Abu Zubaydah - Waterboarded 83 Times, Tortured for Years, Never Charged with Any Crime

Abu Zubaydah remains held in U.S. custody more than two decades after his capture in Pakistan in March 2002, despite never being charged with any crime. Zubaydah was the CIA’s first “high-value detainee” and the primary test subject for the torture program, waterboarded 83 times and subjected to the full range of enhanced interrogation techniques including stress positions, sleep deprivation exceeding 180 hours, confinement in coffin-sized boxes, and beatings. The torture was so severe he lost an eye and suffered permanent brain damage. Yet after 4.5 years in CIA black sites and more than 15 years at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. has never brought charges, effectively holding him in indefinite detention based on suspicion alone—a practice that violates both U.S. and international law.

Zubaydah was initially described by President Bush and the CIA as a senior al-Qaeda operative and the mastermind of terrorist plots. These claims were used to justify the extreme torture applied to him. However, declassified documents and the Senate torture report reveal the CIA’s characterization was false—Zubaydah was not a member of al-Qaeda and was not involved in planning the 9/11 attacks. Intelligence officials later acknowledged he was likely a low-level facilitator who helped arrange travel and logistics for mujahideen, not a senior terrorist leader. The fabricated threat assessment led to torture designed to extract confessions about plots that never existed.

The torture began immediately upon Zubaydah’s arrival at the CIA’s “Cat’s Eye” black site in Thailand in April 2002, overseen by base chief Gina Haspel. Psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, with no interrogation experience, used Zubaydah as their guinea pig for “enhanced interrogation techniques” they designed based on resistance-to-interrogation training (SERE). FBI agents present initially obtained useful intelligence using rapport-building techniques, but the CIA removed FBI agents and began the torture program. Zubaydah was waterboarded so many times and so severely that he became “completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth,” according to CIA cables. The waterboarding caused him to vomit, convulse, and lose bodily control. Between waterboarding sessions he was kept naked in a cold cell, chained in stress positions, and deprived of sleep for days.

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation found that “the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques were not an effective means of obtaining accurate information or gaining detainee cooperation.” Zubaydah provided false information under torture, fabricating plots and connections to stop the pain. The CIA used his fabricated statements to justify expanded detention and interrogation of other suspects, creating a cycle where torture-induced false confessions generated more torture. The most significant intelligence attributed to Zubaydah—identification of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and information about al-Qaeda—was actually provided before torture began, using standard FBI interrogation methods.

After years in CIA black sites in Thailand, Poland, and other locations, Zubaydah was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in September 2006. He has been held there ever since without trial or charges. His lawyers’ attempts to litigate his detention have been blocked by government invocations of state secrets privilege. In 2016, the government cleared him for release through the Periodic Review Board process, yet he remains detained. Poland’s Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights have found that Poland violated international law by hosting the CIA black site where Zubaydah was tortured, but no country has offered him refuge or prosecuted his torturers.

UN human rights experts have called Zubaydah’s continued detention “arbitrary” and demanded his immediate release, noting he has been held for over 20 years “without ever being charged or tried” in violation of international law. His case exemplifies the complete breakdown of legal protections in America’s post-9/11 detention system: torture based on false threat assessments, indefinite detention without charge or trial, denial of habeas corpus rights, and impunity for torture and wrongful imprisonment. Abu Zubaydah remains imprisoned not because of evidence of crimes, but because releasing him would require acknowledging he was tortured based on lies, and no country will accept a torture victim who could testify against CIA officials.