Most Americans don't know the name of Mohammed al Qahtani, the so-called "20th hijacker" who was snagged at the Orlando International Airport in 2001 before he could have allegedly taken part in the 9/11 attacks. However, I suspect the story is known better here in Philadelphia than anywhere else, since the most popular local radio talker, Michael Smerconish, has undertaken taken a campaign to recognize the heroism of the agent who nabbed him. a man named Jose Melendez-Perez. (You can here a Smerconish radio interview with Melendez-Perez here.)
Smerconish is big on the war on terror, and he also is a prominent advocate for torture. Not "enhanced interrogation," but torture, as spelled out in his 2005 blog post called..."In Support of Torture."
Ok, let’s take it a step further. Let’s assume she knows Zarqawi’s whereabouts but won’t give up that information for a piece of quiche and a warm blanket.
Now what?
I say do whatever is necessary to get her to talk. Waterboard her. Strap her to a pig. Do whatever it takes.
Meanwhile, al-Qahtani -- a seeming poster child for al-Qaeda terrorism against the United States -- has never been brought to justice, despite nearly seven years in custody, most of those at Guantanamo Bay. And now there are questions over whether he will ever be tried:
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi at Guantanamo who was alleged to have been the so-called "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attacks, his U.S. military defense lawyer said Monday.
Mohammed al-Qahtani was one of six men charged by the military in February with murder and war crimes for their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks. Authorities say al-Qahtani missed out on taking part in the attacks because he was denied entry to the U.S. by an immigration agent.
But in reviewing the case, the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford, decided to dismiss the charges against al-Qahtani and proceed with the arraignment for the other five, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, the Saudi's military lawyer.
What happened? It's not clear, but there is increasing evidence that the prosecution of Mohammed al-Qahtani has been fouled up beyond repair...because he was tortured at Gitmo:
The former head of interrogations at Guantánamo Bay found that records of an al-Qaida suspect tortured at the prison camp were mysteriously lost by the US military, according to a new book by one of Britain's top human rights lawyers.
Retired general Michael Dunlavey, who supervised Guantánamo for eight months in 2002, tried to locate records on Mohammed al-Qahtani, accused by the US of plotting the 9/11 attacks, but found they had disappeared.
Why? Well, it could have to do with this?
Saudi-born al-Qahtani was sexually taunted, forced to perform dog tricks and given enemas at Guantánamo.
The CIA admitted last year that it destroyed videotapes of al-Qaida suspects being interrogated at a secret "black site" in Thailand. No proof has so far emerged that tapes of interrogations at Guantánamo were destroyed, but Sands' report suggests the US may have also buried politically sensitive proof relating to abuse by interrogators at the prison camp.
Look, I've made this point here so many times before that I won't belabor it now. But torture doesn't work. It's not just that it's a fundamentally immoral practice that violates international and American law as well as basic humanity...though there is that. The practice has also badly hurt America's image in the world and probably inspired new terrorists in the process. It is an ineffective practice that produces bad and misleading information that is usually useless or counter-productive, and not one of the many advocates of the so-called "ticking time bomb" scenario has come up with a case where this has actually happened.
And now there's this: People who are actual terrorists who plotted attacks on innocent people and who deserve to spend life behind bars may never receive American justice (I'm not going to try to wade into the military tribunal issue here) -- precisely because the legal process was undermined by torture.
That's why torture advocates like Michael Smerconish are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong -- and not just morally. In their zeal to fight their kind of war on terrorists, the one that looks so appealing on "24" and in the movies, they're enabling real-life terrorists to avoid justice.
UPDATE: Here's more on the torture of al-Qahtani from Jeralyn Merritt at Talkleft.
Can someone explain why he was tortured??!?!?!? If he truly was the 20th hijacker, he was going to die on 9/11 and would have had no info on other operations.— RG- He could conceivably have been a member of a fifth suicide crew, or perhaps even a second wave of suicide bombers. That said, torture advocates can't guarantee that torturing everybody will prevent a future terrorist act. Whenever we have gone to war, we have fought for our way of life, not just to create some sort of safety zone for ourselves. The torture advocates want to throw all of that away just so they can win some red state votes. What they don't care about is that they are making evrybody involved violate their oaths of office, in which they swear to preserve the Constitution of the United States. According to the Constitution, the laws are enacted by the Congress, and torture is illegal.— SteveMG
- The "ticking time bomb" scenario is no excuse to violate human rights and bring shame on the United States by having an institutionalized policy on "enhanced interrogation" techniques which the rest of the civilized world calls "torture." IF "torturing" - er, um, "enhanced interrogation(ing)" - someone could *really* save the lives of thousands, does anyone think that the President couldn't simply "pardon" the torturer afterward because s/he had, after all, saved the lives of thousands? Would a jury actually "convict" that person? The "one in a million" scenario is not what you make public policy with - unless you're a "conservative" apparently, and even then only when it's convenient. See, massive gun crime in a City is no reason to regulate guns in that City, but a hypothetical "ticketing time bomb" is a good enough reason to institutionalize torture as an instrument of national policy. Yes, this is what passes for "analysis" amongst "conservatives."— E.Plebnista
- On what basis is everybody so convinced he was the 20th highjacker anyway? If they knew it when he was picked up, then obviously the whole 9/11 plot would have been already exposed before it took place.— SteveMG
Reading the article, the statement regarding sexual humiliation etc. is just stated with no proof offered that this actually happened. There is also no proof that any missing records have anything to do with torturing al-Qahtani. The article itself states there is no proof that any tapes were actually destroyed. So what's the point?— jmc
Comment removed.- Steve, I might need correction here, but isn't the story behind this guy that Mohammed Atta was the person waiting for him at the airport?— Domenic
- That's sort of what I was going at in the original post when I posited that he could have been a player in either 9/11 or a future act. The reason I asked in the second is that I was actually curious!— SteveMG
- Comment removed.
- "Thank goodness we have Democrats and their lawyers around to free the terrorists to kill again." - Yes, the Democrats are in charge at Gitmo. Yes, the Democrats released the guy who blew himself up. Yes, the Democrats insituted the military tribunals... Oh, wait. No. It was the Republicans. There's that Bush Derangement Syndrome again...— E.Plebnista
- "This is precisely why you don't apply our laws of jurisprudence to non-citizen enemy combatants (when have we ever done so)?....no trial...no lawyer...no presumption of innocence. Posted by Xi Jah " Dude, that doesn't make ANY SENSE.— brendancalling
- "This is precisely why you don't apply our laws of jurisprudence to non-citizen enemy combatants (when have we ever done so)?....no trial...no lawyer...no presumption of innocence. Posted by Xi Jah " Dude, that doesn't make ANY SENSE.— brendancalling
- Again Xi Jah reveals his ignorance of "history" - In the 1942 Supreme Court of the United States ruling Ex Parte Quirin: "an enemy combatant who without uniform comes secretly through the lines for the purpose of waging war by destruction of life or property, are familiar examples of belligerents who are generally deemed not to be entitled to the status of prisoners of war, but to be offenders against the law of war subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals." See, Xi Jah, just because you don't know something doesn't mean "it's always been this way." And, you know, there's obviously a ton you "don't know."— E.Plebnista
Fact check: al Qahtani wasn't "nabbed" at Orlando Int'l, he was denied entry because of paperwork irregularities and a suspicious demeanor, and sent back to Saudi Arabia, all more than a month before 9/11. He was later captured in Afghanistan as an enemy combatant. Whether his torture in Gitmo is the reason he won't be tried as a 9/11 conspirator, or whether it's simply a lack of evidence, the fact is he isn't going anywhere soon.- Comment removed.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
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