CIA waterboarded Abu Zubaydah, then admitted he wasn't the al-Qaeda leader it claimed
Abu Zubaydah, the first CIA detainee waterboarded after 9/11, produced roughly 40 drawings from memory depicting his treatment (waterboarding, 'walling,' coffin-like confinement, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation) at black sites in Thailand, Poland and Lithuania and at Guantanamo, 2002-2006. They were compiled by his attorney, Seton Hall law professor Mark Denbeaux, and UCSF's Dr. Jess Ghannam into the 2023 report 'American Torturers: FBI and CIA Abuses at Dark Sites and Guantanamo,' and were covered by The Guardian, Democracy Now! and others. The details align with the declassified 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee torture report, and the CIA and FBI have acknowledged that Zubaydah's initial designation as a senior al-Qaeda figure was mistaken.
Ed Pilkington's Guardian article on the drawings, syndicated here; independent established coverage.
Independent broadcast news coverage with interviews.
The actual report/drawings compilation -- primary document.
Official congressional document corroborating CIA torture program details.
Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
Not yet contacted for this story.
A Guantanamo Periodic Review Board held a hearing on Abu Zubaydah's continued detention without charge; his lawyers said the military's chief prosecutor considers charges unlikely, and the board issued no immediate decision. Source ↗