Gul Rahman
{{Short description|Afghan victim of CIA torture}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox War on Terror detainee
| name = Gul Rahman
| image = Photo of Gul Rahman, released by his family, via CBS News.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Photo of Gul Rahman, released by his family
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| date_of_arrest = October 2002
| place_of_arrest = Pakistan
| arresting_authority =
| date_of_release =
| place_of_release =
| death_date = {{Death date|2002|11|20|df=yes}}
| death_place = the Salt Pit
| citizenship = Afghanistan
| detained_at = Salt Pit
| id_number =
| group =
| alias =
| charge = No charge
| penalty =
| status = Death by torture in a secret CIA facility
| csrt_summary =
| csrt_transcript =
| occupation = Detainee of DOD
| spouse =
| parents =
}}
Gul Rahman ({{langx|ps|ګل رحمان}}; died November 20, 2002) was an Afghan man, suspected by the United States of being a militant, who was a victim of torture. He died in a secret CIA prison, or black site, located in northern Kabul, Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit.{{cite news|last1=Gannon|first1=Kathy|author-link1=Kathy Gannon|last2=Goldman|first2=Adam|author-link2=Adam Goldman|url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011535934_apasafghanistansaltpitvictim.html|title=CIA victim said to have rescued future Afghan pres|publisher=Associated Press|date=6 April 2010|access-date=20 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100421200155/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011535934_apasafghanistansaltpitvictim.html|archive-date=2010-04-21|url-status=live}}[https://www.webcitation.org/5p8x1Ytw2?url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100407/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan_salt_pit_victim/print mirror] He had been captured October 29, 2002.{{cite magazine|last=Mayer|first=Jane|author-link=Jane Mayer|title=Who Killed Gul Rahman?|magazine=The New Yorker|date=31 March 2010|access-date=3 October 2021|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/who-killed-gul-rahman|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210903155913/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/who-killed-gul-rahman|archive-date=3 September 2021}}
His name was kept secret by the United States for more than seven years, although his death was announced. In 2010 the Associated Press reported that before his death he was left half-stripped and chained against a concrete wall on a night when the temperature was close to freezing. The United States government did not notify his family (wife and four daughters) of his death, according to the report.
Capture and death
Gul Rahman was captured and arrested on October 29, 2002, during a joint operation by U.S. agents and Pakistani security forces against Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin.{{cite news |last1=Goldman |first1= Adam|author-link1=Adam Goldman|last2=Gannon|first2=Kathy |author-link2=Kathy Gannon|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36071994 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223181251/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36071994/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 23, 2017 |publisher=Associated Press|via=NBC News|date=28 March 2010|access-date=15 April 2012|title=Death shed light on CIA 'Salt Pit' near Kabul: Handling of terror suspect led to inquiry by agency's inspector general}} He was reportedly arrested with the physician Ghairat Baheer, the son-in-law of the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who led the insurgent faction Hezb-e-Islami. Rahman had traveled from Peshawar to Islamabad, Pakistan for a medical checkup when he was arrested at the home of Ghairat Baheer, and subsequently flown by the CIA to Afghanistan.
U.S. officials claim Rahman was "violently uncooperative" while in custody at the Salt Pit, the CIA code name for an abandoned brick factory that had been turned into a CIA black site or covert interrogation center, including threatening to kill his guards – who responded by beating him. Rahman was also subjected to "48 hours of sleep deprivation, auditory overload, total darkness, isolation, a cold shower and rough treatment". Gul Rahman reportedly died on November 20, 2002, after being stripped naked from the waist down and shackled to a cold cement wall in the Salt Pit, where temperatures were approximately {{convert|36|F|C}}.{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-cia-torture-victim-once-rescue-hamid-karzai/|title=Did CIA Torture Victim Once Rescue Hamid Karzai?|publisher=CBS News|date=6 April 2010|access-date=20 April 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120903010314/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/06/world/main6368610.shtml|archive-date=3 September 2012}}
This technique of shackling is known as "short-chaining." The detainee is shackled "in a short chain position, which prevents prisoners from standing upright." A CIA pathologist reported that Rahman likely froze to death.{{cite news|last=Leopold|first=Jason|author-link=Jason Leopold|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/gul-rahman-death-at-cia-black-site-prison-cobalt/|title=After a Detainee Died at a Black Site, the CIA Blamed Training From the Federal Bureau of Prisons|publisher=Vice News|date=3 June 2016|access-date=17 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318175148/https://news.vice.com/article/gul-rahman-death-at-cia-black-site-prison-cobalt|archive-date=2017-03-18|url-status=live}}
His death prompted an internal CIA review and the development of improved guidance. No one was ever charged in his death.
Rescue of Hamid Karzai
File:Gul Rahman CIA death investigation.pdf
According to Gul's brother, Habib Rahman, Gul Rahman was involved in a 1994 rescue of Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. Karzai had been imprisoned by the government forces, and Rahman was working for Hekmatyar, whose forces fired rockets at the building while Rahman entered and freed Karzai. Rahman took him to a safe house in Kabul.
Senate Intelligence Committee's report of CIA torture
On December 9, 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture was published. According to that report he had been subjected to total darkness, sensory overload, sleep deprivation, cold shower, rough treatment, short shackling, and finally froze to death. The report said he was the only captive known to have died in CIA custody.
On October 13, 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit {{cite web|title=Salim v. Mitchell - Complaint|url=https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/salim-v-mitchell-complaint|publisher=ACLU|quote=Lawsuit Against Psychologists Behind CIA Torture Program|access-date=2015-10-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024065901/https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/salim-v-mitchell-complaint|archive-date=2015-10-24|url-status=live}} on behalf of Rahman's estate and two other former detainees against two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who they maintain were responsible for designing the protocols that resulted in Rahman's death and the torture of the other two plaintiffs. The ACLU case is the first lawsuit brought against significant individuals identified in the Senate report since it was published. On July 28, 2017, U.S. District Judge Justin Lowe Quackenbush denied both parties motions for summary judgment, noted that the defendants are indemnified by the United States government, and encouraged the attorneys to reach a settlement before trial.{{cite news|last1=Fink|first1=Sheri|title=2 Psychologists in C.I.A. Interrogations Can Face Trial, Judge Rules|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/us/cia-interrogations-torture-psychologists.html|access-date=29 July 2017|work=The New York Times|date=29 July 2017|page=A18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729053730/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/us/cia-interrogations-torture-psychologists.html|archive-date=2017-07-29|url-status=live}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em|refs=
{{cite news
|last1=Roller|first1=Emma |last2=Nelson |first2=Rebecca
| url = http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/what-cia-interrogators-did-to-17-detainees-without-approval-20141210
| title = What CIA Interrogators Did To 17 Detainees Without Approval
| work = National Journal
| date = 10 December 2014
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141211020306/http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/what-cia-interrogators-did-to-17-detainees-without-approval-20141210
| archive-date = 11 December 2014
| access-date = 10 December 2014
| quote = Cited by the Senate report as the only detainee who died from the CIA's interrogation, Rahman was subjected to "'48 hours of sleep deprivation, auditory overload, total darkness, isolation, a cold shower, and rough treatment'" during his time at the Cobalt detention site. One night in November 2002, he was "shackled to the wall of his cell," resting on the bare concrete floor. Wearing only a sweatshirt and naked from the waist down, he was found dead—likely of hypothermia—the next day. Other factors in his death included "dehydration, lack of food, and immobility due to 'short chaining.'"
}}
}}
External links
- [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/28/salt-pit-death-gul-rahman_n_516559.html "Salt Pit Death: Gul Rahman, CIA Prisoner, Died Of Hypothermia In Secret Afghanistan Prison"], Huffington Post
- [http://www.truth-out.org/author-torture-memos-admits-some-techniques-were-not-approved-by-doj61392 "Author of Torture Memos Admits Some Techniques Were Not Approved By DOJ"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717142613/http://www.truth-out.org/author-torture-memos-admits-some-techniques-were-not-approved-by-doj61392 |date=July 17, 2010 }}, Truth-Out
{{CIAPrisons}}
{{WoTPrisoners}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahman, Gul}}
Category:Afghan expatriates in Pakistan
Category:Afghan people who died in prison custody
Category:Afghan torture victims
Category:Deaths from hypothermia
Category:Place of birth missing
Category:Prisoners and detainees held in the Salt Pit
Category:Prisoners who died in United States military detention