Interrogator: Gitmo detainee was cooperative

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-12 13:51

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A veteran military interrogator insisted he never witnessed a British resident now held at Guantanamo being abused and said the suspect cooperated in a terror probe after he was captured, according to an affidavit released Wednesday.

Binyam Mohamed, who is at the center of an effort by Britain to have him freed from Guantanamo, has previously said he was flown by the US to Morocco where he was tortured, arriving three months after being captured in Pakistan in April 2002.

The senior US Army interrogator first encountered Mohamed on July 21, 2004, at Bagram Air Base, a US detention center in Afghanistan - after the alleged rendition to Morocco. The interrogator described establishing a friendly relationship with Mohamed, and said the detainee provided detailed descriptions of abandoned terrorist training camps that helped US investigators and identified suspects.

The interrogator's account is contained in a sworn statement filed in federal court in Washington. The name is redacted. The affidavit was provided to The Associated Press by the military and comes as the US and Mohamed's legal team dispute what happened to him.

The Bush administration insisted it never engaged in extraordinary rendition, in which suspects are handed over to countries that brutally interrogate prisoners. Mohamed's civilian and military lawyers say point-blank that he was tortured in Morocco, that the US flew him there and oversaw the interrogations.

The 19-page sworn statement provides a rare look at tactics of a veteran interrogator who has conducted "hundreds, perhaps thousands, of interviews with suspects and witnesses."

"I greeted Mr. Mohamed with a traditional Islamic greeting and Mr. Mohamed reciprocated. I introduced myself using my real name and shook Mr. Mohamed's hand," the interrogator recalled of their first meeting. "At the conclusion of the interview, Mr. Mohamed agreed to continue his cooperation and to provide truthful information to me."

But the sworn statement leaves blank the crucial 18 months that Mohamed was allegedly held in Morocco and later at a CIA secret prison in Afghanistan before being taken to Bagram.

Mohamed was transferred in September 2004 to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the supervisory special agent of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command continued to meet with him. The interrogator said they developed such a close relationship that they were on a first-name basis and exchanged hugs.

Mohamed was accused of plotting al-Qaida attacks in the United States but war-crimes charges against him at Guantanamo were dropped last year.

A written account provided in 2006 to AP by Muhammad's civilian lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, details Mohamed's allegations of torture in Morocco while "directly or indirectly" in the custody of the United States.

He alleges, among other things, that he was lacerated and given mind-altering drugs.

His torturers applied sleep deprivation, beat him and sliced Muhammad's penis with a scalpel, according to the detainee's account. "One of them said it would be better just to cut it off, as I would only breed terrorists," Stafford Smith quoted Muhammad as saying.

After 18 months in Morocco, Mohamed was flown to a CIA black site known as the "Dark Prison" in Afghanistan, where he was chained to railings and subjected to loud music in total darkness for weeks, his lawyers say.

Despite the apparent rapport the veteran interrogator developed with the detainee, Mohamed on Nov. 9, 2004, "began to express reservations and concerns about continuing to cooperate with the government," the interrogator said.

Their last meeting was a month later at Guantanamo, when the interrogator was deployed to Afghanistan.