RED CROSS: U.S. TACTICS AMOUNT TO TORTURE

The International Committee of the Red Cross says that the U.S. military has used psychological and physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners in Gitmo:

The team of humanitarian workers, which included medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantanamo helped plan interrogations in what the report called "a flagrant violation of medical ethics."

Medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners' mental health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, the report said, sometimes directly but usually through a group called the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, or BSCT. The team, known informally as "Biscuit," is made up of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the interrogators, the report said. ***

The report said investigators had found a system devised to break the will of the prisoners at Guantanamo, who now number about 550, and make them wholly dependent on their interrogators through "humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions."

"The construction of such a system, whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence, cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture," the report said.

It said that in addition to the exposure to loud and persistent noise and music and to prolonged cold, detainees were subjected to "some beatings."

Now, can someone explain why the Chicago Tribune buried this story on page 11?