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14 CIA detainees allege abuse, Red Cross reports

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - Terror detainees once held in the CIA's secret prisons were kept and questioned under highly abusive conditions, the International Committee of the Red Cross says in a confidential report based on interviews with high-value terror suspects.

The Red Cross said the techniques reported by the 14 prisoners, including sleep deprivation and the use of forced standing and other so-called stress positions, were particularly harsh when used together. The prisoners were transferred from CIA custody to a military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September.

The CIA's detention methods were designed to soften detainees and make them more likely to talk during interrogation. Human rights organizations say the CIA's extreme conditions of detention and the coercive questioning techniques constitute torture.

The report is the first independent accounting of the detainees' allegations against the CIA since its detention and interrogation program began in 2002.

U.S. officials familiar with the report, who spoke to the Associated Press only on condition of anonymity because the highly sensitive document has not been released, said it is based entirely on accounts from interviews with detainees and has not been verified.

One official cautioned that the claims were made by terror suspects who could be charged in the deaths of innocent civilians.

Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno said that the committee's visits with the 14 detainees served two purposes: to assess their current conditions in detention and to give them an opportunity to talk about past detentions.

"We do not comment on our findings publicly. The report is a confidential document," Schorno said Monday.

CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment on any ICRC reports, citing the organization's practice of keeping its findings confidential.

Speaking generally of the CIA interrogation program, Mansfield said the United States does not practice or condone torture. "CIA's terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives."

House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said he has gotten a general briefing on the ICRC report but has not read it. "There are allegations that are made by these 14, and they are vehemently denied by Gen. Hayden and the intelligence folks," he said, referring to CIA director Michael Hayden.

Not long after the March 2002 capture of top al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah, the CIA began formalizing its detention and interrogation program. The CIA decided it would need to hold high-value terrorists such as Zubaydah for extended periods in an effort to extract information.

It began using "enhanced interrogation techniques" - or "EITs" in CIA-speak - with success.

Those widely reported practices include openhanded slapping, induced hypothermia, sleep deprivation and - perhaps most controversially - waterboarding. In that technique, a detainee is made to believe he is drowning.

[Last modified March 21, 2007, 02:10:22]