Documents show detainee was abused in US custody

By JILL LAWLESS (AP) (source1, source2)

LONDON — A British resident was beaten, shackled and threatened while in U.S. custody in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a newly published summary of intelligence reports sent from the CIA to Britain's MI5 spy agency.

The information, released by a court Wednesday over the objections of the British government, shows that British officials knew as early as 2002 about the treatment of Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed — one of hundreds of young Muslim men scooped up around the world at the time.

The White House said the ruling would make intelligence sharing with Britain more difficult in the future.

The summary adds to growing evidence of Mohamed's mistreatment during his seven years in American custody. In November, a U.S. district judge in Washington found evidence of even harsher abuse while Mohamed was held in Morocco for two years before he was eventually moved to Guantanamo Bay and charged with plotting with al-Qaida to bomb American apartment buildings....

In a ruling in the District Court for the District of Columbia in November, Judge Gladys Kessler said Mohamed had been tortured over a period of two years while being interviewed by FBI and CIA agents.

She said Mohamed was beaten with a leather strap, subjected to mock execution, kept in darkness, deprived of sleep, drugged, hung by his wrists and "cut on the chest and then on the penis and the testicles with a scalpel (about once a month for over a year)."

She said the U.S. government "does not challenge or deny the accuracy of (Mohamed)'s story of brutal treatment."