One of the many revelations that have come to light since the public release of the exhaustive Senate torture report is that the CIA used Guantánamo as a "black site" where it hid prisoners from Congress and public view. From
Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald:
The release of 524 pages of the 6,700-page Senate Intelligence Committee report confirms for the first time that the CIA used Guantánamo as a black site — and continued to run the prison that held the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and 13 other men even as the Pentagon was charged to prosecute them.
It gets worse. At least six of the prisoners who were secretly held are now on trial.
It also offers graphic details that the U.S. government has hidden from view in the pretrial hearings of six captives it seeks to execute — about the sexual torture and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder of the alleged USS Cole bomber and why a sickly looking accused 9/11 conspirator sits on a pillow at court proceedings.
What the report does not reveal is whether the CIA has given over control of the secret prison to the U.S. military.
“I would find it hard to believe that they let go. Throughout this entire program, the CIA is running from the law at every turn,” says Navy Cmdr. Brian Mizer. He calls the revelation that his client, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the accused planner of the USS Cole bombing, “had a tube inserted into his anus” tantamount to rape.
Lawyers defending the prisoners called the release this week "the tip of the iceberg" and are seeking disclosure of the full 6,700-page report. But they also maintain that the material already released offers enough information on which to challenge the capital punishment cases and seek a lesser charge.
Since the 2011 and 2012 arraignments, the death-penalty trials have been grappling with how to handle the mostly hidden role of the CIA in the cases — even as the agency tried to muzzle defense lawyers.