Mohammed al-Qahtani

Who is Mohammed al-Qahtani?

Mohammed Mana Ahmed al-Qahtani is a Saudi citizen who has been detained as an enemy combatant since June 2002 in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba. Qahtani allegedly tried to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks as the 20th hijacker. He was refused entry due to suspicions that he was trying to immigrate. He was later captured in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001.

After military commissions were authorized by Congress, in February 2008, Qahtani was charged on numerous counts. In May the charges were dropped without prejudice. New charges were filed against him in November 2008.

In a Washington Post interview in January 2009, Susan Crawford of the Department of Defense said that the US government had so abused Qahtani through isolation, sleep deprivation, forced nudity and exposure to cold that he was in a "life-threatening condition." The charges against him were dropped in January 2009, as evidence had been obtained through torture and was inadmissible in court. This was the first time an official of the Bush administration had admitted any torture of detainees at Guantanamo.