information [they were] protecting”.391 It appears that at least two detainees died while they were held by the CIA in a secret facility.392 216. The programme run by the CIA violated the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. Most of the detention and interrogation techniques used, whether inflicted individually or in combination, undoubtedly amounted to torture or ill-treatment.393 While some of the techniques, taken individually, may not have reached the threshold of torture (as may be the case, for instance, with stripping detainees naked), their use in combination and over prolonged periods of time to create discomfort and to “break” the detainees has constituted ill-treatment, or even torture.394 217. In his first days in office, President Obama signed Executive Order 13491, directing the CIA to close any remaining detention facility it operated and prohibiting the Agency from operating any such detention facility in the future.395 While this development is welcome, concern nevertheless remains that the order does not repudiate extraordinary rendition and may preserve the Agency’s authority to detain individuals “on a short-term, transitory basis” before transferring them to another country for interrogation or trial.396 DETENTION AND INTERROGATION PRACTICES AT GUANTÁNAMO 218. A wide variety of sources, including leaked ICRC and official reports, have described numerous instances of abuse at Guantánamo.397 Practices authorized by the Bush administration such as the removal of comfort items, “change of scenery down” (removing a detainee to a less pleasant interrogation scene, which “might include exposure to extreme 391 “Background Paper on CIA’s Combined Use of Interrogation Techniques”, CIA, ibid., p. 4. See, also, ECtHR, Al Nashiri v. Poland, op. cit., note 172, para. 515; ECtHR, Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) v. Poland, ibid., para. 511. 392 United States Attorney General Eric Holder, “Statement of the Attorney General Regarding Investigation into the Interrogation of Certain Detainees”, United States Department of Justice website, 30 June 2011, <http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-regarding-investigation-interrogation-certain-detainees>. See, also, Senate Study on the CIA RDI Programme, Findings and Conclusions, op. cit., note 388, p. 10: “On November [redacted], 2002, a detainee who had been held partially nude and chained to a concrete floor died from suspected hypothermia at the facility.” See, also, UN Special Procedures, “Joint study on global practices in relation to secret detention”, op. cit., note 109, para. 125, expressing concern about the possibility that three Guantánamo detainees “might have died during interrogations at [the Guantánamo secret detention] facility, instead of in their own cells, on 9 June 2006”. 393 “The treatment to which the applicant was subjected by the CIA during his detention in Poland at the relevant time amounted to torture”. ECtHR, Al Nashiri v. Poland, op. cit., note 172, paras. 515-516; ECtHR, Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) v. Poland, op. cit., note 172, paras. 510-511. See, also, ICRC Report, op. cit., note 182, pp. 5, 24; UN CAT, Concluding observations on the combined third to fifth periodic reports of the United States of America, op. cit., note 107, para. 11; UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Report to the Human Rights Council, A/HRC/10/3, op. cit., note 131, para. 51; UN HRC, Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of the United States of America, op. cit., note 67, para. 5; Marty, “Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states: second report”, op. cit., note 174, para. 7; Resolution P7_TA(2012)0309, “Alleged transportation and illegal detention of prisoners in European countries by the CIA”, European Parliament, 11 September 2012, para. A, <http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7TA-2012-0309&language=EN>. 394 UN Special Procedures, “Situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay”, op. cit., note 23, paras. 51-52. 395 Barack H. Obama, Executive Order 13491, op. cit., note 351, Sec. 4(a). 396 Globalizing Torture, op. cit., note 170, p. 7. See also, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, “Monaco Declaration, Resolution on Extraordinary Rendition Investigations”, Monaco, 5 to 9 July 2012, para. 3, <http://www.oscepa.org/publications/declarations/2012-monaco-declaration/1266-monaco-declaration-english/file>. Such authority raises human rights concerns related to respect for the prohibitions of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, as well as respect for international fair trial standards, among others. 397 These sources include news reports, leaked documents, reports from specific US government agencies, accounts of detainees’ attorneys and of former detainees themselves. 92