Following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, Poland, Romania and Lithuania, which operated secret CIA prisons, were each sentenced to pay compensation of up to 100 000 dollars to Abu Zubaydah, a CIA victim who had been detained on their territory.

Six members of the Bush administration had attended a dozen White House “demonstration” meetings and authorized each of the tortures he was subjected to. They are Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Abu Zubaydah had, in particular, undergone the ordeal of waterboarding 83 times. The abuses he endured became the symbol of US barbarism. He is still being held at the illegal US Naval Base at Guantánamo (Cuba).