It’s been nearly a year since the Senate Intelligence Committee released the summary of its damning report about the CIA’s post-9/11 rendition program, which detailed the agency’s use of harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding and rectal feeding on suspected Al-Qaeda members, among others.
Now, Human Rights Watch, a New York–based human rights group, is calling for the Justice Department to release the full 6,700-page Senate report, conduct a new criminal investigation into the officials who authorized the harsh treatment of detainees at the CIA’s secret overseas prisons, also known as black sites, and compensate the victims who say they were tortured.
In a 153-page report released on Tuesday, the group cited the United Nations’ Convention Against Torture and a 1994 federal anti-torture statute as the legal basis for the Justice Department to intervene.
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“The Convention Against Torture (CAT), in addition to obligating states to investigate and appropriately prosecute torture and other ill-treatment,” the report reads, “requires them to provide redress to victims of torture and ensure that they have ‘an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation.’”
The Justice Department declined to comment on Tuesday’s report, except to say: “We are aware of the report and are reviewing it.”
In a 153-page report released on Tuesday, the group cited the United Nations’ Convention Against Torture and a 1994 federal anti-torture statute as the legal basis for the Justice Department to intervene.