GOP Committee Targets International Red Cross
Senators
ask Bush to reconsider financial support for the agency after its
criticism of how U.S. forces treat their detainees abroad.
By Sonni Efron
Times Staff Writer
June 15, 2005
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are calling on the Bush administration
to reassess U.S. financial support for the International Committee of
the Red Cross, charging that the group is using American funds to lobby
against U.S. interests.
The Senate Republican Policy Committee, which advances the views of the
GOP Senate majority, said in a report that the international
humanitarian organization had "lost its way" and veered from the
impartiality on which its reputation was based. The Republican policy
group titled its report: "Are American Interests Being Disserved by the
International Committee of the Red Cross?"
The congressional
criticism follows reports by the Swiss-based group that have faulted
U.S. treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. A spokeswoman at its Geneva headquarters said the organization
was reviewing the report and would not comment, in accordance with its
policy of keeping its dealings with governments confidential.
Two Bush administration officials declined in interviews to endorse the
findings of the report but said the administration had had "concerns"
about some positions taken by the ICRC since the U.S.-led invasions of
Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The officials spoke on condition
of anonymity because of diplomatic protocol and their relations with
Congress.
"We need the ICRC. They do a lot of really good
things," one of the U.S. officials said. "They've got people in
conflict zones all over the world doing heroic things on a daily basis.
Are we concerned about some of the comments? Yes. Do we deal with those
in our confidential relationship? Yes. But we think the relationship
works best when these things are kept confidential."
The
Senate Republicans' report called on the Bush administration to ask the
Government Accountability Office to review Red Cross operations, noting
that the U.S. funds 28% of the group's budget and has contributed $1.5
billion since 1990. The International Committee of the Red Cross is
separate from the American Red Cross, which has no say in how the
international committee is run.
But the official said the administration had "a great deal of
confidence" in the group's financial propriety.
"They've got Swiss auditors all over the place, as only the Swiss can
do," the official said.
The second official said the administration had had differences with
the ICRC over treatment of detainees and some other military issues,
but that "we generally are able to work through them."
Asked
whether Congress should get involved, the official said, "The
relationship has worked well without the involvement, and perhaps it
should continue that way."
The Senate Republican Policy
Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, has close ties
to the Bush administration. It meets weekly to coordinate policy and
often distributes "talking points" for Republican senators that are
coordinated with the White House. It bills its role as helping to
"shape the GOP game plan."
The decision to investigate the ICRC
was sparked by a series of articles in the conservative National
Interest magazine as well as by critical Wall Street Journal
editorials, a senior aide to the policy committee said.
According to the GOP report, the National Interest articles found that
the ICRC made "no discernible effort" to improve the lot of American
prisoners of war in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and "conspicuously failed
to criticize" those governments for torture, killings and abuse of U.S.
prisoners.
The ICRC is the only organization mandated by
international treaty to monitor the observance of the Geneva Convention
governing the treatment of prisoners, and it has the right to visit
prisoners. But the GOP report charges that the group has exceeded the
bounds of its mission by trying to "reinterpret and expand
international law" in favor of terrorists and insurgents; lobbying for
arms-control issues that are not within its mandate, such as a ban on
the use of land mines; and "inaccurately and unfairly" accusing U.S.
officials of not adhering to the Geneva Convention.
The Senate
aide denied that the report, released Monday, was motivated by a desire
to punish the ICRC for embarrassing the United States on its treatment
of prisoners. In the aftermath of the prison abuse scandal at Abu
Ghraib in Iraq and elsewhere, the role of the ICRC has grown in
importance, some experts said.
"For U.S. military commanders,
the ICRC is crucial as their feedback loop," said Ruth Wedgwood, a
specialist in international law at Johns Hopkins University's School of
Advanced International Studies. "That's how a commander knows what's
happening down in their ranks — even on the night shift. We really do
need that function. That's why we pay them a lot of money — not just to
assist on tsunamis."
