CIA Torture Report: Obama administration continues to torture Guantanamo Bay detainees, says Reprieve
The damning report into the CIA's abuse of suspected Islamic militants exposed the "horrific torture" that was carried out by the US in the past, but the Obama administration continues to abuse prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, according to Reprieve.
The human rights organisation told IBTimes UK that detainees in the US-run Cuban detention camp, otherwise known as 'Camp Delta', have been force-fed and endure "freezing" steel cells.
"The Senate report has revealed to the American people – and the world – the horrific torture that was carried out by the US in the past," said Alka Pradhan, a US counsel who represents detainees at Guantanamo.
"Yet the Obama administration continues to be responsible for ongoing torture and abuse at Guantanamo Bay, from gratuitous forcible cell extractions and freezing steel cells to brutal, punitive force-feeding, which was denounced as torture by the United Nations (UN).
"I have seen the force-feeding video tapes, which a judge has ordered to be released, and they are truly disturbing.
"Yet the government is doing everything in its power to stop these tapes ever seeing the light of day, much as it tried to stop the Senate report from being released.
"The American people deserved to know what was done in their name years ago, and they deserve to know what is still being done in their name today."
The comments come after an investigation into CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques" from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) was published.
The report revealed that CIA detainees were tortured and subjected to a series of "techniques", which were far more brutal than previous feared.
The committee said that the CIA carried out torture techniques on terror suspects in the wake of 9/11 while misleading the nation with narratives of life-saving interrogations.
"These techniques did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners," President Obama said in reaction to the report.
"I hope that today's report can help us leave these techniques where they belong, in the past."
The Enhanced Interrogation Techniques programme
The Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) programme, based off the James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen's Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) programme, was authorised by George W Bush six days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.
The use of the techniques by the CIA ended in December 2007, and was subsequently prohibited by an Executive Order issued by President Obama when he took office in January 2009.
Obama also directed that CIA no longer operate detention facilities and banned the use of all interrogation techniques that are not in the Army Field Manual for those held in US custody or under the effective control of the United States in any armed conflict.
The CIA claims that the programme did produce valuable and unique intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives.
For example, the CIA said that information obtained from detainees played a role, in combination with other streams of intelligence, in finding Osama Bin Ladin.
But the SSCI report said that the techniques were not effective and did not produce any "ticking time bomb" information crucial to save lives.
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