Using the 'T' word (Baltimore Sun Edit) 'Clearly, US Officials KNEW Outrages Constituted War Crimes'

Using the 'T' word

Our view: A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross lifts the veil of secrecy from the torture of detainees in CIA prisons

March 17, 2009

Many Americans have long suspected the Bush administration wasn't being completely truthful about the interrogation techniques used to extract information from terrorist suspects captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials conceded some methods were "harsh," but they insisted no detainees were tortured or seriously mistreated.

Now a long-suppressed report by the International Committee of the Red Cross has surfaced to give the lie to those denials. The report's contents, presented to U.S. authorities in 2007 but made public only this week, describe in graphic detail officially sanctioned beatings, torture and abuse of prisoners in secret CIA prisons around the world that clearly violated U.S. and international law.

..................

"The ill-treatment to which (prisoners) were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture," the ICRC stated flatly. Because the group is responsible for monitoring compliance with the Geneva Conventions, its findings, while confidential, have the force of law. Clearly, U.S. officials knew in 2007 that the outrages at Guantanamo constituted war crimes under international law.

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President Obama has said his administration won't countenance the torture of prisoners. But finding out exactly how the nation went so wrong over the last eight years is an essential first step toward ensuring it won't happen again.

more at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.torture17mar17,0,4937385.story

http://pr.thinkprogress.org/
Secret Red Cross Torture Report

Iirc, it was a New Yorker article in 2003. It talked about ICRC protesting to Bremmer for months and getting NO response from him.

When was Gitmo opened? We all saw those people shackled and hooded and diapered and held on the tarmac in the sun after that long flight.

2007, my REMOTE.

By reports I mean claims were being made then...deaths at Bagram. (Taxi to the Dark Side)

Fears of it had already been expressed due to Bush's various proclamations on detainees.

Red Cross "leaks" can be found back as far as 2004, and I think before that....

GTMO was opened in mid-January of 2002

Bagram - the original "GTMO" - was in use before GTMO - and is even expanding....and I'm betting all those ghost prisoners from "secret prisons" end up there...

than Guantanamo.

:(

They started grabbing brown-skinned people before invading Afghanistan in Oct.

Then there was the 'Convoy of Death'... :(

And there was abuse

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2454271

Hell, the LAWYERS couldn't find them for a long time. The detainees were being hidden from them.

Regardless of when it's pretty much accepted that torture took place. IMO it's time to move on to the "other T word - treason.

...and through their silence became complicit.
The Democratic Senators on the Armed Services Committee (Hillary is the only one I remember) were shown secret photos and films of the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Abu_Ghraib:_Congressional_Investigation

Tacet consent is still consent. So, most took the gold to miss the lead option. I'm shocked!

practise known as WATERBOARDING, yeah they knew.