A week after sentencing a tortured terrorist to 26 years in prison, seven senior U.S. military officers penned a letter condemning the C.I.A.’s brutal treatment of him, calling it a “stain on the moral fiber of America,” reports TheNew York Times. Majid Khan, a Baltimore high school graduate who joined al Qaeda, testified Thursday at Guantánamo Bay about the horrific abuse he endured from C.I.A. agents at “black sites” abroad, including sexual abuse. “Mr. Khan was subjected to physical and psychological abuse well beyond approved enhanced interrogation techniques, instead being closer to torture performed by the most abusive regimes in modern history,” wrote the panel of officers. Khan had said he was tortured even after cooperating with interrogators. “This abuse was of no practical value in terms of intelligence, or any other tangible benefit to U.S. interests,” the officials said. “Instead, it is a stain on the moral fiber of America; the treatment of Mr. Khan in the hands of U.S. personnel should be a source of shame for the U.S. government.” The letter urged the senior Pentagon official in charge to grant Khan clemency, marking the first time such a request was made at Guantánamo Bay.
