Former Guantánamo prisoner only torture survivor to address OSCE plenary on torture prevention

Vienna — Mansoor Adayfi, CAGE's Guantánamo coordinator and former detainee, addressed the OSCE's Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on torture prevention and multilateralism this week, marking the first time a survivor of CIA black sites and Guantánamo has spoken at an OSCE plenary session.

In a session where most participants focused on Ukraine, Russia, and Central Asia, Adayfi was the only speaker to raise Palestine, where Israel, an OSCE Mediterranean Partner for Cooperation, is committing torture and sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners on an industrial scale, including against citizens of OSCE member states.

His full statement is below.

“I was only eighteen years old when I was kidnapped, sold to the United States, and taken to CIA black sites. I was tortured for months. Then I was taken to Guantánamo, where I spent around fifteen years without charge or trial.

 For the first time, a survivor of the CIA black sites and Guantánamo is at an OSCE meeting on torture prevention. For twenty years, you discussed torture in this room, while those tortured were not present.

 What was done to me was not an aberration. It was policy.

 The United States built the most expensive torture program in human history, spanning three continents, costing more than $300 million by its own Senate's accounting. They paid two psychologists $81 million to design the methods. They called it "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques."

 Authorized. Developed. Legalized. Documented. Unprosecuted.

 That is not a failure of accountability, but rather impunity operating as designed.

 Abu Zubaydah is among the most tortured men in CIA history. He has been held at Guantánamo for more than twenty years without charge. Last December, a review board ruled his detention "remains necessary" — without providing a single reason. The men who tortured him are free, while he remains in a cell.

 Gul Rahman was killed in the CIA black site known as the Salt Pit on November 20, 2002. His family was never informed of his death. They learned what happened in 2010, when an Associated Press investigation revealed his death. His four daughters still cannot bury their father because the United States has refused to disclose the location of his body, citing national security. No one was charged.

 Now I speak directly to the states in this room.

 Poland, Romania, and Lithuania hosted CIA black sites. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that all three violated the prohibition on torture. They paid damages. They opened no criminal investigations.

 The United Kingdom passed intelligence to the CIA for Abu Zubaydah's interrogation while knowing he was being tortured. This year, Britain paid him substantial compensation — without admitting wrongdoing. 

And as we sit here today, Israel — an OSCE Mediterranean Partner for Cooperation — is committing torture and sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, women and children - and even against OSCE state citizens- on an industrial scale. This body must act.

 Our demands are clear: the United States must be held accountable. Poland, Romania, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom must open criminal investigations. The OSCE must mandate a review of how participating and partner states cooperate with systematic torture — past and present. It must raise the situation of Palestinian prisoners with Israel directly. 

 Thank you.”

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