Abu Zubaydah is the 1st high value detainee captured by CIA after 9/11 & the guinea pig for the agency s torture program. Today, SCOTUS w/consider whether he can be told of his treatment and where he was held which the US has said is a state secret

1/
8 years ago, I exclusively obtained the FBI's translations his diaries, which reveal a fascinating story about Abu Zubaydah's journey from computer engineering student in India to mujahedeen fighting in Afghanistan

2/

america.aljazeera.com/articles/abu-z…
In his diaries, Abu Zubaydah writes about the arrival of the Taliban in Afghanistan

3/
The diaries cover Abu Zubaydah's complete transformation right up until the 9/11 attacks and the weeks before he was captured by CIA in Pakistan in March 2002
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/…
On December 15, 2014, CIA contractor James Mitchell, the architect of the agency's torture program, admitted to me and acknowledged for the first time that he personally waterboarded Abu Zubaydah at a black site prison

vice.com/en/article/kz5…
Mitchell described for me in detail the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah and how the high value detainee was a guinea pig of sorts
While I was reporting on Abu Zubaydah, his childhood friend reached out to me on Twitter and told me an amazing story about their teen years. He provided me with a pic of AZ as a young man. Up until that point the only public pic had come from the US govt
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/…
Abu Zubaydah's friend reached out to me because he started to read Abu Zubaydah's diary and spotted his name.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jason Leopold

Jason Leopold Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JasonLeopold

4 Oct
On June 3, Biden signed EO vowing to make global financial systems more transparent. On that day, a judge sentenced my FinCENFiles source, Natalie Mayflower Edwards, to prison. She did more to bring transparency to the global financial system than almost anyone in recent memory
The petition asking Biden to pardon Natalie Mayflower Edwards is up to 7659 signatures. Add your name here

change.org/p/president-of…
If you'd like to support #FinCENfiles whistleblower Natalie May Edwards and her family please donate here

gofundme.com/f/treasury-whi…
Read 7 tweets
2 Oct
A story/update about a #FOIA lawsuit against FBI @_rshapiro & I have been battling for yrs

In 1997, The Smoking Gun (remember them?) posted an FBI memo from 1981, along w/file #, that said Donald Trump wanted to build a casino in AC & offered to be an informant for the bureau 1/ ImageImageImageImage
I wrote about this document after @NatSecGeek resurfaced it a day before Trump was inaugurated in January 2017

2/

buzzfeednews.com/article/jasona…
.@_rshapiro & I then filed #FOIA requests with FBI for all documents the FBI had on Trump from 1946 through June 15, 2015, a day before he announced his candidacy for president. We cited the file number from that 1981 FBI memo, which turned out to be someone's informant file

3/ Image
Read 6 tweets
1 Oct
NEW: DOJ just turned over some supplemental material from the FBI 302s related to the Mueller probe in response to my/@BuzzFeedNews & CNN's #FOIA lawsuit. This is the 18th installment in our 2 year effort to liberate all records from the probe.

1/
documentcloud.org/documents/2107…
DOJ reviewed 508 pages of records and only released 73. Records are still being withheld under a number of exemptions, such as ongoing law enforcement proceedings, national security and the withholding of records to protect the physical safety of a wide range of individuals

2/
The records released here today include redacted subpoenas, emails and text messages and a transcript from a WH press briefing

3/3
Read 4 tweets
20 Sep
1 year ago today, my colleagues & I published the 1st stories from the massive, global reporting project known as #FinCENFiles. Our reporting made an enormous impact around the world & helped push through the most substantial revision to AML laws in the US since the Patriot Act
NEW: A Year After The #FinCENFiles, The Biggest Change Is Still A Work In Progress

A year after the publication of a groundbreaking global investigation, the details of how to stop money laundering are still coming into focus.
buzzfeednews.com/article/scottp… @scottpham
As reforms sparked by #FinCENFiles roll out a year on, key source is behind bars icij.org/investigations… via @ICIJorg
Read 5 tweets
10 Sep
Capitol Police green lit a permit to a non existent group called One Nation Under God (linked to Stop the Steal & Ali Alexander) to protest on Capitol grounds Jan 6. One Nation Under God said Reps Brooks & Biggs were confirmed speakers. Here are others

1/
buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
Clay Mills, a spokesperson for Brooks, told BuzzFeed News the lawmaker had no plans to speak at the One Nation Under God event at the Capitol and that he never heard of One Nation Under God. But Brooks did speak at Freedom Plaza less than 2 miles away

2/
The person listed as one of the organizers on the One Nation of God permit application to hold a protest at the Capitol is Nathan Martin, a city councilman in Shelby, Ohio.

3/
Read 7 tweets
9 Sep
BIG NEWS: Capitol Police is not subject to #FOIA so in Feb @BuzzFeedNews & I w/our atty @_LightLaw leading the charge sued the police for docs about Jan 6 citing the common law right of access and WE WON!

This is a significant legal victory

buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
Jeffrey Light: “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that a lawsuit brought under the common law right of access has been successful as applied to a congressional agency." ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Here, from the Jan 6 permits we successfully pried loose out of the Capitol Police
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(