The International Committee of the Red Cross concludes in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives in CIA prisons constituted torture, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross concludes in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives in CIA prisons "constituted torture," The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The newspaper cited newly published excerpts from the 2007 document which documents alleged physical and psychological brutality inside CIA prisons overseas.
The report also states that some US practices amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," the newspaper reported.
The Washington Post says the secret report strongly implies that the United States violated international law prohibiting torture and maltreatment of prisoners, the newspaper said.
It said the ICRC findings were based on its access to the CIA's 14 "high-value" detainees after they were transferred in 2006 to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The ICRC report gave uniform accounts of abuse that included beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and, in some cases, waterboarding, or simulating drowning, the paper said.