Captives were routinely beaten, slammed head first into walls, forced to stand for days, with their arms shackled above them (the John McCain experience in North Korea)–and some were waterboarded.
These are not words about some third world dictatorship. These are the words about U.S. policy--- from a leaked International Committee of the Red Cross report----as a result of their access to 14 “high value” detainees after they were transferred from overseas CIA “black sites” to Guantanamo.The report concluded that the Bush administration treatment of al-Qaeda captives “constituted torture”.
Retired CIA agent John Kiriakou, who led a CIA team that interrogated al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, confirmed the use of waterboarding and considered it a form of torture.
The U.S. Army Field Manual classifies such treatment, including waterboarding as torture.
These interrogation techniques are a violation of the Geneva Convention, an agreement the United States has signed and pledged to uphold.
The War Crimes Act of 1996, passed by a Republican Congress, makes it a felony to violate the Geneva Convention .
Four military prosecutors at Guantanamo have resigned under protest over the rigged “legal” system established by the Bush administration.
What excuse is even remotely adequate to justify not pursuing an investigation and prosecution of those in high office that have led the United States down such a path?
No comments:
Post a Comment