US practices torture on detainees after 11 September

The United States has engaged in the practice of torture on the detainees after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, violating domestic and international laws, a US independent review said."It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture," the bipartisan Task Force on Detainee Treatment, assembled by the nonpartisan Constitution Project think tank, said in a 577-page report, Xinhua reported."US forces, in many instances, used interrogation techniques on detainees that constitute torture. American personnel conducted an even larger number of interrogations that involved cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," the report said.The 11-member panel has been in charge of examining the government's policies and actions on the detention and treatment of suspected terrorists since the Clinton administration.It said the interrogation tactics used by US forces have violated both domestic laws and international treaties.The country has also violated its international legal obligations in its practice of the enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention of terror suspects in secret prisons abroad, according to the report.Moreover, the highest US officials should bear the ultimate responsibility for the use of torture on the detainees, it said, adding that other government officials and certain military leaders should also be blamed.The torture employed by interrogators was the "decisions made by the nation's highest civilian and military leaders," including the decision that the CIA could use brutal techniques against "high-value" detainees, it said.The panel said the use of harsh interrogation techniques by US forces has not produced significant information of value, calling for the close of the Guantanamo detention camp by the end of 2014."A majority of the Task Force members favored moving swiftly to deal with all of the prisoners currently held in Guantanamo and closing the detention facility in accordance with a cessation of hostilities by the end of 2014," it said.