Torture Overseas

by Brian Beutler, The Media Consortium: Wed., May 14, 2008
Filed under: War Making and Oversight

The ACLU–conducting more oversight these days than Congress and the mainstream media combined–has gotten a hold of some previously unreleased documents detailing the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other overseas facilities. Here (PDF file), for instance:

[Wisam] Abd-Al-Rahman described his reported period of detention in Afghanistan from January 2002 until April 2003 as moving from ‘one American prison to another’, staying in cold, dark, and crowded rooms. He said he stayed, without charges or interrogation, with nine other persons in a 25 square foot room without sunlight and fed only bread and rice for a period of about 77 days. He said that sanitary and hygiene conditions were terrible, and that he did not receive medical care nor see the sun during the period of detention in Afghanistan. He also reported sleep deprivation, undressing in front of female soldiers, desecration of the Koran by a dog, beatings, and threats of harm from barking dogs while blindfolded.

Abd-al-Rahman was later found to be innocent.

Here’s a series of accounts (PDF file) of the deaths of four detainees killed in captivity in Iraq.

Here’s a list of talking points (PDF file) about torture, as conveyed in a State Department cable transmission. Note that the people who received them were warned that they should “not be given to non-usg [U.S. Government] persons or left behind after meetings.”

And there’s plenty more that I haven’t read through yet. Give them a look yourself, and I’ll post anything interesting I come across as I peruse them.