CAIRO — In a classified report, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) blasted physical and psychological brutality against terror detainees in CIA prisons overseas to "the verge of death and back."
"The ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture," according to the report cited the Washington Post on Monday, March 16.
The report, which dates back to 2007, said physical and psychological brutality inside CIA prisons overseas amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
It said detainees were routinely beaten, doused with cold water and slammed head-first into walls.
"On a daily basis…a collar was looped around my neck and then used to slam me against the walls of the interrogation room," detainee Tawfiq bin Attash says in the report.
He said waterboarding, or simulated drowning, was a common technique used before interrogation sessions.
"I would be wrapped inside the sheet with cold water for several minutes. Then I would be taken for interrogation."
The report, based on access to 14 high-value CIA detainees, said that detainees were stripped off clothing, bombarded with loud music, exposed to cold temperatures and deprived of sleep and solid food for days.
Some were even forced to stand for days, with their arms shackled above them, wearing only diapers.
The ICRC report was shared with the CIA and White House officials in 2007, but was prohibited from public release.
Legal Implications
Zayn al-Abidin Mohammed Hussein, a Saudi-born Palestinian detainee, was also subjected to waterboarding, which the Obama administration recognizes as torture.
"A black cloth was then placed over my face and the interrogators used a mineral bottle to pour water on the cloth so that I could not breathe," he said.
"I struggled against the straps, trying to breathe, but it was hopeless.
"I though I was going to die."
He was also placed in coffin-like wooden boxes in which he was forced to crouch, with no light and a restricted air supply.
"The stress on my legs held in this position meant my wounds both in my leg and stomach became very painful."
Geneve Mantri, a counterterrorism specialist at Amnesty International, said the findings were shocking.
"This story goes even further and deeper than many of us suspected. The more details we find out, the more shocking this becomes," he said.
"It's clear that senior officials were warned from the very beginning that the treatment that detainees were subjected to amounted to torture."
Many of the abuse details have been reported previously, but the ICRC report is the most authoritative account and the first to use the word "torture" in a legal context.
"It could not be more important that the ICRC explicitly uses the words 'torture' and 'cruel and degrading,' " Journalism professor Mark Danner, who obtained the report, told the Post.
"The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, and when it uses those words, they have the force of law."
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