In the last day, the Red Cross has accused the U.S. of torturing prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, The Washington Post has reported that Army Generals knew of abuse in Iraq since December 2003, and the Center for Constitutional Rights in Germany has accused U.S. officials of war crimes.
In a confidential report, the Red Cross concluded the U.S. has been intentionally using psychological and physical coercion “tantamount to torture” on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
In another confidential report, leaked to the Post, investigators warned Army generals in Iraq that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees. This finding was delivered more than a month before investigators received the Abu Ghraib prison photographs.
Finally, in Germany, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a criminal complaint on behalf of four Iraqi citizens. These citizens allege that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Former CIA Director George Tenet, among other U.S. officials, committed war crimes in Iraq. Germany’s laws on torture and war crimes permit the prosecution of suspected war criminals wherever they may be found.
No doubt the alleged abuses now coming to light will grow, since our current nominee for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, helped the Bush Administration develop the idea of unlimited presidential power to seize and hold enemy combatants—without access to lawyers or judicial proceedings. Gonzales is also the advisor who sent a 2002 memo to the president that termed “quaint” many Geneva Conventions provisions, including individual hearings.