According to a secret report prepared in 2007 by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the treatment received by Al Qaeda suspects subjected to interrogation in CIA secret prisons was torture. According to the document, the practices used by the United States were cruel, inhuman, or degrading and expressly forbidden by the Geneva Conventions.
These findings from the International Committee of the Red Cross came after the agency’s inspectors had access to Guantanamo prisoners. A total of 14 ‘high value’ prisoners or ‘platinum prisoners’ passed by the so-called ‘black holes.’ These are secret CIA prisons outside the United States authorized by the Bush administration after 9/11 where the Al Qaeda suspects were put before they were transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
The testimonies collected by the inspectors of the Red Cross uniformly agree on the use of coercive tactics such as multiple beatings, sleep and food deprivation, extreme temperatures, and in some cases, a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding.
The document in question was obtained by Mark Danner, journalist and professor at the University of Berkeley. Its disclosure is contrary to the strict rules of confidentiality which the International Committee of the Red Cross maintains in relation to its policy of neutrality in armed conflicts. The ICRC deplored the leakage of this report but does not dispute its contents.
Within hours of his inauguration, President Obama formally forbade any questioning beyond what the field manual of the US Army mandates. But the new government has proved very reluctant to investigate abuses associated with terrorism strategy adopted by the Bush administration. It is, however, significant that the International Committee of the Red Cross as guardian of adherence to the Geneva Conventions has now made accusations of torture on a topic that had remained previously hazy for a long time.
The United Nations has opened investigations on the alleged secret prisons that the CIA keeps where torture techniques have been applied on prisoners.
Posted by GSerrano on March 19, 2009 in News + Politics · 0 Comment
