Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times by the CIA following his capture in March 2002 in Pakistan. Beyond this brutal treatment, he was also beaten against walls, hung by his hands from cell bars, and confined naked in a coffin-sized box for 266 hours.
Despite being detained for almost 20 years without any formal charges at Guantánamo Bay, his full story remains largely hidden from public view. Although the Senate Intelligence Committee released a heavily redacted 500-page summary of its investigation into the torture program, the complete 6,700-page report with 38,000 footnotes compiled from 6.2 million classified CIA documents continues to be kept secret. According to former FBI agent Ali Soufan, Abu Zubaydah had initially cooperated with interrogators and provided significant intelligence, including information about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s role as the architect of 9/11. However, the CIA’s shift to “enhanced interrogation techniques” represented a profound departure from established interrogation methods and American values.
This article examines who Abu Zubaydah is, the circumstances of his capture, the torture he endured, and the ongoing legal battles surrounding his case, revealing how his treatment became a defining chapter in America’s post-9/11 counterterrorism policies.
Who is Abu Zubaydah, and why does his story matter
Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, commonly known as Abu Zubaydah, has become a central figure in debates about America’s post-9/11 counterterrorism policies. Born on March 12, 1971, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he remains a Pakistani citizen of Palestinian origin.
Early life and background
Prior to his involvement with militant groups, Abu Zubaydah reportedly studied computer science in Mysore, India. Subsequently, he traveled to Afghanistan/Pakistan at age 20 in 1991, where he joined the mujahideen fighting against the Afghan Communist Government forces during the Afghan Civil War.
The following year proved pivotal in his life when he suffered a severe injury in an Afghan mortar attack. This traumatic incident left shrapnel in his head, causing extensive memory loss and rendering him unable to speak for over one year. Throughout his detention, he has experienced additional medical complications, notably losing his left eye while in U.S. custody under circumstances that remain unexplained.
Alleged ties to terrorism
Abu Zubaydah eventually became involved with the Khalden training camp, where his primary role involved overseeing recruit flow and handling documentation for men transferring out. Furthermore, he was convicted in absentia in Jordan and sentenced to death for his alleged role in plots targeting U.S. and Israeli interests.
Some officials characterized him as part of “bin Laden’s inner circle”. Correspondingly, certain accounts claim he traveled to Saudi Arabia in 1996 to visit bin Laden and deliver $600,000 to the al-Qaeda leader. Additionally, the FBI’s classified pre-9/11 report mentioned that Millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam had confessed that Zubaydah had encouraged him to attack Los Angeles airport.
Misconceptions about his role in al-Qaeda
Perhaps the most contentious aspect of Abu Zubaydah’s story concerns his relationship with al-Qaeda. Initially described by U.S. officials as a “senior bin Laden official” and even “third or fourth highest-ranking member of al Qaeda”, these characterizations have since been questioned.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report made clear that the Khaldan camp was not affiliated with al-Qaeda, contrary to common misconceptions. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government stated in 2009 that it no longer contended Zubaydah had any involvement with the 9/11 attacks or that he was even a member of al-Qaeda.
Essentially, U.S. intelligence has revised its assessment, with officials concluding that while he was a militant in Afghanistan in the 1980s and ’90s, he had never joined Al Qaeda and had no connection to the September 11 attacks. Nevertheless, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence maintains that “although he never pledged bay’ah to Usama bin Laden, Abu Zubaydah functioned as a full member of al-Qa’ida and was a trusted associate of al-Qa’ida’s senior leaders”.
Abu Zubaydah’s importance stems not only from these disputed allegations but primarily from his status as the first high-value detainee subjected to the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques—practices widely condemned as torture. His case represents a critical intersection of intelligence gathering, legal boundaries, and human rights considerations in America’s response to terrorism.
The capture of Abu Zubaydah: A turning point in U.S. counterterrorism
On March 28, 2002, a pivotal moment in America’s post-9/11 counterterrorism strategy unfolded when a joint US-Pakistani raid targeted several safe houses in Faisalabad, Pakistan. This operation would lead to the capture of the man who would become the first subject of the CIA’s controversial detention and interrogation program.
Details of the 2002 raid in Pakistan
The raid that secured Abu Zubaydah was a coordinated effort between American and Pakistani intelligence services. More than 30 other suspects were apprehended alongside him during the operation. First and foremost, this collaboration did not come without cost—while Pakistani intelligence paid a modest sum for the tip on Zubaydah’s whereabouts, the United States reportedly compensated Pakistan with an astounding $10 million for their assistance.
Interestingly, when commandos stormed the safe house, they did not immediately recognize the high-value target they had captured. In fact, Abu Zubaydah was initially piled into a pickup truck along with other detainees until a senior CIA officer identified him. His pocket litter reportedly contained two bank cards providing access to Saudi and Kuwaiti accounts—a discovery that raised questions about potential financial connections.
Initial injuries and medical treatment
During the raid, Abu Zubaydah sustained life-threatening injuries, having been shot in the thigh, testicle, and stomach with rounds from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Transported to a Pakistani hospital, his condition was so severe that the attending physician told CIA officers he had never before seen a patient survive such grievous wounds.
Moreover, former CIA agent John Kiriakou, who claims to have been present during the capture, described the scene: “There was blood everywhere. It was all over him. It was all over the bed. It pooled under the bed”. The severity of these injuries prompted the CIA to fly in a specialist from Johns Hopkins University to ensure Zubaydah would survive transport out of Pakistan.
Specifically, these wounds would continue to cause complications. Medical personnel later documented the “steady deterioration” of his surgical wound during August 2002 interrogations. Throughout his detention, Zubaydah would experience additional medical issues, including losing his left eye while in CIA custody under circumstances that remain unexplained.
Transfer to CIA custody
Within hours of his capture, CIA officials began discussions about how to interpret torture prohibitions to allow for certain interrogation methods. By March 29, President Bush had already authorized Zubaydah’s transfer to Thailand, and he officially entered CIA custody on March 31, 2002.
As a consequence of his capture, Abu Zubaydah became the first “high-value detainee” in the emerging CIA program. The agency deliberately rejected transferring him to US military custody, wishing to keep his detention secret from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Ultimately, before his 2006 transfer to Guantánamo Bay, Zubaydah would be held at multiple CIA black sites across several countries, including Thailand, Poland, Lithuania, Morocco, and Afghanistan.
Inside the CIA black sites: The torture of Abu Zubaydah
After being transferred to CIA custody, Abu Zubaydah became the first detainee subjected to what the agency called “enhanced interrogation techniques” (EITs)—a program designed by psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen that marked a dark chapter in American counterterrorism efforts.
Waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques
The CIA subjected Abu Zubaydah to waterboarding 83 times within a single month. This technique induced convulsions, vomiting, and at times left him “completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth”. Furthermore, interrogators employed a range of other brutal methods:
- “Walling” (slamming him against concrete walls)
- Stress positions that forced him to balance on tiptoes with his hands shackled above his head
- Confinement in boxes, including 266 hours (11 days) in a “coffin-sized” box and 29 hours in a smaller box measuring just 21 inches wide by 2.5 feet deep
Consequently, CIA officers themselves were reportedly “profoundly affected,” occasionally “to the point of tears and choking up,” with several personnel likely to request transfers if the torture continued.
Psychological manipulation and sensory deprivation
Beyond physical torture, interrogators employed sophisticated psychological tactics. Zubaydah endured prolonged isolation—at one point for 47 consecutive days. Sleep deprivation lasted “for maybe two or three weeks or even more,” as he recalled, “It felt like an eternity”. Simultaneously, he experienced forced nudity, extreme temperature exposure, and dietary manipulation.
The CIA’s approach, described as “the Vortex” by Zubaydah himself, involved rotating through different torture methods every hour to maximize disorientation. Interrogators also threatened sexual violence, including using a power drill.
Medical complications and long-term effects
The interrogation techniques exacerbated Zubaydah’s existing injuries, particularly his leg wound, which steadily deteriorated as medical care was deliberately subordinated to interrogation. Currently, he suffers from permanent psychological and physical trauma, including loss of his left eye under unexplained circumstances.
Among the lasting effects, Zubaydah reports losing control of urination when under stress—a direct result of the waterboarding. Generally, victims of such treatment experience PTSD, depression, cognitive impairment, and symptoms resembling paranoid schizophrenia.
Drawings and testimonies from Zubaydah
In 2019, Zubaydah created 40 detailed drawings depicting the torture he endured—providing a rare visual record after the CIA destroyed videotapes of his interrogations. These sketches show him nude and strapped to a gurney during waterboarding, shackled in stress positions, and confined in various boxes.
His accompanying annotations offer chilling first-person accounts: “I was told during this period that I was one of the first to receive these interrogation techniques, so no rules applied. It felt like they were experimenting and trying out techniques to be used later on other people”.
The legal and political machinery behind the CIA torture program
Behind Abu Zubaydah’s torture lay an elaborate legal and political apparatus designed to authorize, implement, and ultimately shield the CIA’s interrogation program from accountability.
The role of the Justice Department and OLC memos
The legal foundation for torture emerged through a series of Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memoranda—commonly called the “Torture Memos”—drafted by Justice Department lawyers, including John Yoo, and signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee in August 2002. These memos provided questionable legal justification for techniques previously considered torture. Remarkably, CIA attorneys had initially circulated an internal draft memo acknowledging these techniques violated the US Torture Statute, even seeking “a formal declination of prosecution, in advance”.
CIA contractors and psychological theories
Two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, were central to developing the program despite having no interrogation experience. The CIA paid them $81 million for their services. Their approach reverse-engineered techniques from SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape)—originally designed to help American personnel withstand communist torture.
Cover-ups and destruction of evidence
In 2005, the CIA destroyed 92 videotapes showing Abu Zubaydah’s interrogations. This occurred one day after a Senate vote on establishing an independent commission to investigate detention practices. Gina Haspel, who later became CIA Director, drafted the cable ordering their destruction. The tapes were destroyed amid multiple court orders and congressional inquiries that could have required their preservation.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report
After a five-year investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a 500-page summary of its 6,700-page report in December 2014. The report concluded that torture was ineffective, the CIA provided false information to oversight bodies, and the program was severely mismanaged. Yet only a small fraction of the full report has been made public—less than 10%.
The fight for justice: Where the Abu Zubaydah case stands today
Twenty years after his capture, Abu Zubaydah remains detained at Guantánamo Bay without formal charges, at the center of ongoing legal battles in multiple jurisdictions.
Supreme Court hearings and legal battles
In March 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a significant setback to Abu Zubaydah’s quest for accountability. In a 7-2 decision, the Court ruled that the state secrets privilege barred testimony from CIA contractors regarding his treatment in Poland. Presently, his legal team has launched a new offensive across multiple courts. This includes a lawsuit against the two psychologists who waterboarded him, a petition challenging the CIA’s destruction of 90 interrogation videotapes, and ongoing litigation in Poland and Britain seeking damages.
UN and international human rights calls
The United Nations has taken a firm stance on Abu Zubaydah’s case. In January 2025, UN human rights experts called for his immediate release and relocation to a safe third country. Notably, they made the exceptional request for a Presidential pardon and demanded “an enforceable right to compensation and other measures of reparation”. These experts emphasized that responsibility extends beyond the U.S. to all countries involved in his detention and torture.
Current health and detention conditions
Abu Zubaydah suffers from serious ongoing health conditions resulting from his torture. Besides losing his left eye under unexplained circumstances, he experiences permanent brain damage, memory loss, and seizures. Furthermore, his lawyer-client communication has been “seriously impeded,” according to UN experts.
Why the full Senate report remains classified
Though a 500-page summary was released, the complete 6,700-page Senate Committee report on CIA torture remains classified. This comprehensive document contains 38,000 footnotes compiled from 6.2 million classified CIA documents, potentially containing critical details about accountability and responsibility that remain hidden from public view.
Final Thoughts
The untold story of Abu Zubaydah represents far more than one man’s suffering—it embodies a critical turning point in America’s moral and legal framework. First and foremost, he remains what his lawyer Mark Denbeaux describes as “the poster child for America’s torture program”. Unfortunately, this designation stems from being “the first person to be tortured, having been approved by the Department of Justice based on facts that the CIA knew to be false”.
The ramifications extend well beyond individual cases. Altogether, at least 119 individuals were victimized under the program. Yet official accountability remains elusive—no high-ranking officials have faced criminal charges for authorizing or implementing these techniques.
Perhaps most troubling is how torture transformed from a categorically prohibited practice into what one legal expert calls “a debatable issue of partisan politics”. By 2023, “a large sector of the public believes torture may be justified, that it ‘works,’ and that it is an essential tool of national security”—despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s thorough investigation reached an unambiguous conclusion: “that the abuse of Zubaydah and other detainees failed to elicit any new intelligence. In other words, torture does not work”.
Ultimately, Abu Zubaydah’s case illuminates how quickly fundamental human rights protections can erode under the pressure of fear—and why vigilance against such erosion remains essential for any society committed to justice.
FAQs
1. Who is Abu Zubaydah?
Abu Zubaydah, born Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn in 1971 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is a Palestinian with Pakistani citizenship. He became a central figure in the U.S. “War on Terror” after his capture in Pakistan in 2002. Once accused of being a senior al-Qaeda leader, later investigations revealed that he was not a member of al-Qaeda nor involved in the 9/11 attacks.
2. Why was Abu Zubaydah captured?
U.S. intelligence believed Abu Zubaydah was a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure connected to terrorist plots, including the Millennium bombing attempt. Acting on that assumption, American and Pakistani forces captured him in a raid in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March 2002. He was severely injured during the operation and subsequently transferred to CIA custody.
3. What kind of torture did Abu Zubaydah endure?
Abu Zubaydah was the first detainee subjected to the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques—later recognized as torture. He was waterboarded at least 83 times, slammed against walls, kept naked in small coffin-sized boxes for 266 hours, deprived of sleep for weeks, and hung by his wrists for prolonged periods. The psychological torment included threats, sensory deprivation, and forced nudity.
4. Why is Abu Zubaydah’s case significant?
His case marked the beginning of the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program. The techniques tested on him shaped U.S. interrogation policies for years. His treatment became the subject of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s torture report, which found that such methods were both ineffective and illegal under international law.
5. Was Abu Zubaydah ever charged with a crime?
No. Despite being detained for more than two decades at Guantánamo Bay, Abu Zubaydah has never been charged or tried in any U.S. court. His indefinite detention without trial has been widely condemned by human rights organizations and the United Nations.
6. What did the Senate Intelligence Committee report reveal about his case?
The 2014 Senate Torture Report concluded that Abu Zubaydah’s torture produced no valuable intelligence. The CIA had exaggerated his importance to justify its actions. Only a 500-page summary of the report was released, while the full 6,700-page version remains classified, keeping crucial evidence hidden from the public.
7. What legal actions have been taken regarding his torture?
Abu Zubaydah’s lawyers have filed multiple lawsuits against CIA contractors and governments involved in his detention. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his attempt to subpoena testimony from CIA psychologists, citing “state secrets.” However, international courts in Poland and Britain continue to investigate their governments’ roles in hosting CIA black sites.
8. What is his current condition and status?
He remains imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, suffering from severe physical and psychological trauma, including brain damage, memory loss, and the loss of his left eye. In 2025, UN human rights experts called for his immediate release and rehabilitation, urging the U.S. to provide compensation and transparency about his case.
9. Why does the full Senate torture report remain classified?
The classified 6,700-page report, containing 38,000 footnotes from 6.2 million CIA documents, has never been made public due to political and security concerns. Many believe it includes detailed evidence of CIA misconduct, human rights violations, and high-level cover-ups.
10. What does Abu Zubaydah’s case tell us about America’s counterterrorism policies?
His story exposes the moral and legal consequences of abandoning human rights in the name of national security. It illustrates how fear-driven policies led to torture, secrecy, and indefinite detention—practices that failed to produce meaningful intelligence while permanently damaging America’s global reputation.
Key Takeaways
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Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times and tortured in CIA black sites.
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He was never charged with a crime despite over 20 years of detention.
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The full Senate Torture Report remains classified.
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His case symbolizes the failures of post-9/11 counterterrorism tactics.