More coldblooded than Abu Ghraib

Eric Boehlert at Salon reports on the leaked International Red Cross report about Guantanamo. Imagine the country that we think is a “shining beacon of hope” running a gulag where we warehouse people (some who are surely innocents) with no idea if or when they will ever be released. If that psychological torture is not enough, how about some of the real thing. -- And this is not the disorganized stuff dished out by sadistic psychos, as at Abu Ghraib, this appears to be the real McCoy, assisted by that new organization “Doctors Without Ethics.” Read the article at the link above. Here are some excerpts:

“Dec. 1, 2004, A confidential Red Cross report detailing interrogation techniques "tantamount to torture" at the United States-run prisoner camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, offers the latest evidence that the Bush administration is systematically flouting international law as it battles the war on terrorism, says one legal expert. “ All of this looks pretty clearly like a deliberate policy to create prisons at which all kinds of interrogation techniques can be used and remain unfettered by law," says Leila Sadat, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and vice-president of the American branch of the International Law Association.”

“Leila Sadat, who also served as a commissioner on the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom during the Clinton administration, spoke with Salon about the Red Cross report on Monday afternoon.”

Sadat: “… I'm thinking to myself what does "tantamount to torture" mean? I suppose what the Red Cross could be doing is declining to give a legal opinion on whether it's torture or not and leaving that to others. When you say it's torture that really triggers a whole set of legal consequences, so I can understand the Red Cross being a little bit careful.”

Sadat again: “… it sounds like doctors are opening up their files and allowing the interrogators to look at the files and then consulting with them. It's clearly a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions to engage in medical experimentation. And some of these techniques may rise to that level. It's quite a serious offense against the laws and customs of war.”

Salon: “Is it possible, following this damning report, that the Bush administration will try to block the Red Cross from visiting Guantanamo in the future?”

Sadat: “I think the administration could say, "Look, if Geneva law does not apply, then we don't want the Red Cross there.”

Salon: “Is that a plausible scenario?”

Sadat: “I think it's very plausible, I do. Four years ago I never would have said that. I think now almost everything's plausible. I'm sure it's being discussed right now.”

Salon: “And if the U.S. did deny the Red Cross entrée to prison camps, what league would that put us in?”

Sadat: “That would put us alongside North Korea.”

Holy, er, crap! Read the whole piece here.