It is haunting, maddening even, to revisit the facts of Abu Zubaydah’s time in American custody more than 14 years after he was detained in Pakistan in the frenzied period following the Sept. 11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah, the first prisoner known to have been waterboarded by the Central Intelligence Agency, loomed large in America’s imagination for years as the personification of evil.
On Tuesday, a small group of human rights advocates and journalists got a fleeting glimpse of Abu Zubaydah — the first since his detention — when he appeared before a panel of government officials to argue that he would not be a threat to the United States if he were released from the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. The hearing, which civilians were allowed to watch part of from a live video feed, is an opportunity to reflect on the shameful tactics employed during years of national panic about terrorism and to reinvigorate efforts to close the prison.
George W. Bush’s administration believed that Abu Zubaydah, a bearded Saudi who wears a patch on his left eye, was the operations head of Al Qaeda. Mr. Bush singled him out in a 2006 speech, calling him a “senior terrorist leader,” and claiming that “the security of our nation and the lives of our citizens depend on our ability to learn what these terrorists know.” Abu Zubaydah and men like him, government officials argued, fully justified the facility at Guantánamo as well as a secret web of prisons run by the C.I.A. They also justified the “enhanced interrogation techniques,” otherwise known as torture, then eagerly embraced by some American intelligence officials.
Years later, it became clear that Abu Zubaydah wasn’t a top figure in Al Qaeda after all. It also became clear that he had willingly provided insights into terrorist groups when he was interrogated by F.B.I. agents, who treated him cordially. By the time he was turned over to the C.I.A., his knowledge about threats to the United States appears to have been largely exhausted. Yet agency personnel insisted on the need for torture, waterboarding him at least 83 times and subjecting him to other cruelty.
Never charged and never tried, Abu Zubaydah has also never been allowed to speak publicly about his ordeal. His American abusers have never been held to account.
In a statement a government official read on his behalf during Tuesday’s hearing, Abu Zubaydah was quoted as having said that he “has no desire or intent to harm the United States or any other country.” The detainee, of Palestinian ancestry, was said to aspire to reunite with his family and start a small business. A one-page “detainee profile” released by the military said he “probably retains an extremist mind-set.” But he was described as highly cooperative with the prison staff, and the incriminating information listed on that document is a far cry from the erroneous assessment that was used as a justification for abuse.
President Obama is likely to leave office having failed to close Guantánamo, which he promised to do when he ran for office in 2008, calling it an insult to the Constitution and American values. He has, however, made significant headway in winnowing down the detainee population. Only 61 of the 780 men who have been detained in Guantánamo remain.
The two people seeking Mr. Obama’s job have staked out opposite positions on Guantánamo. Donald Trump has vowed to keep the prison open, expand it and “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” Hillary Clinton has rightly concluded that “over the years, Guantánamo has inspired more terrorists than it has imprisoned.” That outcome could well have been avoided if men like Abu Zubaydah hadn’t been tortured, and if they had been given a chance to contest their detention in a court of law.
