CONFIRMED: U.S. hid detainees from Red Cross
lc
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — 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.
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