Rights groups urge Obama to mount Guantanamo probe

[babylonsister]

Rights groups urge Obama to mount Guantanamo probe

By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald



Two human rights groups urged the future Obama administration on Wednesday to appoint a well-funded commission with subpoena power to systematically examine the U.S. treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere since the 9/11 attacks.

Activists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights made the recommendation as they released a two-year study of the impact of U.S. detention and interrogation practices on former captives at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The report, based on interviews with 62 released detainees, found that many of the detainees, even after they were released, faced emotional scars and had difficulty finding jobs once they returned to their home countries. A third of the detainees believed they had been sold into captivity. Nearly two-thirds said they had suffered emotional difficulties since leaving Guantanamo, and recalled traumatic treatment such as short shackling and being held in hot or cold extremes.

About a third reported their faith had strengthened in captivity Many described their treatment while in U.S. custody as "abusive" and said they did not understand the quasi judicial proceedings they'd participated in prior to their release.

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