THE US: The International Committee of the Red Cross has accused the US of using psychological and physical pressure to interrogate prisoners at its detention centre in Guantanamo Bay in tactics tantamount to torture.
Following a June visit to Guantanamo, the ICRC raised concerns that interrogators were using harsh techniques that were affecting the health of the detainees, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The ICRC report, which the Bush administration received in July, criticises the US military for allowing doctors at Guantanamo to facilitate interrogations by providing interrogators with detainees' medical records. The report is also understood to criticise the military's use of humiliation and solitary confinement for extracting information.
The ICRC, which has a policy of not commenting on its findings, yesterday declined to comment on its report. But it said: "Significant problems regarding conditions and treatment at Guantanamo Bay have not yet been adequately addressed."
The New York Times yesterday quoted a leaked memorandum as saying that the intelligence-gathering system at the centre was "an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture".
The White House said it strongly disagreed with the ICRC conclusions.
The State Department said it took Red Cross reports on the treatment of detainees "very, very seriously" but believed Guantanamo prisoners were being held in humane conditions.
"We certainly do not condone the torture of detainees in our custody," said State Department spokesman Mr Richard Boucher.
Authorities are now holding at the US base in Cuba more than 500 people detained during the 2001 US war to oust al-Qaeda and the ruling Taliban from Afghanistan and in other operations in the US war against terror. The ICRC began visiting in early 2002.
The report reignites the debate about whether the US has condoned torture. It also renews questions about whether the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was isolated. Mr Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, at one point approved interrogation methods for Guantanamo, including the use of dogs and stripping prisoners, that later emerged at Abu Ghraib.