US government blocks CIA torture details on Guantanamo Bay release

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Documents detailing Abu Zubaydah's alleged torture by CIA were blocked
116 pages of testimony by Zubaydah were declared classified by officials
He was waterboarded 83 times in a month while held by the CIA, according to documents released last year
Many believe Zubaydah was Al Qaeda operative in lead up to 9/11 attacks
He has been held in Guantanamo for nine years without charge

By Ollie Gillman For Dailymail.com

Published: 17:42 EST, 10 September 2015 | Updated: 04:16 EST, 11 September 2015

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The U.S. government has blocked the release of documents detailing the alleged torture of Abu Zubaydah

The U.S. government has blocked the release of documents detailing the alleged torture of a suspected top Al Qaeda operative held in Guantanamo Bay.

Abu Zubaydah lost an eye and was waterboarded 83 times in a single month while in the custody of the CIA, according to documents released last year.

However 116 pages of defense lawyers' notes detailing Zubaydah's alleged torture have been declared classified by security officials.

Joe Margulies, Zubaydah's lead defense lawyer, said: 'We submitted 116 pages in 10 separate submissions. The government declared all of it classified.'

Mr Margulies and lawyers for other detainees said the decision showed the Obama administration plans to continue declaring detainees' accounts of their own torture classified.

A CIA spokesman declined to comment.

After the release of a U.S. Senate report on CIA torture in December, the government loosened its classification rules and released 27 pages of interview notes compiled by lawyers for detainee Majid Khan in which he described his torture.

Khan, a Guantanamo detainee who later cooperated with the U.S. government, said interrogators poured ice water on his genitals, twice videotaped him naked and repeatedly touched his 'private parts' - none of which was described in the Senate report.

Khan said that guards, some of whom smelled of alcohol, also threatened to beat him with a hammer, baseball bats, sticks and leather belts.

'The CIA has apparently changed its mind about allowing detainees to talk about their torture,' said Wells Dixon, Khan's lawyer.

CIA and White House officials opposed releasing the Senate report, but Senator Dianne Feinstein, who then chaired the Intelligence Committee, made public its 480-page executive summary.

Zubaydah was captured in 2002 and has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2006 despite not being charged with a crime

Abu Zubaydah lost one eye and was waterboarded 83 times in a single month while in the custody of the CIA, according to documents released last year

The locations of the secret 'black' sites where detainees were held around the world after the 9/11 attacks have remained classified

A month after the report's release, government lawyers said the CIA had issued new classification rules permitting the release of 'general allegations of torture', and 'information regarding the conditions of confinement'.

But they said the names of CIA employees or contractors could not be released. The locations of the secret 'black' sites where detainees were held around the world after the 9/11 attacks has also remained classified.

Mr Margulies said the 116 pages of notes he submitted for clearance were limited to Zubayda's description of his torture and did not include prohibited information.

Margulies said he followed 'the rule to the letter' and accused the CIA of trying 'guarantee that Abu Zubaydah never discloses what was done to him'.

Zubaydah, a 44-year-old Saudi national, was captured in 2002 and has been held in Guantanamo since 2006.

Many believe he was a close ally of Osama bin Laden's in the 10 years up until the September 11 attacks, but Zubaydah has not been charged with a crime.