The highest U.S. officials during the Bush presidency bore ultimate responsibility for the 'indisputable' use of torture, according to the report from an independent task force, and it urged President Barack Obama to close the Guantanamo detention camp by the end of 2014.
In one of the most comprehensive studies of U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects, the panel concluded that never before had there been 'the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody.'
'It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture,' the 11-member task force said in their 577-page report.
Shut it down: A new report claims that Guantanamo Bay prison, seen here in 2002 not long after it opened, may be closed after NATO pulls out from Afghanistan in 2014
The scathing critique of methods used under the Republican administration of former President George W. Bush also sharpened the focus on the plight of inmates at Guantanamo, which Bush opened and his Democratic successor has failed to close.
Obama banned abusive interrogation techniques such as waterboarding when he took office in early 2009, but the widely condemned military prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba has remained an object of condemnation by human rights advocates.
The panel was assembled by the nonpartisan Constitution Project think tank and their findings come as 45 inmates are carrying out a hunger strike in protest of their treatment.
A clash between guards and prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay camp last weekend and the release of harrowing accounts by inmates about force-feeding of hunger strikers threw a harsh spotlight on the predicament of the inmates, many held without charge or trial for more than decade.
The task force called the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo 'abhorrent and intolerable' and called for it to be closed by the end of 2014 when NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan is due to end and most U.S. troops will leave.
By then, the 166 Guantanamo prisoners should be tried in civilian or military courts, repatriated or transferred to countries that would not torture them, or moved to U.S. jails, the task force's majority recommended.
Past and present: The report focused on the rules put into place during President Bush's terms, but also called on President Obama for failing to changed much of the egregious protocols
But the 2014 goal will be hard to achieve because of legal, legislative and political obstacles Obama faces.
While the White House says he remains committed to shutting Guantanamo, he has offered no new path to doing so in his second term.
The panel, which included leading politicians from both parties, two U.S. retired generals and legal and ethics scholars, spent two years examining the U.S. treatment of suspected militants detained after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Members of the task force described themselves as the closest thing to a 'truth commission' since Obama decided early in his presidency against convening a national commission to investigate post-9/11 practices.
Panel members interviewed former Clinton, Bush and Obama administration officials, military officers and former prisoners, and the investigation looked at U.S. practices at Guantanamo, in Afghanistan and Iraq and at the CIA's former secret prisons overseas.
Tense: The guards, seen here in 2007, recently fired on some of the prisoners during an altercation
The task force was chaired by Asa Hutchinson, a Republican former congressman and undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration, and James Jones, a Democratic former congressman who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
In a finding the panel said was its most notable and was reached 'without reservation,' the report said, 'Torture occurred in many instances and across a wide range of theaters.'
Renewed calls: Protests were held in Times Square last week calling for a closure of the prison
But the panel concluded there was 'no firm or persuasive evidence' that the use of such techniques yielded 'significant information of value.'
'The nation's highest officials bear some responsibility for allowing and contributing to the spread of torture,' the report said, though it did not name names.
The task force, while concluding that U.S. and international laws were violated, did not recommend legal action against any of those involved but it did press for tighter rules to prevent a recurrence of torture.
'We as a nation have to get this right,' Hutchinson told a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
The panel urged the U.S. government to release as much classified information as possible to help understand what went wrong and cope better with the next crisis.
'Publicly acknowledging this grave error, however belatedly, may mitigate some of those consequences and help undo some of the damage to our reputation at home and abroad,' the report said.
The sweeping report cataloged abusive interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and chaining prisoners in painful positions.
The task force also concluded that force-feeding hunger striking detainees is a form of abuse and should end.
'But at the same time the United States has a legitimate interest in preventing detainees from starving to death,' the panel said.
In one of the most comprehensive studies of U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects, the panel concluded that never before had there been 'the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after 9/11 directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody.'
'It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture,' the 11-member task force said in their 577-page report.
Shut it down: A new report claims that Guantanamo Bay prison, seen here in 2002 not long after it opened, may be closed after NATO pulls out from Afghanistan in 2014
The scathing critique of methods used under the Republican administration of former President George W. Bush also sharpened the focus on the plight of inmates at Guantanamo, which Bush opened and his Democratic successor has failed to close.
Obama banned abusive interrogation techniques such as waterboarding when he took office in early 2009, but the widely condemned military prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba has remained an object of condemnation by human rights advocates.
The panel was assembled by the nonpartisan Constitution Project think tank and their findings come as 45 inmates are carrying out a hunger strike in protest of their treatment.
A clash between guards and prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay camp last weekend and the release of harrowing accounts by inmates about force-feeding of hunger strikers threw a harsh spotlight on the predicament of the inmates, many held without charge or trial for more than decade.
The task force called the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo 'abhorrent and intolerable' and called for it to be closed by the end of 2014 when NATO's combat mission in Afghanistan is due to end and most U.S. troops will leave.
By then, the 166 Guantanamo prisoners should be tried in civilian or military courts, repatriated or transferred to countries that would not torture them, or moved to U.S. jails, the task force's majority recommended.
Past and present: The report focused on the rules put into place during President Bush's terms, but also called on President Obama for failing to changed much of the egregious protocols
But the 2014 goal will be hard to achieve because of legal, legislative and political obstacles Obama faces.
While the White House says he remains committed to shutting Guantanamo, he has offered no new path to doing so in his second term.
The panel, which included leading politicians from both parties, two U.S. retired generals and legal and ethics scholars, spent two years examining the U.S. treatment of suspected militants detained after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Members of the task force described themselves as the closest thing to a 'truth commission' since Obama decided early in his presidency against convening a national commission to investigate post-9/11 practices.
Panel members interviewed former Clinton, Bush and Obama administration officials, military officers and former prisoners, and the investigation looked at U.S. practices at Guantanamo, in Afghanistan and Iraq and at the CIA's former secret prisons overseas.
Tense: The guards, seen here in 2007, recently fired on some of the prisoners during an altercation
The task force was chaired by Asa Hutchinson, a Republican former congressman and undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration, and James Jones, a Democratic former congressman who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
In a finding the panel said was its most notable and was reached 'without reservation,' the report said, 'Torture occurred in many instances and across a wide range of theaters.'
Renewed calls: Protests were held in Times Square last week calling for a closure of the prison
But the panel concluded there was 'no firm or persuasive evidence' that the use of such techniques yielded 'significant information of value.'
'The nation's highest officials bear some responsibility for allowing and contributing to the spread of torture,' the report said, though it did not name names.
The task force, while concluding that U.S. and international laws were violated, did not recommend legal action against any of those involved but it did press for tighter rules to prevent a recurrence of torture.
'We as a nation have to get this right,' Hutchinson told a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.
The panel urged the U.S. government to release as much classified information as possible to help understand what went wrong and cope better with the next crisis.
'Publicly acknowledging this grave error, however belatedly, may mitigate some of those consequences and help undo some of the damage to our reputation at home and abroad,' the report said.
The sweeping report cataloged abusive interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and chaining prisoners in painful positions.
The task force also concluded that force-feeding hunger striking detainees is a form of abuse and should end.
'But at the same time the United States has a legitimate interest in preventing detainees from starving to death,' the panel said.