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 The New 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.