>> we've returned this iconic mammal to illinois. >> we can make clean drinking water just using the sun. >> this opens up whole new possibilities. >> al jazeera america, proud to tell your stories. >> in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. we did a whole lot of things at a were right, buthat were rightd some folks. >> it's been more than a year since america admitted to torturing people. we're trying to interview one of

them. omar abaluci is a high value prisoner in guantanamo. he can be communicate with the government through a high be screening process. we have answers to the questions we wrote to him. james, we're just outside. james connell, has represented baluci since 2008. much of what he knows is classified. >> i'm not allowed to talk about black sites, existence of black sites. >> can we talk about the prison? >> i can neither confirm or deny that there's a dark prison. >> some details of the cia's torture were revealed, including the faims of the people involved but the -- names of the people involved but the world has heard little about them.

>> that is his handwriting? >> yes, the first day they shaved his head and they hit his head number russ times. he wrote, i passed out. >> that treatment was called walling, more than a dozen techniques given legal approval aft 9/11. but connell says that and other methods used on belluci left permanent damage. >> things that have led to the deaths of innocent people. can you understand why there might not be a great deal of sympathy for interrogation techniques like this? >> torture doesn't have anything to do with sympathy and it's bigger than any one individual or any group of individuals. torture has to do with how a society chooses to organize itself. if another future president chooses to use torture again they already have an infrastructure built.

>> with torture emerging as a u.s. election issue we're trying to understand what's at stake by finding the men who went through it. these letters were as close to bellucci as we could get but there were others out there who received similar treatment, many not even charged with a crime. >> there was a coordinated campaign to silence the torture be victims. they never had a handled in this process. -- had a hand in this process. >> according to the senate's investigation, the cia's torture program involved 119 men from almost 20 different countries. the reasons for their detention are varied. some are through al qaeda, others labeled as terrorists by u.s. allies in the region. nearly a quarter were just wrongfully detained.

at least 39 of the men were subjected to the very worst treatment. the cia called it enhanced interrogation. we're in istanbul to meet two of them. mohammed al sharia and be khalid ef khalidal sharif. >> in 2004, the u.s. state department designated l ampfg as a terrorist group but khalid and mohammed were detained a year before. when the cia came or the them they were living in pakistan with their families.

this was just before you were detained? you look so young mohammed. mohammed and khalid were herded and shackled and flown to a cia facility they call the dark prison. for the first several months,

they were often kept completely naked. mohammed and khalid say they were chained to the walls to prevent sleep for days at a time.

during the interview we were told the men didn't want to go into everything that had happened to them. more than half of the cia detainees are thought to have spent time in what mohammed and khalid call the dark prison. the cia called it detention site cobalt. it was hard to believe that this place not only existed but was purpose-built by the

world's premier intelligence agency. when the cia inspector general sent an investigator to the site, they found one person who had been chained to the wall so far as they knew, for subpoena days. the paperwork reads like an ice alaition film. isolation film. the chief of interrogation said cobalt was the closest thing to a dungeon he had ever seen. despite their treatments the u.s. never charged mohammed or khalid with a crime. the experience, they say, still haunts them in flash backs and nightmares.

>> do you think there will ever be a day when you tell your children what their father has been through? >> [chanting] yes we can! >> an historic election. >> you and i, we're going to change this county, and we will change the world. >> monumental decisions. >> mr. president, there's a one and three chance of a second great depression. >> first-hand accounts from the people who were there. >> their opinion was shocking. >> the challenges. >> he said, "i am president of the united states and i can't make anything happen." >> the realities.

>> he stood up and said, "that's it, i'm finished."

>> people loved him. teachers loved him. >> we were walking the river looking for him. i knew something was really really wrong. >> all hell broke lose. >> people were saying that we were terrorists. >> how are you providing a cover for your brother to do this? >> we saw the evil side of the social media take off.

>> ...and on the streets. >> there's been another teenager shot and killed by the police. >> a fault lines special investigation. >> there's a general distrust of this prosecutor. >> this is a target you can't get rid of. >> the untold story of what's really going on in ferguson. >> they were so angry, because it could've been them. >> one hour special, only on al jazeera america. >> coming up tonight, we'll have the latest... >> does the government give you refugee status? >> they've marched to the border. >> thousands have taken to the streets here in protest.

>> this is where gangs bury their members. >> they're tracking climate change.

>> we couldn't find anything in the report about gol rahman's body but it's likely he was buried close to the facility where he died. we know that was detention site cobalt. and based on our interviews with detainees, we believe dark prison and cobalt are the same. so many of these are redacted it is hard to know where the exact site of the prison was. but from the exact accounts of the detain ease, we know countryx will take us there. >> this is kandahar, afghanistan, we managed to contact two men who said they were also in the dark prison. we are hoping they can confirm its location. they were detained in exactly the same time that

gol rahman was hmandied in custody. >> be nazar is one of 26 men the senate investigation found were wrongfully detained. sebastian, nice to meet you. >> yet though he didn't meet the be criteria for detention. their stories echoed those of

others we had spoke to about the dark prison but they had new details. can you give us any information about exactly where the dark prison was located, anywhere at all? >> some people say that is the place this one here is where people were held. do you think the prison was that kind of size? are there any details you can remember? >> shawali khan's description is matched others. known as an old brick factory. said he can take us there. >> there is an airport there? >> exactly. now we'll make a turn. >> to the left? >> to the left. >> it's no longer a cia black

site but the area is still used by afghan intelligence. >> it is still a secret place, they don't want he anyone inside. >> what happens if we're found? >> we would be definitely arrested. >> it is impossible to confirm the exact location. but kai says most afghans believe what detainees refer to as the black prison was once here. >> the first tower is the security guard. >> that's the perimeter of the base? >> yes. >> from satellite maps it looks like the original factory building is gone. a new collection of buildings, the white ones you see in the distance. >> that over there? that's the exact spot? >> the exact spot. >> hmm

. >> it's eerie to be here . when other men arrived here in hoods and shackles. if you were driving around here on any given day it's like none of this ever happened. okay so it's obviously a highly secure location and i think one of the guards probably saw us so we should probably move. but to see the place where we finally understand the dark prison was, is a weird feeling. the cia declined to give us an interview or answer specific questions we sent them. in fact, the agency wouldn't

even confirm the dark prison ever existed. so this happened more than a decade ago, to a small group of people, some considered enemies of the u.s. why should ordinary americans care about this? the prison civility may have been razed from the map complely. but the men who spent time there

said what was done to them will live in their minds forever. >> ...and on the streets. >> there's been another teenager shot and killed by the police. >> a fault lines special investigation. >> there's a general distrust of this prosecutor. >> this is a target you can't

get rid of. >> the untold story of what's really going on in ferguson. >> they were so angry, because it could've been them. >> one hour special, only on al jazeera america. this week on "talk to al jazeera" sinner song writer natalie merchant >> i stumbled into this as a way of life. i had no intention of being in a band or a singer. it happened to me by accident she has rerecorded her break through solo album tigerlily, but this time with a twist.