The February 2004 report of the International Red Cross regarding abuse of Iraqi prisoners has been leaked to the Wall Street Journal. The
Red Cross doesn't release these reports to the public, but here's the BBC story about the report--
Red Cross saw 'widespread abuse':
Mr Kraehenbuehl [director of operations, Pierre Kraehenbuehl] said that the alleged abuses were not isolated cases and not particular to the Abu Ghraib prison.
'We were dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts. There was a pattern and a system,' he said.
Mr Kraehenbuehl said that over the last year the Red Cross had repeatedly warned the Bush administration that the conditions at the Abu Ghraib needed changing.
'Our findings were discussed at different moments between March and November 2003, either in direct face-to-face conversations or in written interventions,' he said. "
Of course, anyone paying attention knew this was going on. Here is an article by Dana Priest and Barton Gellman from the Washington Post of
December 26, 2002--
U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations | 'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret Overseas Facilities :
Those who refuse to cooperate inside this secret CIA interrogation center are sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, according to intelligence specialists familiar with CIA interrogation methods. At times they are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights -- subject to what are known as "stress and duress" techniques.
Those who cooperate are rewarded with creature comforts, interrogators whose methods include feigned friendship, respect, cultural sensitivity and, in some cases, money. Some who do not cooperate are turned over -- "rendered," in official parlance -- to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the U.S. government and human rights organizations.
