Red Cross Report Documents Torture at Secret CIA Prisons

Interview with Joanne Mariner, director of the Terrorism and Counterterrorism program, conducted by Scott Harris

The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a confidential report in 2007 on interrogation abuse that their monitors documented at U.S. CIA-run secret prisons. The report condemned America's treatment of 14 "high-value" terrorist suspect detainees held at so-called "black sites," as inhuman, violating U.S. and international law. The report remained secret until it was made public in early April by writer and journalism professor Mark Danner on the New York Review of Books website.

The Red Cross noted that apart from subjecting prisoners to "waterboarding," U.S. interrogators, with the apparent authorization from the Bush administration, had exposed detainees to extreme temperatures, beaten them and deprived them of food. In addition prisoners had recounted how they were threatened with electric shock, infection with HIV/AIDS, sodomy and violence against family members.

Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who indicted Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when he visited London in 1998, has launched a new investigation of 6 former Bush administration officials for their alleged criminal authorization of torture. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Joanne Mariner, director Human Rights Watch's Terrorism and Counter-terrorism Program. She discusses the importance of the Red Cross report and how it adds to the growing world-wide pressure on the Obama administration to open an investigation and prosecute Bush administration officials who may be guilty of war crimes.

Contact the Terrorism and Counterterrorism program at Human Rights Watch by calling (212) 290-4700 or visit their website at www.hrw.org

Related links:

* "The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means," by Mark Danner
www.nybooks.com/articles/22614
* International Red Cross Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody
www.nybooks.com/icrc-report.pdf
* 100 Days to Restore the Constitution
ccrjustice.org/100days
* Amnesty International at www.amnestyusa.org
* ACLU at www.aclu.org
* National Lawyers Guild at www.nlg.org

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"Between The Lines" is a half-hour syndicated radio news magazine that each week features a summary of under-reported news stories and interviews with activists and journalists who offer progressive perspectives on international, national and regional political, economic and social issues. Because "Between The Lines" is independent of all publications, media networks or political parties, we are able to bring a diversity of voices to the airwaves generally ignored or marginalized by the major media. For more information on this week's topics and to check out our text archive listing topics and guests presented in previous programs visit: www.btlonline.org
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