In a series of interviews with his lawyers, 35-year-old Majid Khan has provided a detailed, grisly account of the abuse that he endured while being interrogated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The Pakistani citizen, who attended high school in Maryland, described the horrific experience as something almost surreal.
"I wished they had killed me," Khan told his lawyers, describing the excruciating pain he felt as he was hung naked from poles while guards repeatedly held his head under frigid water, according to Reuters.
"'Son, we are going to take care of you,'" his interrogators said, according to Khan's statement.
"'We are going to send you to a place you cannot imagine,'" they added.
What is particularly disconcerting about Khan's accounts of the torture he was subjected to under CIA incarceration is the fact that his experience matches some of the most disturbing findings of a U.S. Senate report, which is a product of a five-year review of 6.3 million internal CIA documents, Reuters reported.
Khan has complained to his lawyers about the torture prior to the report being released. Among the similarities between Khan's account and the findings of the Senate investigations include instances when Khan received involuntary rectal feeding and rectal hydration.
The CIA, however, states that the rectal feedings were necessary because Khan was being uncooperative. Rectal feeding has no therapeutic value, and his lawyers dub it as rape.
However, the worst torture Khan received occurred in May 2003, when he was stripped naked, hung from a wooden beam for three days, and almost drowned in a process called "waterboarding," which involves covering the face with a cloth and pouring water in order to simulate the sensation of drowning. Ice water was also poured from a bucket to Khan's mouth and nose, according to The Baltimore Sun.
"I lived in anxiety every moment of every single day about the fear and anticipation of the unknown," Khan said.
One of Khan's lawyers, J. Wells Dixon, believes that Khan's account of the savagery of the CIA must serve as a springboard for the government to stop the inhumane practices immediately.
"As layers of secrecy have been peeled away throughout the Obama administration, we see more and more evidence of CIA savagery and treachery," he said.
"This is the only way to ensure that the U.S. never again resorts to torture and the only way to move the country forward," he added.
