My time is limited this morning and I don't have a lot of time to comment, but I highly urge you to take a look at Andrew Sullivan's post regarding the recently obtained February 2007 torture report from the International Red Cross. A few key take aways:
-The one symbol as offensive as the Bush administration's decision to use Abu Ghraib prison for the deployment of cruel and inhuman punishment of prisoners was the use of former Soviet black sites for other "interrogations" of high value suspects.George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Alberto Gonzales are clearly war criminals. The only way to cleanse the American psyche of this bleeding, pussing wound is to charge and punish all three of them (and their underlings) to the fullest extent of international law. Until that happens, America's reputation will never be repaired.
-One of the fourteen detainees, for example, tells the Red Cross investigators that he was kept for four and a half months continuously handcuffed and seven months with the ankles continuously shackled while detained in Kabul in 2003/4. On two occasions, his shackles had to be cut off his ankles as the locking mechanism had ceased to function, allegedly due to rust.
-While being held in [a stress] position some of the detainees were allowed to defecate in a bucket. A guard would come to release their hands from the bar or hook in the ceiling so that they could sit on the bucket. None of them, however, were allowed to clean themselves afterwards. Others were made to wear a garment that resembled a diaper. This was the case for Mr. Bin Attash in his fourth place of detention. However, he commented that on several occasions the diaper was not replaced so he had to urinate and defecate on himself while shackled in the prolonged stress standing position. Indeed, in addition to Mr. Bin Attash, three other detainees specified that they had to defecate and urinate on themselves and remain standing in their own bodily fluids.
Sullivan's full post here. The full Red Cross report here.
Update: Commentary from Glenn Greenwald:
Note how warped our political culture is: Sen. Dick Durbin was forced to tearfully apologize on the Senate floor for accurately comparing our treatment of detainees at Guantanamo to the techniques used in Soviet gulags and by Gestapo interrogation squads, but those who perpetrated these war crimes have apologized for nothing, remain welcome in decent company, and are still shielded by our Government from all accountability.
