Marwan Jabour

Marwan Jabour is a former captive held in the CIA's network of black sites.[1][2] He was raised him Saudi Arabia by his Palestinian guest worker parents. He moved to Pakistan for study, in 1994.

The Washington Post interviewed Mawrwan Jabour at his home in Pakistan, after his release.[2] They reported that he had been accused of being an "al Qaeda paymaster". According to its report, he confirmed he had traveled to Afghanistan for military training, in 1999, because he hoped to travel to Chechnya to help Chechens fight Russia. But he told the Washington Post he was told it would not be possible for him to travel to Chechnya, so he returned to Pakistan.

He confirmed that after the American invasion of Afghanistan some of the men he trained with in Afghanistan in 1999 sought him out in Pakistan.[2] These men had fled the war zone, with their families, and asked for his help. He described their wives and children being seriously wounded. He acknowledged that, with financing from al Qaeda, he helped several dozen individuals with food, medicine and travel documents.

He was captured in early 2004, and transferred to the CIA's network of secret interrogation centers on June 16, 2004.[2] The Washington Post reports that American security officials confirmed he was held by the CIA, but would not discuss his accounts of conditions there. He was able to help human rights workers to place a number of the other individuals who had been held by the CIA.

Human Rights Watch published a fifty-page report on February 26, 2007 based on their own interviews with Marwan Jabour.[3] Marwan Jabour told Human Rights Watch that he was beaten during the six weeks he spent in Pakistani custody.[4] He said a friend he was visiting, and another guest, were taken into Pakistani custody at the same time he was. He told Human Rights Watch none of the men, women and children he helped were affiliated with Al Qaida.

Other techniques Marwan Jabour described experiencing included sleep deprivation, stress positions, enforced nudity, the administration of psychoactive drugs and having a rubber cord tied around his penis so he could not urinate.[4] He said he wasn't beaten in US custody, but he was subjected to sleep deprivation and stress positions there too, and he was shown a small wooden box where he was told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been confined for extended periods of time, and threatened that this technique could be applied to him too.

According to the Taipei Times, Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, issued a statement in response to the Human Rights Watch report.[5] According to Gimigliano the CIA's program of secret extrajudicial detention and use of extended interrogation techniques was:

"...with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives."[5] "...another key, lawful tool in the fight against terror."[5] "The United States does not conduct or condone torture, nor does it transfer anyone to other countries for the purpose of torture."[5]