Abu Zubaydah’s ordeal a template

First detained in Pakistan in March 2002, Abu Zubaydah (picture) was the first high-profile Al Qaeda terror suspect captured after the 9/11 attacks. His ordeal became the template for CIA’s black-site interrogations.

He was initially subjected to grinding white noise and sleep deprivation tactics.

In Zubaydah’s first waterboarding session in early August 2002, CIA interrogators strapped him to a board, covered his face with a cloth and poured water over it. Zubaydah choked, vomited, then blacked out, coming to under medical supervision after expelling “copious amounts of liquid”, based on CIA records.

He was waterboarded as often as twice a day over the following weeks. Some CIA veterans were horrified by the scene. In one cable, a staff said several of the team were close to tears.

More than 12 years after his capture, Zubaydah remains confined to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has yet to be charged with any crime. In a 2002 email to CIA headquarters, interrogators wanted assurances that Zubaydah would never be allowed to publicly describe what they were doing to him.

Senate investigators quote an internal CIA report from 2006 that Zubaydah was miscast as a senior terror leader. AP