A U.S. human rights group says medical examinations show that former
terrorism suspects once held by the United States had been tortured.
The
Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights conducted an evaluation
of 11 detainees who were freed without charge after being held at U.S.
prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Iraq and Afghanistan.
The group
says the former detainees detailed beatings, sleep deprivation,
electric shock, shacklings, forced nakedness, severe stress positions,
humiliation, sexual assault, and being spit and urinated on.
The U.S. government has defended its interrogation techniques and has consistently said it does not torture prisoners.
The
report by Physicians for Human Rights said the findings cannot be
generalized since so few people were examined. But it said the
patterns of abuse are consistent with numerous governmental and
independent investigations of ill-treatment of detainees.
One
examiner said the team found clear physical and psychological evidence
of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering.
In
response to a Senate hearing Tuesday about agressive interrogation
techniques on terror suspects, Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman,
said it has always been the policy of the government to treat detainees
humanely. He said abuse has never been the policy of the government.
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