Releasing detainee names to the ICRC - a step in the right direction

from the nyt...

In a reversal of Pentagon policy, the military for the first time is notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross of the identities of militants who were being held in secret at a camp in Iraq and another in Afghanistan run by United States Special Operations forces, according to three military officials.

The change begins to lift the veil from the American government’s most secretive remaining overseas prisons by allowing the Red Cross to track the custody of dozens of the most dangerous suspected terrorists and foreign fighters plucked off the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[...]

Under the new policy, the military must notify the Red Cross of the detainees’ names and identification numbers within two weeks of capture, a notification that before happened only after a detainee was transferred to a long-term prison. The option to seek custody extensions has been eliminated, a senior Pentagon official said.

marcy still sees some problems but hopes this means we're getting out of the "disappearance" business...

It sounds like ICRC gets the names and ID numbers of detainees, but not yet the access to talk to them. If so, then there is still not an outside monitor on detainee conditions.

[...]

But if we could be sure we were getting out of the disappearances business that would be small progress.

a step forward is still a step forward and can perhaps lead to making sure the following horror is a thing of the past...

A Central Intelligence Agency inspector general’s report set to be released Monday provides new details about abuses that took place inside the agency’s secret prisons, including details of how C.I.A. officers carried out mock executions and threatened at least one prisoner with a gun and a power drill.

[...]

It is a violation of the federal torture statute to threaten a detainee with imminent death.

i'm relatively sure, despite many recent revelations, we're only seeing the tip of a very large iceberg...

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