The International Committee of the Red Cross produced in 2007 a secret report, in which it concluded that the treatment of al-Qaeda captives by CIA interrogators "constituted torture," The Washington Post reported Monday.
The newspaper quotes the ICRC report as saying that the treatment of inmates at secret prisons run by the US Central Intelligence Agency amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," which is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
The findings were based on conclusions by ICRC officials who were granted exclusive access to the CIA's "high-value" detainees after they had been transferred in 2006 to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the report said.
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The 14 detainees gave uniform accounts of abuse that included beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and, in some cases, waterboarding, the paper noted.
The Post said that at least five copies of the report had been shared with the CIA and top White House officials in 2007, but barred from public release by ICRC guidelines intended to preserve the group's policy of neutrality in conflicts.
