US Intelligence Using Brutal Torture in the Secret Prisons it Runs around the World

This week, the world learned that the detainee, Ammar Al-Balushi, who is facing a death sentence, had suffered brain damage due to hitting his head repeatedly against a wooden wall.

Al-Balushi is a Pakistani who grew up in Kuwait, and was used by the intelligence as a living example to train new interrogators on torture, during his detention in a secret CIA facility in Afghanistan, according to our sources.

The world, after two decades of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), still needs to know the truth.

The systematic brutal treatment practiced by the US Agency on the detainees was cruel and useless. 20 years ago, an International Torture Program was designed, following the 9/11 attacks, which transfers detainees into secret detention facilities around the world, continues to unfold.

These brutal torture methods included mock executions and sexual violence, as well as waterboarding, killing during interrogation, exposing detainees to extreme cold, leaving them naked, depriving them of sleep and other methods.

The torture program was useless and brutal at the same time. According to the report prepared by the US inspector general, it led detainees to lie to stop their torture. This was confirmed by a report of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2014, which found that interrogations often led to false testimonies, while non-coercive methods led to the obtaining of useful information.

These details were including in a report written by the CIA’s inspector general in 2008, but was only released after a lawsuit has been filed, and officials have justified the “war on terror” to justify all kinds of torture that was carried out in secret.

We stress on the need for transparent accountability to help refute the myth that torture is effective, and to refute claims that national security requires unfettered powers used in secret. This refutation is an essential part of ensuring that such crimes are not committed again.

We believe that those responsible for these programs specialised in torture should be held accountable before specialised international courts, and that they should not be allowed to escape punishment.