Guantánamo Judges Throw Out 9/11 Confessions After 183 Waterboardings
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 12
Guantánamo Judges Throw Out 9/11 Confessions After 183 Waterboardings
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 12
Summary
Military judges at Guantánamo Bay have excluded all key confessions in the Sept. 11 death-penalty cases, a major blow to efforts to bring the accused plotters to trial 25 years after the attacks.
CIA torture drove the rulings: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times, stripped naked and subjected to rectal abuse, while interrogators held detainees in years of secret, lawyerless confinement.
The judges found that coercion tainted the statements at the center of the prosecution, leaving the military court still struggling to build admissible cases against men accused in the 2001 attacks.
The decisions underscore how post-9/11 policies adopted under President George W. Bush still shape the unresolved quest for justice in a case that killed thousands and transformed U.S. security policy.