Posted by Basheert @9:21am MST
(I have ordered this book from Amazon and will do a review on it after I’ve read it if you are all interested.)
Courtesy of TalkingPoints Memo
Mayer: CIA Forced Detainee To Stand For Hours Without Prosthesis
It took a New York Times article; a dozen phone calls and an over-eager intern running to a publishing house in 92 degree heat– but we got it: Jane Mayer’s new book, “The Dark Side,” which I’ve been poring through for the better part of the day.
So why the rush? The book reveals new details on the CIA’s torture of high-level Qaeda captives with information from a secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross. According to Mayer, the 2007 report which was shared with the President and Secretary of State described the CIA’s actions, “categorically, as ‘torture'” and warned that the abuse placed the “highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted.”
But besides that enormous and, (possibly) devastating claim, Mayer’s “sources familiar with the ICRC report” also give horrifying details about the CIA’s techniques.
One detainee claimed in the report that he was forced to stand on one leg for hours without his prosthesis and his arms chained to the ceiling.
The detainee, Tawfiq Bin Attash, was linked to the attack on the USS Cole but is being charged as part of the Sept. 11 attacks. Attash, also known as Khallad, had lost his leg below the knee following an injury in the Afghan-Soviet War.
Other detainees described similar stress positions to the ICRC, Mayer reports:
They described not just standing, but being kept up on their tiptoes with their arms extended out and up over their heads, attached by shackles on their wrists and ankles, for what they described as eight hours at a stretch. During the entire period, they said they were kept stark naked and often cold.
The International Committee of the Red Cross isn’t so happy that news of this report is out. As they told the New York Times, “its work is more effective when confidential.”
Basheert:
Yes, please let me know about this book, after you have read it.
😉
(I have ordered this book from Amazon and will do a review on it after I’ve read it if you are all interested.)
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I am, Basheert.
I don’t think I’ve the stomach to read it myself.
When President Bush said, “We do not torture,” we knew, of course, that he was lying. Now it turns out, according to Jane Mayer, he already had in his possession the “secret” report of International Committee of the Red Cross that documented the fact that the prisoners at Guantanamo were being tortured.
What I find equally outrageous is that the Red Cross kept the report secret. Wasn’t there a single person at the Red Cross who felt outraged enough to speak publicly about these tortures, especially since they knew that these were illegal actions and that torture is abominable? I mean, where was their outrage? Why did they remain silent? By keeping silent did they not in fact become a part of this problem? And now they are upset that the report has been leaked?
Mahatma Gandhi has said unequivocally that people have a duty to speak out when made aware of torturing of political prisoners.