Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud
| Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1968 or 1969 (age 55–56).[1] |
| Arrested | 2003 Somalia Central Intelligence Agency |
| Released | 2011 |
| Citizenship | Libya |
| Detained at | CIA black sites |
| Charge(s) | extrajudicial detention |
Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud was held, and tortured, in the CIA's archipelago of black sites, where it tortured individuals.[2][3][4][5]
Reuters reports Ben Soud is a Tanzanian who the CIA kidnapped in Somalia in 2003.[2] The New York Times reports he is a Libyan who fled Libya and made a home in Pakistan, where he was seized.[1] This report says the CIA transferred him back to Libya, in 2004, the torture state he had fled, where he was imprisoned until the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011. Ben Soud said that, in spite of its grizzly reputation, he was treated better in Libya than he had been by the USA.
Shortly after the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA torture came out the National Journal listed seventeen individuals who the CIA had tortured, without authorization.[6] The National Journal reported how, even though Ben Soud's foot had been broken, while in custody, his interrogators continued to subject him to cruel physical tortures, that aggravated his condition such that a subsequent medical examination concluded, "even given the best prognosis", he "would have arthritis and limitation of motion for the rest of his life."
Ben Soud was one of three individuals who sued Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, the two psychologists the CIA paid $75 million to advise them on torture.[3][4][7] On July 28, 2017, U.S. District Judge Justin Lowe Quackenbush denied both parties motions for summary judgment, noted that the defendants are indemnified by the United States government, and encouraged the attorneys to reach a settlement before trial.[8]
On October 9, 2016, Pulitzer Prize winners Matt Apuzzo, Sheri Fink, and James Risen published a front-page article in the New York Times, entitled "How U.S. Torture Left a Legacy of Damaged Minds".[1] The article recounted Ben Soud's description of the torture he endured, in detail.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c
Matt Apuzzo; Sheri Fink; James Risen (2016-10-09). "How U.S. Torture Left a Legacy of Damaged Minds". The New York Times. p. A1. Archived from the original on 2017-04-12. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
Today, Mr. Ben Soud, 47, is a free man, but said he is in constant fear of tomorrow. He is racked with self-doubt and struggles to make simple decisions. His moods swing dramatically.
- ^ a b
Eric M. Johnson (2016-04-22). "U.S. judge allows CIA interrogation lawsuit to proceed". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit last October on behalf of Suleiman Abdullah Salim, a Tanzanian abducted by the CIA and Kenyan security forces in Somalia in 2003, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, a Libyan captured in a U.S.-Pakistani raid the same year, and Gul Rahman, an Afghan national who died in 2002 in CIA custody from hypothermia caused by dehydration and exposure.
- ^ a b
Spencer Ackerman (2017-02-15). "Deputy CIA director could face court deposition over post-9/11 role in torture". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2017-02-15. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
In a court filing on Tuesday, attorneys for two CIA contract psychologists who helped design the agency's brutal interrogations for terrorism suspects have asked a federal judge to order Gina Haspel, a career CIA officer recently appointed as the agency's No2 official, to provide a deposition discussing her allegedly pivotal involvement in an episode the CIA has tried repeatedly to put behind it.
- ^ a b
Alberto Luperon (2016-04-22). "Psychologists Behind CIA Torture Program Try to Throw Out Lawsuit from 'Tortured' Prisoners". Lawnewz. Archived from the original on 2016-05-04. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
Plaintiffs Suleiman Abdullah Salim and Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud say they are suffering from long-term mental and physical harm. The complaint states interrogators used tactics like sleep deprivation, beatings, sensory deprivation, forced nudity, starvation, and water dousing.
- ^
Marisa Taylor; Jonathan S. Landay (2015-10-13). "Psychologists accused of 'criminal enterprise' with CIA over torture". Washington DC: McClatchy News Service. Archived from the original on 2015-10-14. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
The lawsuit represents a new approach to seeking accountability for the CIA's Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program. It is the first to rely extensively on the Senate Intelligence Committee's five-year, $40 million investigation into the agency's top-secret effort to unearth terrorist plots after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
- ^
Emma Roller; Rebecca Nelson (2014-12-10). "What CIA Interrogators Did To 17 Detainees Without Approval". National Journal. Archived from the original on 2015-05-11.
You probably haven't heard many of these names before. But they are important, both in terms of the terrorist plots they either planned or executed, and in how the U.S. government treated them once they became prisoners, according to the newly released Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report.
- ^
Justin Rohrlich (2015-10-13). "Two CIA Contractors Are Being Sued for Torture and 'Human Experimentation'". Vice News. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
Though plaintiffs Suleiman Abdullah Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and Gul Rahman were all abducted and held in CIA prisons in Afghanistan, none of the men was ever charged with a crime. Salim and Ben Soud are now free and live with their families. Rahman died in a CIA prison in 2002.
- ^ Fink, Sheri (29 July 2017). "2 Psychologists in C.I.A. Interrogations Can Face Trial, Judge Rules". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved 29 July 2017.