My Role in the Torture of Binyam Mohamed

I like to think that some of the things I write cause discomfort in those readers who deserve to feel it. Ideally, they should squirm, they should flinch, they might even experience fleeting gastrointestinal symptoms. But I have always drawn the line at torture. It may be unpleasant to read some of my writings, especially if they have been assigned by a professor, but it should not result in uncontrollable screaming, genital mutilation or significant blood loss.

With such stringent journalistic ethics in place, I was shocked to read in the February 14th Daily Mail Online a brief article headed "Food writer's online guide to building an H-bomb...the 'evidence' that put this man in Guantanamo." The "food writer" was identified as me, and the story began:

A British 'resident' held at Guantanamo Bay was identified as a terrorist after confessing he had visited a 'joke' website on how to build a nuclear weapon, it was revealed last night.

Binyam Mohamed, a former UK asylum seeker, admitted to having read the 'instructions' after allegedly being beaten, hung up by his wrists for a week and having a gun held to his head in a Pakistani jail.

While I am not, and have never been, a "food writer," other details about the "joke" rang true, such as the names of my co-authors, Peter Biskind and physicist Michio Kaku. Rewind to 1979, when Peter and I were working for a now-defunct leftwing magazine named Seven Days. The government had just suppressed the publication of another magazine, The Progressive, for attempting to print an article called "The H-Bomb Secret." I don't remember that article and the current editor of The Progressive recalls only that it contained a lot of physics and was "Greek to me." Both in solidarity with The Progressive and in defense of free speech, we at Seven Days decided to do a satirical article entitled "How to Make Your Own H-Bomb," offering step-by-step instructions for assembling a bomb using equipment available in one's own home.

The satire was not subtle. After discussing the toxicity of plutonium, we advised that to avoid ingesting it orally, "Never make an A-bomb on an empty stomach." My favorite section dealt with the challenge of enriching uranium hexafluoride:

First transform the gas into a liquid by subjecting it to pressure. You can use a bicycle pump for this. Then make a simple home centrifuge. Fill a standard-size bucket one-quarter full of liquid uranium hexafluoride. Attach a six-foot rope to the bucket handle. Now swing the rope (and attached bucket) around your head as fast as possible. Keep this up for about 45 minutes. Slow down gradually, and very gently put the bucket on the floor. The U-235, which is lighter, will have risen to the top, where it can be skimmed off like cream. Repeat this step until you have the required 10 pounds of uranium. (Safety note: Don't put all your enriched uranium hexafluoride in one bucket. Use at least two or three buckets and keep them in separate corners of the room. This will prevent the premature build-up of a critical mass.)

Our H-bomb cover story created a bit of a stir at the time, then vanished into the attics and garages of former Seven Days staffers, only to resurface, at least in part, on the Internet in the early 2000s. Today, you can find it quoted on the blog of a University of Dayton undergraduate, along with the flattering comment: "This forum post is priceless. It is one of the best pieces of scientific satire I have ever seen. I can only hope and pray that terrorist groups attempt to construct an atomic bomb using these instructions -- if they survive the attempt, they'll have at least wasted months of effort."

Enter Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian refugee and legal resident of Britain who had found work as a janitor after drug problems derailed his college career. According to his lawyer, Clive Smith of the human rights group Reprieve, Mohamed traveled to Afghanistan in 2001, attracted by the Taliban's drug-free way of life -- which, from my point of view, was a little like upgrading from bronchitis to lung cancer. War soon drove him out of Afghanistan and to Karachi, from where he sought to return to the U.K. But, as a refugee, he lacked a proper passport and was using a friend's, which led to his apprehension at the airport. Smith says the Pakistanis turned him over to the FBI, who were obsessed at the time with the possibility of an Al Qaeda nuclear attack on the U.S. After repeated beatings and the above-mentioned hanging by the wrists, Mohamed "confessed" to having read an article on how to make an H-bomb on the Internet, insisting to his interrogators that it was a "joke."

But post-9/11 America was an irony-free zone, and it's still illegal to banter about bombs in the presence of airport security staff. It's not clear how the news of Mohamed's H-bomb knowledge was conveyed to Washington -- many documents remain classified or have not been released -- but Smith speculates that the part about the H-bomb got through, although not the part about the joke. The result, anyhow, was that Mohamed was thrust into a world of unending pain -- tortured at the U.S. prison in Baghram, rendered to Morocco for 18 months of further torture, including repeated cutting of his penis with a scalpel, and finally landing in Guantanamo for almost five years of more mundane abuse. He was just released and returned to Britain today.

As if that were not enough for a satirist to have on her conscience, the U.S. seems to have attributed Mohamed's presumed nuclear ambitions to a second man, an American citizen named Jose Padilla, aka the "dirty bomber." The apparent evidence? Padilla had been scheduled to fly on the same flight out of Karachi that Mohamed had a ticket for, so obviously they must have been confederates. Commenting on Padilla's apprehension in 2002, the Chicago Sun-Times editorialized: "We castigate ourselves for failing to grasp the reality of what they're [the alleged terrorists are] trying to do, but perhaps that is a good thing. We should have difficulty staring evil in the face."

I am not histrionic enough to imagine myself in any way responsible for the torments suffered by Mohamed and Padilla -- at least no more responsible than any other American who failed to rise up in revolutionary anger against the Bush terror regime. No, I'm too busy seething over another irony: Whenever I've complained about my country's torturings, renderings, detentions, etc., there's always been some smug bastard ready to respond that these measures are what guarantee smart-alecky writers like myself our freedom of speech. Well, we had a government so vicious and impenetrably stupid that it managed to take my freedom of speech and turn it into someone else's living hell.

Comments

[Leatherhelmet]

The failure of the left to comprehend the war tactics of Al Quaeda is stunning.

[research]

Only surpassed by the Conservative DESIRE for a "Perl Harbor Event" .

Mind you, the Conservatives finished Bin Laden's plan to bankrupt the USA, something the conservatives and Al Quaeda agree completely on.

[appleknocker]

"It's not clear how the news of Mohamed's H-bomb knowledge was conveyed to Washington . . ." In a way, this the scariest part of the story, since it implies that we are indeed living in an Orwellian world where our most innocuous online activities are stored and made available to a Big Brother, who is notoriously paranoid and humorless.

I wonder how many of the other "terrorist suspects" have been imprisoned and tortured on equally idiotic grounds.

[drvck70]

Yeah and perhaps Binyam Mohamed is making it all up, you lost me at the point of "attracted by the Taliban's drug-free way of life" considering opium trade is a major source of their funding. I wonder to myself how Binyam Mohamed feels about the Afghan women who were lifted up by their necks with Grove cranes to slowly strangle to death to the bemusement of his "drug free" Talib buddies, because of what, dress code? Chances are Binyam Mohamed received far less than he dished out. no sympathy from me.

[Rrhain]

"Irony"? Where is the irony? Irony is not "black humor." Nor is it "self-awareness mixed with snark." Nor is it "reflexiveness."

Irony is when actions taken to result in a certain outcome are the very things that cause the opposite outcome to occur. Your writings were not done to cause torture to cease, therefore there is no irony in it resulting (however obliquely) in someone being tortured. It is simply tragic, not ironic.

Since the torture neither caused nor dampened your free speech, there is no irony in the smug bastards comments. Instead, his comments are a non sequitur. They do not follow from what came before.

Perhaps if we lock you up and force you to read actual works that utilize irony (Oedipus Rex, being the classic example), you'll eventually learn to use the term correctly.

[Zanti]

The irony is two-fold. First of all, we expect measures taken to ensure freedom to accomplish exactly that. We DON'T expect them to compromise freedom. When they do, you've got irony.

Let's label that Irony A.

And we expect rights to facilitate other rights. We DON'T expect a given right, such as freedom of speech, to facilitate the taking of rights. In this case, Barbara's freedom of speech resulted in exactly that. It formed the basis for Irony A.

Irony times two. Does that help?

[Clarke]

Considering the post, how odd of you to threaten her with incarceration.

[Zanti]

Too bad, because it was such a sensitive, insightful comment until that last bit....

[DKLabRat]

If any of the Americans here are truly shocked and appalled by the treatment of Mr. Mohammed then there is a way, NOW, that you can help. Here in the UK, our courts have been banned from publishing documents relating to Mr. Mohammed's torture by the US, in which the UK was complicit. The US had leaned on our Foreign Secretary to prevent the papers being divulged to the UK public, telling him that if they were then the US would withhold vital security intel in future.

Let's be clear here - our so-called allies, the US administration, threatened that they would allow UK citizens to be blown to bits by terrorists, would not tell us they knew an attack on UK soil was coming, if their dirty secrets were held up to the light of day by the UK's independent judges.

Sadly, Obama upheld the US position last week. The papers remain secret. Our cowardly government caved and is refusing to even ask for a rethink.

So Mr. Mohammed's claim about torture and any court case he seeks compensation in is likely to fail - because the UK and US don't want us to know about their illegal activities.

If you want to change this - get the evidence out! Contact your government representative in the US and demand they put pressure on the adminstration to do the right thing.

And be wary of your new President. It seems he isn't as keen to change these wrongs as he

[kimleehan]

The world is watching how George Bush handled the war on terror, and the message their taking from it is, what is acceptable for one to do, is acceptable for all. If its acceptable for the U.S. to invade Iraq, than its o.k. for Irael to invade Gaza, If its o.k. for one nation to torture than its o.k. for all to torture, Its a dangerious message we are sending out to the world. know wonder why Iran, and North Korea feel they need a bomb. The U.S. needs to get back into conformity with the U.N. and the Geneva conventions and the ICC. and do it fast.

[4Q-N4Q2]

I don't take ANY Gitmo detainee's claims at face value. They've got an ax to grind, and a sympathetic audience who seem anxious to believe whatever tall tales they contrive. Without corroboration their stories have to be taken with more than a grain of salt.

[kathy001]

After being subjected to water-boarding, forced to stand in unnatural positions for hours on end, tied in unnatural positions, interrogated, sleep deprived, humiliated, locked away from the world for years, I would expect that these people do, indeed, have an ax to grind.

One thing to remember, the tales of harsh interrogation - i.e. torture - have been corroborated by our people. Not just corroborated, they have been held up, arrogantly and openly, as necessary action.

Frankly, I'm more willing to take the words of the prisoners than I am of the criminals who tortured them.

[JoePenn]

What a moronic statement, the whole godamned thing. A president, born on 3rd base and with a sadly psychotic and addictive brain, pushes this crap 'cause it was pushed on him. Why, he's sooo tough, he's gonna 'smoke 'em out,' baby! Torture the hell out of people --- they'll give in, give us some great actionable intelligence, for sure! Not an ounce of intel has come from these situations. Only garbage and ludicrous pressers of "lordy, lordy,we saved 'merica from aNOTHer 9/11 .... yee-hah, torture some more great info out of them!!

God it's pathetic that people haven't learned it's all been a rouse. It'll go away in a couple years just as it crept in, with some garbage to get us to focus on something else, in der Zwischenzeit.

Sad, sad notion of intelligent posts on this thread.

Barbara --- loved your book on working for minimum wage and trying to make it. One of the places you went to is my homestate and you had the locals pegged precisely. You write in the vein of peggy noonan (lower case intended), but with a brain and no hogwashed "ah, isn't president bush and dick cheney just heavenly?" Unfathomable that she's still a seat-hugger on Sunday mornings and writing a column ----- you should be much better known and doubltess more read than her.

[Articulator]

And what shred of evidence has been given on any of them that they committed a crime? There surely must be some that did but seeing how only a few were captured by American forces and the rest were handed over to American troops for money, it is even more probable that many are guilty of nothing but now it is too much of an embarrassment to restore them to normal life. I'm reasonable, give me some evidence of crimes. When the former head prosecutor at Gitmo comes out and says the trials are a farce, the onus is on the captors, not the captives. So why do we fly them to other countries in the rendition program if not to torture them, just to up the frequent flier miles? And remember, the past administration went to great length to claim that waterboarding isnt torture - as unbelievable as it is that some one could claim that - why did they do that?

[Zanti]

A person is imprisoned and tortured for no good reason--yeah, that's pretty far-fetched. No way that could have happened. Not on Bush's watch.

("Twilight Zone" theme, fade)

[markperry]

Barbara Barbara Barbara....

You are putting forward the same hackneyed theme. Now listen to me and listen to me good. Islamic terror did not start as a result of the war in Iraq or the war in Afghanistan. It started much before.

1. Islamic terrorist groups attacked Isreali athletes in the1972 Munich Olypics
2. In 1979 the American embessy in Iran was taken over by Islamic terrorists.
3. In 1983 US marine barracks were blown up in Lebanon by Islamic terrorists
4. In 1985 TWA flight # 847 was hijacked in Athens by Islamic terrorists
5. In 1986 a Pan Am flight was attacked in Karachi resulting in several deaths
6. The 'Hindawi Affair' - an attempt to blowup a jetliner out of London happened in 1986
7. In 1993 the World Trade Center was attacked by Islamic terrorists
8. In 1998 the US embessies in Kenya and Tanzenia were bombed by Islamic terrorists.

All of these events preceeded George W Bush's presidency. And then 9-11 happened. Bush did what it took to keep the country safe something that his predecessors slept over. If you look at the chronology of events above you will see how frequently America and its interests were attacked during previous administrations and they simply slept over. Since 9-11 there has not been any attacks because Bush tackled terror.

[research]

Doesn't that hurt you brain?

BushCo let 9/11 happen .

BuchCo ignored warnings from Clinton: Bin Laden determined to attack.... remember?

Terrorist attack world wide have gone way up during BushCo reign of torture.

PNAC documents state "we would need a Perl harbor event to make the changes...."

Please explain why war games were being played on the 9/11, a date considered a likely Islamic terrorist attack day.

Bush let 9/11 happen.

9/11 happened on Bush's watch.

Get it?

[markperry]

Dear Mr. Research,

You need to do some research. Yes, 9/11 did happen under Bush's watch. But go back and refer to all the events I have mentioned earlier. The earlier presidents are more responsible than George W. They failed to curtail the terror infrastructure that was getting built.

Bush &Co did get the report in August 2001 about Bin Laden determined to attack. But what that report did not contain was when such an attack was going to happen. Further, between the day he got the report and September 11, 2001 (about 30 days or even less)there was no way Bush was going to improve airport security, set up TSA, setup homeland security, set up effective coordination between the various agencies, enact patriot act to give some teeth to the law enforcement units. So fixing Bush Jr is ridiculous.

If only Mr. Carter had acted tough on terror thirty years ago then we would be in utopia today with terror or torture.

[Zanti]

Um... no. Doesn't look like he does.

[WmC]

Mark Mark Mark....

I don't know how you can call it the same hackneyed theme, when it appears you missed the whole point of the post in the first place.

You seem to be saying that because there have been Islamic terrorist attacks in the past, that it was perfectly OK for American intelligence officials to torture any and all suspected Islamists, even if a quick and cursory investigation would have demonstrated their innocence.

[markperry]

Look there are so many Muslims in this country. Also, there are lots n lots of immigrants of different backgrounds from all over the world. How come they are not getting shunted to Guantanamo? Only 'suspects' that have some 'dubious links' are being subjected to coerce interrogations. In this case Binyam went from Ethiopia to Britain to Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is very hard to connect the dots and hence the intelligance officials might have to subject him to additional interrogation. Huff Po had a similar story a couple of days where the suspect went from Yemen to Jordan to Aghanistan to US. These clearly reflect something 'dubious' my friend. The Intelligence officials simply cannot give a pass to suspects when the dots simply dont connect.

[BruceHNV]

You are completely delusional.

There have been attacks on American interests by Islamist terrorists all over the globe since 9-11. Hundreds of them. There have been attacks in the US.

Your chronology starts a bit late. It should begin in 1892 when the British occupy Egypt to take their oil - and go forward from there.

[Mikecoatl]

Too bad Bush didn't 'tackle terror' on 9/11 and instead chose to ignore repeated warnings, huh?

[markperry]

Read the response addressed to "research"

[noralou]

This is a sad commentary on our federal "spying" beaurocracy. Not only have they no sense of humor, no decency, no honor -- they are stupid to boot.
All that pain inflicted on this poor man, he will never be the same. I just hope that he can forgive us and not become a terrorist as has happened among others of the tormented.

[thoughtmuse]

Thanks for continuing to make real the lives of those at Guantanamo, Baghram and the rendition sites. Thanks for keeping the issue in print. I do hope that the torture apparatus is fully dismantled under the Obama administration. The acts of torture promoted by the Bush administration are a blot on our country's history that should never be forgotten. But someone must continue to speak out in order for the public conscience to breathe some life into these dark issues.

[DavidF07]

The reasons for restoration and expansion of the rule of law are numerous.

The main reason for due process rights is the acknowledgement that police and prosecutors are human and will make mistakes or, in their zeal to "protect", will attempt to override evidence with emotion or false statements. What protects all of us are the right to be informed of charges against us, the right to a trial by jury, the right to appeal, the right to confront accusers, the right to be represented by an attorney, the right against self-incrimination, the right to privacy, etc.

When we see a government disdaining the rule of law, we see everyone in that society at risk.

We can boost the work to restore law when we prosecute those who so flagrantly brought it down.

[gra8whit]

Whatever you and the guys at the Progressive were complaining about in the late 70's, it must seem like small potatoes to the assaults on civil liberties nowadays. Oh, if you guys were demonstrating your free speech with H-bomb instructions, no wonder liberals were such derisive targets in the minds of conservatives. Your cheeky recklessness was great fodder for them.

p.s. I bought a couple of your more enlightening books in the 2000's. I had no idea you were up to that stuff in the 70's. There's something to be said about maturity.

[vippy]

So far the US has let go about half of the guys initially being held in Guantanamo. Why they are still
dragging their feet to either charge the person or let them go is beyond me. For those who don't feel
a bit sorry for these guys, remember it could happen to you or to someone you love. This is just
wrong. Too bad they cannot sue, no amount of money would make up for years being held and tortured on top of it over nothing at all, just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Let us revisit
with the American Boy, who was sentenced a long time in prison on trumped up Bush Charges,
Walker I believe was his name.

[TLV]

Just got this in my inbox:

"Current Conditions of Confinement at Guantanamo"

http://ccrjustice.org/learn-more/reports/current-conditions-confinement-guantanamo

[TRUE BLUE AMERICAN]

"Remember it could happen to you or someone you love". No it can't because I'm stupid enough to involve myself in things that can be construed as dangerous. Way to stick up for the piece of dung known as "an american" . Walker got what he deserved.

[DuPageDem]

Walker aside -- It can't happen to you, because you're a good person and only bad people ever get arrested, or even suspected of a crime. Never mind that namby-pamby, anti-American 'innocent until proven guilty' stuff. The folks at Waco and Ruby Ridge deserved what they got. Just remember that if the IRS or ATF ever knocks on your door.

[Davwbaird]

more likely to bit the dust from drunk and terrorist drivers.

[DianeInAustin]

Every time I read something like this i am shocked once again. I've read enough (such as Jane Mayer's "The Dark Side"...excellent) to know that Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Rumfeld, Addington, Yoo, etc. were barbarous and that Bush and Cheney ruled as if monarchs or dictators. They personally authorized very specific torture against certain people being held and authorized renditioning detainees to foreign prisons so they would be tortured off U.S. soil. They should be held accountable and prosecuted...a freedom they did not even afford those they held....to have their day in court.

[lowgear]

Executive orders were issued by BHO, the CIA still has authority to carry out secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States. "Obama’s War on Terror May Resemble Bush’s in Some Areas." New York Times 02/17/09

Where is the outrage. Everyone giving BHO a pass?

[Mikecoatl]

Where the hell was your outrage over the last eight years? Oh right, I forgot, you were too busy parroting Faux News talking points.

[TheMightyMidget]

Well done. God willing, people like you will continue to make public everything that's happened as a result of the last 8 years and somehow, someway, Bush, Cheney, and their minions will face prosecution. As great as the new administration is, It's not enough to simply move on and be happy that the erpubs aer out of power. Bush's victims deserve justice.