Detainee says he was tortured at Guantanamo

From McClatchy Newspaper:

WASHINGTON - A Pakistani citizen who grew up in suburban Baltimore, where his father still lives, told a U.S. military hearing last month that he was tortured at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after he was transferred there from secret CIA custody, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon Tuesday.
Majid Khan, who denied he had ever been a member of al-Qaida, said he was so upset by his treatment at Guantanamo that he twice tried to commit suicide by gnawing through arteries in his arm, according to the transcript.

Khan's April 15 hearing to determine whether he should be held as an enemy combatant - the last for 14 so-called high-value detainees who were transferred to Guantanamo last September - provided the most detailed allegations yet of mistreatment at Guantanamo.

Pentagon officials delayed the release of the transcript for a month, saying that Khan's testimony was lengthier than other detainees' and had to be reviewed by several agencies, including the CIA and the State Department. Previously, the longest delay between a hearing and a transcript's publication had been 20 days.

An attorney who has been trying unsuccessfully to visit Khan since he was transferred to Guantanamo, Gitanjali Gutierrez of the Center of Constitutional Rights, said that Khan gave a detailed statement because his time in the United States exposed him to the importance of court procedures.

"There was no reliable evidence against him showing that he was with al-Qaida," Gutierrez said.