June 20, 2008...8:30 am
Lawrence Wilkerson: Hundreds Of Detainees Died In U.S. Custody, At Least 25 Murdered

Ex-State Dept. official: Hundreds of detainees died in U.S. custody, at least 25 murdered

By Think Progress on Jun 18th, 2008 at 8:40 pm

video of the testimony at this link

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/18/ex- ... 5-murdered

At today’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides:

NADLER: Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?

WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108.

A February 2006 Human Rights First report found that although hundreds of people in U.S. custody had died and eight people were tortured to death, only 12 deaths had “resulted in punishment of any kind for any U.S. official.â€