(Washington, DC) - President Barack Obama should appoint a nonpartisan commission to investigate and examine detention, treatment, and transfer of detainees following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Human Rights Watch and 17 other leading rights organizations said today.
The statement was also endorsed by several prominent religious, political, and military officials, including former FBI Director William Sessions, former UN Ambassador Thomas Pickering, and Maj.-Gen. Antonio Taguba, who investigated detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib.
"The abuses carried out over the past eight years have not only undermined America's moral authority, but also jeopardized its national security," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. "We need to understand exactly what happened in order to protect our fundamental freedoms and keep the country safe."
