an area within a 1,000-meter (3,280-foot) radius of the bombs, which were discovered on Monday during preparatory work for road construction.

They were found in the Deutz district, just across the Rhine River from Cologne’s historic center.

As well as homes, the area includes 58 hotels, nine schools, several museums and office buildings and the Messe/Deutz train station. It also includes three bridges across the Rhine — among them the heavily used Hohenzollern railway bridge, which leads into Cologne’s central station and is being shut during the defusal work itself. Shipping on the Rhine will also be suspended.

The plan is for the bombs to be defused during the course of the day. When exactly that happens depends on how long it takes for authorities to be sure that everyone is out of the evacuation zone.