...A government team visited Guantanamo Bay in May 2002 spent 12 hours with Mr Habib and 15 hours with fellow Australian detainee David Hicks.
The team's welfare report – circulated to Mr Howard, the attorney-general and ministers for foreign affairs and defence, as well as senior defence personnel – said both men appeared to have been "well-treated by US authorities".
However, the declassified document, today released to the media for the first time, features a number of blacked-out sections, including much of the section headed "Treatment by US Authorities".
The team said Hicks appeared "fit and well", but had a number of concerns about Mr Habib's welfare.
US officials said he had been transferred to hospital after falling from his bunk and hitting his head.
"He is receiving medical treatment for depression ... and complained of being in poor health," the report said.
"Mr Habib seemed tired and of yellowish pallor."
"He had faint bruises on his head caused, he said, from recent falls induced by fainting spells."
Detainees were permitted only one shower a week and two exercise sessions of 15 minutes each, and were only chained to the floor in the interrogation room, the report said.
Their cells were lit 24 hours a day.
The report also details Mr Habib's allegations of torture in Egypt, where he said he was held for six months.
"He said he was tortured, water was dripped on his head and he was administered electric shocks over his body.
"Mr Habib said he was trussed upside down and his body beaten," the report said.
"He said he sustained broken ribs, two broken toes and bleeding from his penis."
"The captors made him listen to noises that resembled ... his wife being raped and his children beaten. He said he was placed neck-high in water for extended periods of time and not allowed to sleep.
"After about six months the torture stopped after a doctor told his captors that he would die."....
...He praised the bombings of US embassies in East Africa, which he described as "justified acts of self-defence", and insisted the 1993 World Trade Centre bombers were innocent.
Officer 3 said Mr Habib admitted knowing convicted World Trade Centre conspirators Ibrahim Elgabrowny and Mahmoud Abouhalima from Egypt, and said they had been framed by the Jews, who hit the centre as an "insurance job"....
Tom Allard at the Sydney Morning Herald reported on December 4:
...As it turned out, less than a month after the ASIO interviews took place, Mr Habib was abducted and taken to Egypt where he has alleged he was repeatedly tortured. He then spent almost three years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay before his release without charge....
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