In January, protestors outside the White House denounced torture. Now, a leaked Red Cross report says the CIA tortured detainees at secret prison sites. NEWSCOM/File
Red Cross report says detainees at CIA ‘black sites’ were tortured | csmonitor.com
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) concluded in 2007 that US methods to extract information from prisoners at secret CIA jails as part of the “war on terror” amounted to torture, according to excerpts from a confidential report published on the website of the The New York Review of Books on Sunday.
With US President Barack Obama on record as backing the prosecution of officials involved in “clear instances of wrongdoing,” the report could fuel calls for such legal action.
Though allegations of the torture of terror suspects at CIA-run “black sites” have been widely detailed before, the Red Cross report has “an unusual claim to authenticity,” the article’s author, Mark Danner, wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times.
I believe the United States owes it to itself as much as it does to it’s global reputation to actively prosecute anyone who may have been involved in the torture of terror suspects. To do otherwise puts us on the same level of the terrorists who we condemn for acts of violence against innocent people around the world.
I believe the true mark of a great democracy is its willingness to hold itself accountable to the highest standards of justice, trust, decency and fairness.
NPR interviewed Mr. Danner about his article on Sunday’s “All Things Considered” program. (Listen to the report here.)
