Church Report on detainee interrogation

The Church report on detainee interrogation and incarceration is a report completed under the direction of Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, an officer in the United States Navy. Church was then the Naval Inspector General.

Church's mandate was to investigate the interrogation and incarceration of detainees in the United States "war on terror", in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The inquiry was initiated on May 25, 2004. A version of its report was finished on March 2, 2005.

An unclassified 21 page executive summary has been circulated. The full 368 page report is classified.

Church and his staff interviewed 800 individuals, Washington policy-makers, Armed Services members, and allies of the United States. Human Rights Watch reports that the Church inquiry didn't interview any detainees.

Highlights

• The inquiry concluded that 26 deaths in custody merited homicide charges.
• Senior officers ignored warning signs, like the reports submitted to them by the Red Cross.

Unredacted version published

On February 11, 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union received an unredacted copy of the report.

External links

• Church Report Falls Short of Establishing Accountability; PHR Calls for Independent Commission to Investigate Torture by US Forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo, Physicians for Human Rights March 14, 2005
• New Interrogation Rules Set for Detainees in Iraq, reprint from New York Times, March 10, 2005
• US Military Says 26 Inmate Deaths May Be Homicide, reprint from New York Times, March 16, 2005
• Abuse Review Exonerates Policy: Low-Level Leaders and Confusion Blamed, Washington Post March 10, 2005
• Center for Constitutional Rights Says Rumsfeld Must be Held Accountable for Inmate Homicides in Iraq And Afghanistan,