A report released Sunday, nearly 20 years after the first prisoners arrived at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, details “systematic abuses carried out by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. military” since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Entitled Legacy of the “Dark Side”: The Costs of Unlawful U.S. Detentions and Interrogations Post-9/11, the new paper was published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
“This report lays out a comprehensive assessment of the many unconscionable costs of U.S. torture and illegal detentions and renditions of Muslims over the past 20 years since 9/11,” said Stephanie Savell, co-director of the Costs of War Project, in a statement. “This is a moral failure of epic proportions, a stain on the nation’s human rights record, a strategic blunder, and an abhorrent perpetuation of Islamophobia and racism.”
They argue that “significant counterterrorism reforms, including closing the prison at Guantánamo, strengthening measures to protect civilians from death and harm, increasing transparency and accountability for the crimes the U.S. has committed, and addressing religious and racial biases, are critical steps toward mitigating the damage.”
Read More: “20 Years of US Torture and Counting”: Report Details Post-9/11 Abuse at Gitmo and Beyond
