New abuse claim

last updated 8 January 2015

Guantánamo Bay

The International Committee of the Red Cross has filed secret reports with the U.S. government accusing military interrogators of using psychological and physical coercion that was “tantamount to torture,” The New York Times reported this week. Red Cross experts spent June observing the treatment of detainees from Afghanistan at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. They said the military systematically broke down the will of its prisoners through humiliation, exposure to extreme temperatures, and occasional beatings. The Pentagon responded by saying that the U.S. “operates a safe, humane, and professional detention operation at Guantánamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terrorism.”