Washington ( CNN ) -- A legal group filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit on Monday asking that videotapes showing the interrogation of a terror detainee at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , be made public . The suit filed in the Southern District of New York is focused on interrogation techniques used on Mohammed al-Qahtani , a man U.S. authorities have said was intended to be the 20th hijacker in the 9/11 terror attacks . `` From 2002 through 2003 , Mr. al-Qahtani was the victim of a deliberate and calculated interrogation strategy involving the repeated use of torture and other profoundly cruel , inhuman , and degrading treatment , '' according to the lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights . The lawsuit says al-Qahtani was subjected to severe sleep deprivation , isolation , 20-hour interrogations , severe temperatures and forced nudity . The suit says al-Qahtani also experienced `` religious , sexual , and moral humiliation '' including instances in which female interrogators straddled him . The lawsuit was brought against the Department of Defense , Department of Justice , FBI and CIA . Representatives for those agencies declined to comment . During a conference call with reporters , the center said lawyers involved with the case had seen some videotapes of al-Qahtani as the result of a 2009 federal court ruling , but they were not allowed to discuss them publicly . `` I found them extremely disturbing , sickening even , '' said Sandra Babcock , a human rights lawyer at Northwestern Law School . Al-Qahtani 's treatment `` has been the subject of public debate and congressional inquiries , as well as internal agency investigations , '' according to the lawsuit . `` The American public should now be permitted to see what occurred for itself . '' Babcock described al-Qahtani as a `` broken man '' who may never recover from the psychological and physical effects of the interrogation techniques allegedly used on him . In a 2009 interview with The Washington Post , the Pentagon official in charge of deciding whether Guantanamo detainees would go to trial said she concluded the al-Qahtani case could not proceed because of all the interrogation techniques used on him . `` His treatment met the legal definition of torture , '' Susan Crawford , then head of the convening authority of military commissions , told The Washington Post . `` The techniques they used were all authorized , but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent . '' Crawford has since left that Pentagon post . Al-Qahtani , a citizen of Saudi Arabia , tried to enter the United States at Orlando , Florida , on August 4 , 2001 , a little more than a month before the September 11 attacks . He was denied entry by immigration officials and was captured in Pakistan in December of 2001 .
The Center for Constitutional Rights has filed the lawsuit . Group wants videotapes of terror detainee 's interrogations made public . U.S. says Mohammed al-Qahtani was intended to be 20th hijacker in 9/11 attacks . Group says detainee has endured isolation , 20-hour interrogations and forced nudity .