CONFIRMED: U.S. Hid Detainees From The Red Cross

McClatchy Newspapers:

The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate committee released Tuesday.

"We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques," Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who's since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison to discuss employing interrogation techniques that some have equated with torture. Her comments were recorded in minutes of the meeting that were made public Tuesday. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility -- Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan -- were using sleep deprivation to "break" detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. "True, but officially it is not happening," she is quoted as having said.

A third person at the meeting, Jonathan Fredman, the chief counsel for the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, disclosed that detainees were moved routinely to avoid the scrutiny of the ICRC, which keeps tabs on prisoners in conflicts around the world.

Read the whole story: McClatchy Newspapers

Comments

[white mende man]

Just wondering who is learning from whom:
United States from the Mossad?
Mossad from the United States?
United States from Hezbollah?
Hezbollah from the United States?
Mossad from Hezbollah?
Hezbohhah from the Mossad?
oh let's not forget Hamas and the others... hmmmmm did it all start in South America I wonder?

[Nonamnesiac]

Impeachmen­t/removal. 67 Senators are necessary for removal. The 67 votes necessary for removing Bush and Cheney will be reached when those Republicans running for reelection for the 22 Republican Senate seats up in November have to choose betweem voting to remove Bush/Cheney or, if they don't, know they will removed by the voters of their states in November. Once Articles of Impeachment are competently presented the Ameican people wll demand impeachment/removal of both of them.

Impeachment/removal is the only accountability weapon for executive criminalty. It's not enough to rely on elections, as the precedent is now set for criminal behavior in the White House or in the Executive Branch to continue. Congress's failure to move impeachment/removal means they are collaborating in high crimes and misdemeanors. Can you imagine that the US is now hiding how it treats its prisoners from the International Red Cross?

[stargazer13]

MY COUNTRY RIGHT OR WRONG WHEN RIGHT TO BE KEPT RIGHT WHEN WRONG TO BE MADE RIGHT

[ShouldBeWorkin]

-- Carl Schurz

[fact finder]

The occupant of the WH can do nothing with out the complicity of Congress. Welkom to the United States of Fascism . Ve haf a nice room for you at Stalag 001.

[sophistwatch]

Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.), who led the Army’s 2004 investigation into the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. (From the foreword of Broken Laws, Broken Lives).

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account".

This article is important for anyone who wants to understand the depth of this issue.

http://meteor-blades.dailykos.com/

[LITU]

Raymond: you exemplify why it is dangerous to let an idiot have access to a computer. Your comments are those of a fool.

[Raymondf]

your the idiot.

[LITU]

That may be true, but at least I can spell, fool.

[Exusian]

And you're a vicious little fascist pr*ck.

[coastalcarla]

Raymond, you're hilarious! "I know you are but what am I?" Where did you attend school - the Pee Wee Herman Academy? I think maybe you need to return to the wading pool there buddy - the deep end of the pool is obviously too deep for you. Either that, or your special ed work experience class for the summer is being a paid Republican troll, whose sole purpose is flaming progressive websites. In which case, you're doing a heck of a job!

[Raymondf]

Non-Issue, this is war.

[tomsfork]

Say again? Are you supporting Bush's crimes? And what war are you talking about? I didn't know we were at war.

Chasing terrorism is a job for the courts and the police, not the military. Wars are fought between nations. It would take a true doofus like Bush to declare "war" on terrorists. And the behavior of nations during wartime is controlled by the Geneva Conventions and other international law. We are lawless, and criminal in our pursuit of this hokey "war".

[naschkatze]

Ever hear the expression "war crimes"?

[Raymondf]

Remember Pearl Harbor, and all the camps that all the Japanese Americans that were put in camps without being charged with anything, but being Japanese, for 5 years.

[Grunty1]

Another Bushie who does not understand the Constituion or that America is not some two-bit dictatorship.

[sophistwatch]

Excusing incompetence does not alter reality.

This war is based on confirmed misrepresentation of the facts which led to an illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation.

[Raymondf]

That everyone fell for including quit a few dems. All this was due to faulty intel that Rumsfeld, and Powell blocked from the President.

[dentuso]

Explain to a US soldier who's being tortured that his Geneva rights are now a non-issue.

[Raymondf]

It is still a war, we don't have a draft anymore they didn't have to join.

[TommyBobama]

Explain that to Daniel Pearl.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

Am I the only one to find it ironic that this is precisely the sort of crude and callous disregard for human rights and due process that got Saddam Hussein executed by hanging?

What are we saying here? That the Iraqi government has a greater sense of justice and punishing this sort of miscreant than we do?

[Grunty1]

Not ironic. B'ush and C'heney had a big case of jealousy watching Saddam and other dictators. They

[Bushwillresign]

Yes very ironic. I was walking by the tv when the newsman was talking about "torture and human rights violations and due process". I naturally thought he was talking about Saddam Hussein. But, alas no, he was talking about a certain potus.

[FreedomFries]

Before anyone expresses too much shock at what is now going on, and remembering the past as honorable and noble, you'd better crack a history book or two. There is a list of invasion and occupation that goes on and on, as well as the overthrow of governments by other means. It's not a pleasant history. But like a victim of an abusive relationship, the country put Vietnam and Iran Contra behind it, ignored advice from its friends, willingly went out on another date with the government, glady had steak and wine and staggered happily into the bedroom.

[markusmarkus]

Did you expect anything less from the boooosh clan?

Obama08

[neetsie37]

You know, it is appalling that we have heard so many many many illegal and criminal activities this administration has been doing over the last seven years that it's come to the point that people are JOKING about it. Does anyone besides me think this is not FUNNY???? That this is a WAR CRIME??? When, when, when, is anything going to be done to these people or do they just walk off into the sunset in January with their pensions and Secret Service protection with them? Nancy Pelosi and the rest can walk off into the sunset with them, for all I care. I'm sick of noone doing anything but writing about one shocking crime after another.

[AnotherAndy]

In today's news there's a good article about medical evidence of torture by the U.S. military at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/142011

[Nonamnesiac]

Impeachment/removal of Bush and Cheney is the only way for the Administration to be held accountable. The rest of the 67 votes to remove them come from those Republican Senators running for re-election for the 22 Republican seats up for election in November. Once the American people hear a competently presented case for impeachment, which the Articles of Impeachment would require, those Republican Senators who want to be reelected would have the choice of voting to remove Cheney/Bush or, if they don't, being removed by the voters in November. There is no need for any other kinds of hearings as there already is massive evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors on Bush's and Cheney's part.

Everything else, including electing the other party, means nothing, as whomever takes over the Executive must know there will be consequences for commission of high crimes and misdemeanors. Over 80% of the American people think we're going in the wrong direction. Impeachmen­t/removal, given tne massive evidence of the commission of high crimes and misdemeanors by Bush and Cheney, will provide some proof to the people that the government is trying to make things right.

[Graywolf48]

Did those who weren't hidden from the Red Cross get blankets and toiletries that were confiscated immediately after the Red Cross man left? This is getting to be more and more reminiscent of those old Hollywood WWII POW/concentration camp movies. Only this time, we're the Nazi's. How sad a people we have become. I've been ashamed of my country for years.

[Raymondf]

Why would they need blankets when the avg. temp in Cuba is 80 year round.

[Grunty1]

They need something to dry themselves with after being waterboarded (aka tortured)

[Graywolf48]

You're a bit of a fool, aren't you?

[truthyguy]

Welcome to the Bush-Cheney States of America.
Decisions from the gut.
No pesky Constitution to deal with.
Morals and ethics a thing of the past (except when pandering to the religious right).

[tomsfork]

The religious right has morals and ethics? When did this come about?

[Raymondf]

they have no constitutional rights.

[Grunty1]

And if you "stay the Bush course", neither will you.

[ssg13565]

Apparently the Supreme Court disagrees with you. They do have constitutional rights because they are people. You don't have to be a citizen of the US to have constitutional rights.

[laocoon]

"there is a war" on and with those magic words the bill of rights disappears. when we had the war on poverty we should have locked up all the right wingers and denied any habeas.

[mathme]

You don't really get the Constitution, do you?

[ProfessorDuh]

The U.S. is a nation that tortures people. Wrap your head around it. And we torture people whom we have permanently imprisoned without access to due process, which inevitably means we torture innocent people, because unchecked power will always be abused to the limit.
But as long as we call torture "harsh interrogation," and kidnapping "rendition," and blowing children to pieces "shock and awe," and unjustified invasion "liberation," we'll be all right. Just avert your eyes from the red-eyed truth that is staring you in the face, and call it some stupid Fox News propaganda word.
The founders of this nation would be disgusted with us.

[Raymondf]

They have no due process.

[ssg13565]

The Supreme Court thinks that they ought to have due process.

[mathme]

So you're retired military and a constitutional scholar?

[mathme]

* Fifth Amendment – due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, eminent domain.

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

*PERSON* -- not "citizen".­.. the two words are used deliberately and are distinct from one another.

[wesinohio]

They will all be prosecuted. Now I've got to go to work.