April 08 2009
The Red Cross Report on CIA Torture Tactics at Guantanamo Bay and Other Locations
By Kevin Zeese
For those who want to begin to understand the type of torture the U.S. used at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and other locations around the world the confidential report of the International Committee of the Red Cross is a good place to start.
The report focuses on a CIA interrogation program that used harsh torture techniques. One aspect of the program was a series of transfers from one location to another. The prisoners were photographed with and without clothes before each transfer, searched including an internal search of body cavities, shackled, forced to wear diapers and defecate on themselves, blind folded in transfers that lasted sometimes longer than a day. The report also describes a variety of torture techniques including:
- Continuous solitary confinement and incommunicado detention last up to four years, denial of access to open air and opportunity to exercise
- Suffocation by water, i.e water boarding
- Prolonged stress standing, naked, with arms extended above the head for two to three days continuously and intermittently for two to three months, often denied access toilet feasibilities
- Beatings by use of collar around the neck to bang the prisoners head and bodies against the walls
- Beatings and kicking
- Confinement in a box, sometimes a tall and narrow box, other times a short box forcing the person to crouch down. These boxes were used in-between other torture tactics like water suffocation
- Prolonged nudity lasting for several weeks to several months
- Sleep deprivation and use of loud music
- Exposure to cold temperature and cold water
- Prolonged use of handcuffs and shackles, one prisoner was shackled for 19 months in his cell
- Threats of ill treatment to the prisoner (e.g., electric shocks, sodomy, contamination with HIV, torture to the verge of death) or arrest and rape of his family
- Forced shaving
- Deprivation/restriction of solid foods from three days to one month
The report describes medical personnel involvement with the torture tactics. Such personnel monitored the torture and sometimes directly participated, performed medical check-ups before transfer of prisoners (body cavity checks, sometimes an enema) and treated of the direct consequences of the torture. One prisoner reported a health professional saying: "I look after your body only because we need you for information." The Red Cross reports that these medical professionals violated three aspects of medical ethics: (1) the principle of medical beneficence, (2) non-malfeasance (first do no harm) and (3) the patient's right to dignity. The Red Cross describes the role of medical professionals as "a gross breach of medical ethics."
The report focuses on the conditions and torture tactics used against 14 "high value" suspects who the Red Cross met with over 15 days in October and December 2006. The Red Cross emphasizes that the descriptions provided by each of the prisoners was consistent with each other. The Red Cross notes concern for people who were held in this CIA program who remain unaccounted for. The Red Cross is continuing to press the U.S. government for information about such people.
The full confidential 2007 report is available at http://www.nybooks.com/icrc-report.pdf. This summary does not do justice to the horrors described in the report.
For those who want to begin to understand the type of torture the U.S. used at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and other locations around the world the confidential report of the International Committee of the Red Cross is a good place to start.
The report focuses on a CIA interrogation program that used harsh torture techniques. One aspect of the program was a series of transfers from one location to another. The prisoners were photographed with and without clothes before each transfer, searched including an internal search of body cavities, shackled, forced to wear diapers and defecate on themselves, blind folded in transfers that lasted sometimes longer than a day. The report also describes a variety of torture techniques including:
- Continuous solitary confinement and incommunicado detention last up to four years, denial of access to open air and opportunity to exercise
- Suffocation by water, i.e water boarding
- Prolonged stress standing, naked, with arms extended above the head for two to three days continuously and intermittently for two to three months, often denied access toilet feasibilities
- Beatings by use of collar around the neck to bang the prisoners head and bodies against the walls
- Beatings and kicking
- Confinement in a box, sometimes a tall and narrow box, other times a short box forcing the person to crouch down. These boxes were used in-between other torture tactics like water suffocation
- Prolonged nudity lasting for several weeks to several months
- Sleep deprivation and use of loud music
- Exposure to cold temperature and cold water
- Prolonged use of handcuffs and shackles, one prisoner was shackled for 19 months in his cell
- Threats of ill treatment to the prisoner (e.g., electric shocks, sodomy, contamination with HIV, torture to the verge of death) or arrest and rape of his family
- Forced shaving
- Deprivation/restriction of solid foods from three days to one month
The report describes medical personnel involvement with the torture tactics. Such personnel monitored the torture and sometimes directly participated, performed medical check-ups before transfer of prisoners (body cavity checks, sometimes an enema) and treated of the direct consequences of the torture. One prisoner reported a health professional saying: "I look after your body only because we need you for information." The Red Cross reports that these medical professionals violated three aspects of medical ethics: (1) the principle of medical beneficence, (2) non-malfeasance (first do no harm) and (3) the patient's right to dignity. The Red Cross describes the role of medical professionals as "a gross breach of medical ethics."
The report focuses on the conditions and torture tactics used against 14 "high value" suspects who the Red Cross met with over 15 days in October and December 2006. The Red Cross emphasizes that the descriptions provided by each of the prisoners was consistent with each other. The Red Cross notes concern for people who were held in this CIA program who remain unaccounted for. The Red Cross is continuing to press the U.S. government for information about such people.
The full confidential 2007 report is available at http://www.nybooks.com/icrc-report.pdf. This summary does not do justice to the horrors described in the report.
