U.S. Military Court Releases First Photo of Prisoner at CIA Black Site

The first visual evidence of a prisoner held at a CIA black site has been revealed in a declassified U.S. military court submission.

The photograph depicts Ammar al-Baluchi, who is among several individuals at Guantánamo Bay charged by the U.S. government with orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Baluchi was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2003 and was secretly transferred to five CIA black sites between 2003 and 2006.

As reported by The Guardian, the image of the detainee in the context of the “war on terror” was acquired from Baluchi’s legal representatives just before it was included in a filing for the military court.

In the photo, Baluchi appears severely emaciated and is believed to have been held at Location No 7 or Detention Site Black, referred to as the CIA’s black site in Bucharest, Romania.

This picture of Baluchi was disclosed on page 7 of documents related to his trial by the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Revealed: first picture of war on terror detainee in CIA black site https://t.co/nVdi2tCfyX

— The Guardian (@guardian) August 2, 2024

The New York Times covered the story.

Per The New York Times:

For years, defense lawyers in the Guantánamo cases have spoken of reviewing disturbing government photos of the prisoners being held by the C.I.A. in the Bush administration’s secret overseas prison, the black sites. But they were marked classified, and the world was not allowed to see them. Until now.

Lawyers in the Sept. 11 case have released a single photo taken by the C.I.A. of one prisoner, Ammar al-Baluchi, showing his gaunt, malnourished naked body, circa 2004 at an overseas prison.

The lawyers said the photo, which was first published by the Guardian newspaper, emerged through a classification review process at the military commissions, the war court at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

…

While photos have leaked of U.S. troops abusing prisoners in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including from the Army-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004, none have ever emerged from the C.I.A. black sites. In fact, in 2005 the agency’s leadership destroyed videotapes of interrogations at a black site in Thailand to make sure they were never seen.

Read the entire unclassified here: MILITARY COMMISSIONS TRIAL JUDICIARY