US interrogators present in UAE torture chambers

A new report, published by The Daily Beast, has revealed that American officials interogatted several detainees held in UAE-run prisons in Yemen.

In a series of interviews, two former Yemeni prisoners testified to being interrogated by men with American accents, who looked on as they were beaten and electrocuted.

“They would strip me naked, they would beat me very harshly and slowly you start to understand the dynamics in the room. These are the two people, one of them is overseeing the whole interrogation and the other is doing the questioning and ordering the torture,” a Yemeni man identified only as Salvatore said, suggesting that the US was more than an unwilling observer.

Another ex-prisoner, al-Hasani, told The Daily Beast about a conspicuous American presence inside multiple Aden prisons where they were electrocuted, beaten and sexually threatened, and where others are believed to have been raped. 

In a report to the US Congress in December 2018, the Pentagon formally acknowledged the presence of U.S. military personnel in Yemeni prisons:

“U.S. forces do not conduct detention operations in Yemen; rather, U.S. forces conduct intelligence interrogations of detainees held in partner custody,” the Pentagon reported.