Red Cross says detainees reported abuse

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/l...s/16941168.htm

KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press
3/20/2007

WASHINGTON - Terror detainees once held in the CIA's secret prisons were kept and questioned under highly abusive conditions, the International Committee of the Red Cross says in a confidential report based on interviews with high-value terror suspects.

The Red Cross said the techniques reported by the 14 prisoners, including sleep deprivation and the use of forced standing and other so-called "stress positions," were particularly harsh when used together. The prisoners were transferred from CIA custody to a military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September.

The CIA's detention methods were designed to soften detainees and make them more likely to talk during interrogation. Human rights organizations say the CIA's extreme conditions of detention and the coercive questioning techniques constitute torture.

The report is the first independent accounting of the detainees' allegations against the CIA since its detention and interrogation program began in 2002.

U.S. officials familiar with the report, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the highly sensitive document has not been released, said it is based entirely on accounts from interviews with detainees and has not been verified. One official cautioned that the claims were made by terror suspects who could be charged in the deaths of innocent civilians.

Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno said that the committee's visits with the 14 detainees served two purposes: to assess their current conditions in detention and to give them an opportunity to talk about past detentions.

"We do not comment on our findings publicly. The report is a confidential document," Schorno said Monday.

CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment on any ICRC reports, citing the organization's practice of keeping its findings confidential.

Speaking generally of CIA interrogation program, Mansfield said the United States does not practice or condone torture. "CIA's terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives," he added.

House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said he has gotten a general briefing on the ICRC report but has not read it. "There are allegations that are made by these 14, and they are vehemently denied by General Hayden and the intelligence folks," he said, referring to CIA Director Michael Hayden.

Not long after the March 2002 capture of top al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah, the CIA began formalizing its detention and interrogation program. The CIA decided it would need to hold high-value terrorists such as Zubaydah for extended periods in an effort to extract information.

They began using some "enhanced interrogation techniques" - or "EITs" in CIA-speak - with success.

Those widely reported practices include openhanded slapping, induced hypothermia, sleep deprivation and - perhaps most controversially - waterboarding. In that technique, a detainee is made to believe he is drowning.

Buttressed by at least one classified legal opinion from the Justice Department, the CIA believed it was operating lawfully in detaining and interrogating roughly 100 suspected terrorists at locations from Southeast Asia to Europe.

"The (interrogation) procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary," President Bush said in September when he announced that all the CIA's remaining detainees had been moved to military custody at Guantanamo Bay.

Asked last month if the prisons were still empty, a CIA official declined to comment.

During a military hearing to review his detention status this month, the CIA's most prized capture - alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - confessed involvement in 31 plots since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He also said he was tortured.

Two senators present for Mohammed's March 10 hearing - Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. - confirmed the tribunal was presented with a written statement from Mohammed alleging mistreatment before his arrival at Guantanamo, which was made part of the classified record. The senators said the military panel will submit the allegations to the appropriate authorities.

"Allegations of prisoner mistreatment must be taken seriously and properly investigated," Levin and Graham said in their statement. "To do otherwise would reflect poorly on our nation."

A U.S. official said the allegations raised by Mohammed were forwarded to the CIA's inspector general, which has been monitoring the agency's interrogation program for years.

In an interview Tuesday, Levin said he'll also be investigating Mohammed's claims of abuse, starting with his classified statement. Asked if the review by the CIA's top watchdog would be enough, Levin said he wasn't sure it would be sufficient. "They have a responsibility to look at it. That doesn't mean that no one else does," he said.

Levin said he has given a summary of the ICRC report, but he declined to comment on its contents.

Many of the techniques that detainees reported to the ICRC are consistent with published reports about the CIA's interrogation program and its enhanced interrogation techniques.

Yet U.S. counterterrorism officials have long cautioned that al-Qaida members are likely to lie about conditions during captivity and they cite a jihadist training manual obtained by British authorities during a raid on an al-Qaida member's home. The Justice Department made portions of the document public in December 2001, including a lesson on prisons and detention centers that encourages claims of mistreatment.

The ICRC has a policy of not releasing reports on its visits with prisoners. The Geneva-based organization believes that allows its officials to get repeated and unrestricted access to prisoners. When necessary, the organization urges the detaining authorities to make improvements.

"The price of this is a policy of confidentiality, taking up the problems only with the people directly concerned," according to a policy statement on its Web site. The ICRC says it will only break its silence in extreme cases, such as when the condition of prisoners hasn't improved.