The Pentagon official overseeing the tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees has concluded that the US military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

"We tortured (Mohammed al-) Qahtani," Susan Crawford said in an interview with the newspaper. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.

Crawford is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured. President George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney have said that the United States does not torture.