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

[the964kid]

This is embarrassing, I'm ashamed to be an American when I read news like this. We're not the 'good guys' we're the 'bad guys.' Bush has the entire world looking at us like we're some kinda 3rd world dictatorship. Well, they're right about the dictatorship part. :(

By the way, McCain stands for all the same a**hole policies Bush does. He called the Supreme Court's pro habeus-corpus ruling the 'biggest mistake ever' by the court. So thats what he thinks of human rights and of the geneva convention. I hope nobody on this site is even considering voting for this fool and giving these criminal policies another term.

[vippy]

And yet people won't for Obama because they deem him black. Unbelievable. My own family
included.

[piul05]

Democracy is system where the majority get the government they deserve. So, if, after nearly a decade of Bush, many of "these hard-woking white" people will still vote for more of the same because they don't like the other guy's extra melanin production, they shouldn't complain when their teenagers are drafted for yet another Vietnam re-enactment.

I'll just feel sorry for that large minority whose candidate lost and for the rest of the world, which unfortunately, does not have a say on whom its self-appointed police chooses as commander-in-chief.

[pillowcase]

I still find it curious that someone who is half-black and half-white is deemed "Black" when he could just as logically be called "White". If we need to categorize Obama at all ethnically, then he should always be referred to as "African-American" because that is what he truly is, literally.

[laocoon]

Many or our citizens throughout history fought and died for rights like habeas. McCain dishonors those soldiers by his comments.

[watchingthings]

Little by little the illegal stuff is coming out......l­ike puss from a festering wound.

[3dtrix]

I am not afraid to stand up to the cowardly traitors who have been counting on our complacency to destroy our nation, or call them such to their multiple faces. How shameful that this story could be told about the sons of those who stood up to Hitler, Hirohito, and Stalin! Armies of millions, fleets of ships, and skies full of warplanes were swarmed against them, but they relied on our cultural values and national unity to defeat them; they literally saved the world. Now, a handful of fanatics flash a few box-cutters at us, hijack a couple of jets, and the neocons want to pitch the Constitution and American decency into the dumper. They have done more damage to this country than Tojo and the Third Reich ever could.

It's time to push back!

[crablover]

Amen brother!

[yellowdawgdem]

Bushco: Oops, your fascism is showing.

[SmootyBooty]

Telling, isn't it...

[CanardTahiti]

Even the NAZIS did not hide prisioners from the IRC.

This said, I am not surprised, bushco is capable of anything and everything­...includi­ng 911.

[jjasonham]

Fine journalism. Since they're in financial trouble, it's time to have some fundraisers for this rare and enlightening media company!

[letsgetsmart]

At the very least, all those who are proven to have been a part of the Bush madness should have their pensions denied. Rewarding these people for these acts makes my tax payer blood boil.

[stimpy]

Now why would they need to do that? Why would they feel the need to conceal actions which present no moral quandary, no questions or concern in the mind of patriotic and god-loving American citizens? Torture, secret prisons, suppression of fundamental American rights...a­s we know these are all activities we can be proud of, we should feel no need to question their fundamental wisdom.

Right?

If the premise of an action is fundamentally flawed, its true essence will ultimately reveal itself.

[mari2JJ]

Simple, they are well aware of the illegal status of the behavior and yet, they are so profoundly unethical that in spite of laws and just common decency, this administration bends and breaks every rule. If you ever talk personally to Mrs. Bush, George H. W's wife, she will tell you many tales about GW's hedonistic behavior that he demonstrated from his earliest years. I fix my sights on the inauguration of Obama that will relieve our great country from the illegal behavior of this most corrupt administration. God help America is my earnest prayer.

[vippy]

Oh please, then we still have this corrupt congress, house and senate. Why do you
think they have not taken action against these criminals in the WH?
What can Obama do to turn it around? It is us who keep voting for them over and over
until they become 100 years old in office. It is us who need to be punished!

[pillowcase]

What is it that conservatives are constantly telling us when we get upset about illegal wiretaps and such, "If you've got nothing to hide, ..." Well, I guess these criminals must have something to hide.

[WABJR]

Waterboarding. Hiding Detainees.­... Refresh the memory. Just how is the United States differentiating itself from the terrorists?

[dugan45]

You mean to say torture holds no categorical imperative? Who knew?

[dumboldfarmer]

These types of behavior by our leaders is disgusting. Were they ever taught any morals or ethics or respect for our laws? It certainly does not appear so.

It should be enough to anger most ordinary law-abiding patriotic Americans, but where is the outrage? Where are the cowardly media and politicians hiding? Is this the America our founders imagined?

These people should be in jail.

[Davwbaird]

they are not christian they are inleague with the arch angel Satan itself.

[BWonka]

Compassionate Conservatives. Commiting crime after crime to keep themselv..­. er, all of us safe.

[granamica]

Criminals, meaning us?

[DerAmi]

Are you a part of the group who has been authorizing this activity or carrying it out?

I have been calling my US Senator and Representative and reminding them of their duties to impeach.

[docpooh]

You folks are mixed up. This stuff isn't important. All that matters is that you keep wearing your flag lapel pin and never, NEVER, give others reason to question your pride in America.

[LafnBacstage]

Sometimes my spell checking sucks. I intended to type Punchbowl Cemetery. No disrespect intended.

[LafnBacstage]

Some people say that 9/11 was a Pearl Harbor like event for the 21st Century.

I think everyone needs to visit Pearl Harbor and ask themselves if what the Bush administration has done is honorable. If you have never been to Pearl Harbor and visited the Arizona Memorial or the Memorial of the Pacific (Punch Bowel Cemetery) make it a priority real soon. It should be the American version of the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) Ignoring history is a dangerous. When you revisit that moment in history, you will see that what Americans died for then is not the same thing Americans are dieing for now.

Too bad...Eise­nhower was right. They have taken over.

[jtown]

For the first time in my adult life, I see why there are several things about America that does not make one proud. This is truly one of them!

[ZimboChick]

....while everyone blames Michelle O for stating the obvious. I am just dumbstruck that Americans really did not know this. The rest of the world does