The Secret ICRC Report
Those of us who were trained to look at the documents – always the documents as I.F. Stone taught – will find the attached documents on the torture of those detained at Guantánamo Bay detention centre both fascinating and chilling.
For the record here are the links:
Here is the Report, together with Mark Danner’s two part article entitled US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites and The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means, which deserves a Pulitzer Prize.
Links to a Rachel Maddow video interview and an audio interview from NPR.
And the background Bush documentation that justified the whole procedure.
- Memorandum Regarding Status of Certain OLC Opinions Issued in the Aftermath of the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 (01-15-2009)
- Memorandum Regarding Constitutionality of Amending Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to Change the “Purpose” Standard for Searches (09-25-2001)
- Memorandum Regarding Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities within the United States (10-23-2001)
- Memorandum Regarding Authority of the President to Suspend Certain Provisions of the ABM Treaty (11-15-2001)
- Memorandum Regarding the President’s Power as Commander in Chief to Transfer Captured Terrorists to the Control and Custody of Foreign Nations (03-13-2002)
- Memorandum Regarding Swift Justice Authorization Act (04-08-2002)
- Memorandum Regarding Determination of Enemy Belligerency and Military Detention (06-08-2002)
- Memorandum Regarding Applicability of 18 U.S.C. § 4001(a) to Military Detention of United States Citizens (06-27-2002)
- Memorandum Regarding October 23, 2001 OLC Opinion Addressing the Domestic Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities (10-06-2008)
The Bush Administration’s formal statements are here:
Bush Calls Freedom from Torture “Inalienable Human Right”
Bush Commemorates U.N. Day to Support Torture Victims
President Meets with McCain & Warner, Discusses Position on Interrogation
And for the record, courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union, on April 16, 2009, the Department of Justice released four secret memos used by the Bush administration to justify torture.
A 18-page memo, dated August 1, 2002, from Jay Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA.
A 46-page memo, dated May 10, 2005, from Steven Bradbury, Acting Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA.
A 20-page memo, dated May 10, 2005, from Steven Bradbury, Acting Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA.
A 40-page memo, dated May 30, 2005, from Steven Bradbury, Acting Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA.