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Ten Questions: #1

Larry Siems,
The Torture Report
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November 30, 2010

When the United States appeared before the U.N. to defend its human rights record, State Department legal advisor Harold Koh assured the world that the U.S. had “thoroughly investigated” alleged abuses of detainees in U.S. custody, and that “appropriate corrective action has been taken.” Koh also asserted that the Justice Department’s initial investigation into torture was actively looking into allegations of abuse by the CIA and other civilian agencies.

Drawing largely from material that has been covered in thetorturereport.com, we have come up with 10 follow-up questions for the U.S. about its compliance with domestic and international prohibitions against torture.

In January 2009, Susan Crawford, the former Convening Authority of the Guantánamo Military Commissions, publicly acknowledged she had not referred Mohammed Al-Qahtani's case for prosecution because "We tortured Qahtani"; his treatment, she said, "met the legal definition of torture." Can you list the names and ranks of all military personnel who have been investigated for ordering and carrying out his interrogation, and the status and results of any court-martial or other disciplinary proceedings that resulted from those investigations?

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