WASHINGTON–A Saudi terror suspect says U.S. interrogators tortured him for five years and he confessed to involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole just to satisfy them and "make the people happy," according to a Pentagon transcript of a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi of Yemeni descent, is the second "high value" detainee to contend he was tortured while being held in secret CIA prisons prior to transfer to the detention site in Cuba last September.

In a transcript released yesterday by the Pentagon, he said he made up the stories linking him to the Cole attack, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead and nearly sank the $1 billion (U.S.) destroyer in Aden harbour in 2000.

"From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me. It happened during interviews. One time they tortured me one way, and another time they tortured me in a different way,'' al-Nashiri said, according to the transcript of a hearing at the Guantanamo detention centre on March 14.

"I just said those things to make the people happy. They were very happy when I told them those things.''

The hearing transcript does not include any details of the torture that al-Nashiri said took place. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said any allegations would be investigated and that portions of the 36-page transcript were blacked out because of national security concerns. Those details can include interrogation techniques and information about confinement.

Avi Cover, senior counsel at Human Rights First, said concealing such details hurts U.S. credibility.

He said "revealing the allegations of abuse and examining them in a transparent and thorough investigation won't make America weaker – it will make the U.S. stronger.''

Al-Nashiri is one of 14 high-value detainees who were moved to Guantanamo in September from secret CIA prisons abroad. The military is conducting hearings for the 14 to determine if they are enemy combatants who can be held indefinitely and prosecuted for war crimes.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, also contended he was tortured by the CIA after his capture in 2003, according to a brief exchange during his Guantanamo hearing earlier this month. In a confidential report that has not been publicly distributed, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said the 14 prisoners described abusive interrogation methods, according to officials familiar with the report.

CIA spokesperson Mark Mansfield wouldn't respond to al-Nashiri's allegations, but he said yesterday that the agency's interrogation program is conducted lawfully – "with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives.''

Soon after the capture of a key terror suspect in 2002, the CIA decided it should hold high-value captives for extended periods to extract information, using "enhanced interrogation techniques.''

Those widely reported practices include open-handed slapping, cold, sleep deprivation and – perhaps most controversially – waterboarding, in which a detainee is made to believe he is drowning.

"It's widely known that the CIA has abused prisoners – agency personnel have admitted as much to journalists, and detainees who have been released or transferred to military custody have described some of the abuses," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch in New York.

"But now the military is acting as an accomplice after the fact,'' he said.

According to American intelligence, al-Nashiri was tasked by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to attack the Cole, and was Al Qaeda's operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula until he was caught in 2002.

TheStar.com
Wouldnt surprise me in the slightest.