Powell Told U.S. Tortured Detainees, But He Failed to Act

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The International Committee of the Red Cross began an investigation of U.S. war crimes in Iraq from the first days of the invasion, interviewing Iraqi captives from March to November 2003.

On Jan. 15, 2004, ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger expressed his concern to Secretary of State Colin Powell about the Bush administration’s attitude regarding international law.

According to an ICRC Jan. 16, 2004 news release, which summarized Kellenberger’s meeting with Powell, “the ICRC is increasingly concerned about the fate of an unknown number of people captured as part of the so-called global war on terror and held in undisclosed locations.”

Kellenberger, according to minutes of the meeting, “raised ICRC concerns over detention issues in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.”

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