Posted on 03/15/2009 8:56:23 PM PDT by kristinn
The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives "constituted torture," a finding that strongly implied that CIA interrogation methods violated international law, according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document.
The report, an account of alleged physical and psychological brutality inside CIA "black site" prisons, also states that some U.S. practices amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." Such maltreatment of detainees is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
The findings were based on an investigation by ICRC officials who were granted exclusive access to the CIA's "high-value" detainees after they were transferred in 2006 to the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The 14 detainees, who had previously been kept in isolation in CIA prisons overseas, gave remarkably uniform accounts of abuse that included beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and, in some cases, waterboarding, or simulating drowning.
At least five copies of the report were shared with the CIA and top White House officials in 2007 but barred from public release by ICRC guidelines intended to preserve the humanitarian group's strict policy of neutrality in conflicts. A copy of the report was obtained by Mark Danner, a journalism professor who published extensive excerpts in the April 9 edition of the New York Review of Books, released yesterday. He did not say how he obtained the report.
"The ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture," Danner quoted the report as saying.
Many of the details of alleged mistreatment at CIA prisons had been reported previously, but the ICRC report is the most authoritative account and the first to use the word "torture" in a legal context.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I am glad that President Bush approved the interrogation methods mentioned in this report. My only problem is that none of those captured has been dispatched to hell where they belong.
Did you just sign up to post that bilge.
No place to put detainees? Chain them together and down, put them all in a tall building, and remotely crash a large plan into the building. Send copy of videotape of the event to Al-Jazeera.
Other than “beatings,” which I would like to see verified elsewhere, I don’t see anything in that “report” that constitutes torture.
The false stuff is dross. But the true stuff can be verified and checked and thereby future attacks can be prevented...for example the info gained which preventd the creeps from getting on planes at Heathrow and flying planes over the US to explode them.
How do you intend to get information out of these people? A whiskey over a game of cards? Get real.
To paraphrase a famous President--it depends on the definition.
BTW, welcome to FR
I think he did.. 2 days ago. ZOT!
Don't tell me, they brought out the LeRoy Neiman paintings.
Oh puhleeze. Ever occur to these bleeeeeeeding hearts that they are all trained to tell the same whoppers?
BTW, let's everyone remember that this "International Committee of the Red Cross" is not the same as the American Red Cross. It's some left wing outfit that has put out this sort of thing before.
“Torture does not work.”
Guess again.
“viscious”
Tell the folks at DU to update your spell-check software.
When anti war protesters are arrested for torture when they water board each other Then maybe I’ll believe it is torture.
Maybe....
Put that in you peace pipe and smoke it.
I wish the Red Cross folks were this concerned with what Palestinians do on a regular basis.
Also remember that these scum are trained from day one to accuse us of torture. It is simply part of the training. Never trust what they say without plenty of corroboration. To them, lying is not immoral, just a way to get what they want.
“Torture does not work. People will say/do anything under torture”
That is ridiculous, you don’t just grab somebody randomly, hurt them and then tell them to tell you what they know about life.
There is a reason why an interrogator is professionally trained and why prisoners are rated as to value.
If someone ever comes into your house and starts torturing you to get details that they know you have, then you just cling to your fantasy that it won’t work and that they won’t be able to identify when you are attempting to deceive them with lies.
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