Guantanamo Bay Prison & The CIA SERE Program

On January 11, 2002 under the authorization of then US President, George W. Bush, the Guantanamo Bay prison was opened at Guantanamo naval base in Cuba. The prison operated under total secrecy and only held 30 or so prisoners at one time. By 2006 it was over 741. As early as November 2001, the CIA general counsel began considering the legality of torture, and by 2002 CIA contractors James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen started implementing the SERE program on its first Al Qaeda capture, Abu Zubaydah.

In May 2002, senior Bush administration officials including CIA Director George Tenet, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John Ashcroft met to discuss which techniques the CIA could legally use.

The SERE program used brutal techniques on detainees which included waterboarding ... sleep deprivation, isolation, exposure to extreme temperatures, enclosure in tiny spaces, bombardment with agonizing sounds at extremely damaging decibel levels, and religious and sexual humiliation," including forced enemas and other anal assault. As of 2021 only 31 prisoners are currently held at Guantanamo Bay prison, including Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, who along with 4 others are still awaiting trial for their alleged involvement in the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks.