Interrogation techniques used by the CIA on al-Qaeda suspects "constituted torture", according to a report by the International Red Cross.
posted by shoesfullofdust on Mar 16, 2009 - 27 comments

Two new reports on our progress in Iraq were released today:
"Five years after the war started, the humanitarian situation in Iraq is among the most critical in the world..." - International Committee of the Red Cross.
"Five years of carnage and despair in Iraq" - Amnesty International. [more inside]
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Mar 17, 2008 - 37 comments

Johnson & Johnson is suing the American Red Cross for trademark infringement. It contends that the Red Cross is supposed to use the symbol only in connection with non-profit relief services. "For a multibillion-dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute … simply so that J&J can make more money, is obscene," said Mark Everson, the Red Cross president. Everson is paid $500,000 per year, more than triple his previous salary as IRS Commissioner. The suit asks the Red Cross to turn over the products in question to New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson for destruction and also seeks unspecified punitive damages.
posted by Kirth Gerson on Aug 9, 2007 - 94 comments

As seen on the Red Cross's website , a new symbol has been chosen for use along side of the Red Cross, or Red Crescent. This new symbol, dubbed the "Red Crystal" was developed specifically for situations where combatants may not understand or respect the implications of the Red Cross or Red Crescent. CBC in Canada has an article on the subject. The BBC has another that explains the desire for neutrality. More information is available on the Red Cross's emblem page.
posted by blackturtleneck on Dec 8, 2005 - 36 comments

✙ ☪ ◊? The addition of a third protective symbol (fourth, if you count this happy lion) will allow the Magen David Adom of Israel to join the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies after over 50 years. It might look odd, but a lot of other symbols we take for granted have interesting recent origins. ☮ was designed in 1958. ☣ was created by Dow in 1966. ☢ first appeared as a doodle in the 1940s. The symbols of the planets have many origins, but here on earth, the origins of ☺ remain so convoluted that it might take a fictional "symbologist" to sort it all out.
posted by blahblahblah on Oct 3, 2005 - 44 comments

Now that every MeFite and their dog have contributed to the Red Cross for Hurricane Relief, here's a semi-reluctant criticism of the Big Red from the head of (IMUDO*) another worthy organization.
*In My Usually Disregarded Opinion
Before anybody goes nuclear, Operation USA has absolutely NO connection to the infamous Operation Blessing.
posted by wendell on Sep 25, 2005 - 20 comments

Three days after Katrina hit, on September 1st, Red Cross national president Marsha Evans 'first made the request to undertake the operation' ... 'to enter New Orleans with relief supplies', but the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness 'rebuffed' the request. As events unfolded, 'the Red Cross never launched its relief effort in the city' -- as reported by CNN. Fox News (transcription) broke this story with a slightly different perspective. Somewhere in between, I am sure, lies the truth.
posted by mischief on Sep 8, 2005 - 38 comments

I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we haven't asked for it," (Bush) said. "I do expect a lot of sympathy, and perhaps some will send cash dollars. For a while there foreign countries were unsure whether to send aid and the US was sending mixed signals. Now of course, even Qatar is coughing up "cash dollars" and other countries are lending a hand. But the question remains: why do we even need it? This guy blames privatization, and I can't say I blame him. (NYT link).
posted by Smedleyman on Sep 6, 2005 - 54 comments

The Red Cross has been ordered to stay out of New Orleans. Critical firefighting equipment is being left untouched. Chicago's offer of manpower and equipment is "snubbed" by FEMA, according to the Mayor. FEMA "forgets" to tell the military to airdrop food and water to the survivors. Northern Command has been ready for days, just waiting for the President to give the orders. Feds delayed paperwork giving permission for National Guard to act. Louisiana begged for federal help on Sunday in a formal request, but the Bush administration says they didn't know anything about problems until Wednesday. Meanwhile, reporters apparently grow weary of the spin doctors.
posted by dejah420 on Sep 3, 2005 - 186 comments

Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo   The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo. The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called "a flagrant violation of medical ethics." Doctors and medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners' mental health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, the report said, sometimes directly, but usually through a group called the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, or B.S.C.T. The team, known informally as Biscuit, is composed of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the interrogators, the report said. From the Red Cross : The ICRC's work at Guantanamo Bay  -  Related: From Association of the Bar of the City of New York, a pdf: Torture by Proxy: International and Domestic Law Applicable to Extraordinary Renditions-- Representative Edward J.] Markey pledges battle on rendition practice
posted by y2karl on Nov 30, 2004 - 85 comments

You'll surprisingly discover that while monogamous, heterosexual, drug-free, non-adventurous travelers might seem a bit boring at some parties, they're hugely popular at blood banks! (An actual television station editorial, via tvbarn2.)
posted by calwatch on Nov 28, 2004 - 21 comments

Pentagon officials tell NBC News that late last year, at the same time U.S. military police were allegedly abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered that one Iraqi prisoner be held “off the books” — hidden entirely from the International Red Cross and anyone else — in possible violation of international law.
posted by hipnerd on Jun 17, 2004 - 60 comments

Torture and Truth and The Logic of Torture--Mark Danner writes about Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade (The Taguba Report) and Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq During Arrest, Internment and Interrogation in the former and concludes thusly in the latter:

Behind the exotic brutality so painstakingly recorded in Abu Ghraib, and the multiple tangled plotlines that will be teased out in the coming weeks and months about responsibility, knowledge, and culpability, lies a simple truth, well known but not yet publicly admitted in Washington: that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials of the United States, at various locations around the world, from Bagram in Afghanistan to Guantanamo in Cuba to Abu Ghraib in Iraq, have been torturing prisoners.     (More Within)
posted by y2karl on Jun 4, 2004 - 16 comments

Remember the outrage of the US Govt. as the Iraqi's paraded POWs before television cameras - a pretty clear-cut breach of the Geneva Convention?
It appears the US Govt. isn't so concerned about what behaviour breaches the convention, anymore.

"The International Committee of the Red Cross so far has been denied access to what the organisation believes could be as many as 3,000 prisoners held in searing heat [near Baghdad airport.] All other requests to inspect conditions under which prisoners are being held have been met with silence or been turned down."

posted by Blue Stone on May 25, 2003 - 62 comments

With reconstruction at a staggeringly low pace, resources dwindling, and the Red Cross suspending operations, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghanistan's president and his representative in southern Kandahar, is worried about a small but strong group slowly grabbing onto power in regions of his country. They call themselves the Taliban. Although the limited funding has done some good for Afghanistan, Karzai fears it's nowhere near enough to fix the major problems of the country, and combined with sentiments raised by the war on Iraq, there are strong signs that the Taliban is significantly restructuring.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Apr 7, 2003 - 41 comments

Cluster Bombs: The American Gift That Keeps On Giving. "During its air war in Afghanistan, the United States dropped nearly a quarter-million cluster bomblets that killed or injured scores of civilians, especially children, both during and after strikes, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today....Human Rights Watch found that the United States did not take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties, as required by international humanitarian law....As of November 2002, the International Committee of the Red Cross had identified 127 civilian casualties to cluster bomb duds-a number it stressed was only a partial tally of the total killed and injured since many go unreported. An astonishing 69% of the casualties were children."
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Dec 18, 2002 - 62 comments

How Safe is the Blood Supply? A tainted donor infects two with HIV in Florida. The people in charge of the blood claim it's safe. But recent books and documentaries raise serious questions.
posted by ahughey on Jul 19, 2002 - 12 comments

Red Cross attacks exile of Palestinians Mr Fisk (in occupied Lebanon) notes that the Red Cross believes it cruel to separate known terrorists from their families. Neglects to note that all international law opposes the targeting of civilians no matter what the reason or rationalization used. Perhaps a lawsuit for "cruel and unusual" punishment might allow the terrorists to have family reunions and be compensated for emotional damages and deprivation of marital privileges.
posted by Postroad on May 24, 2002 - 11 comments

"Dude," a lawyer who lives in Tribeca said last week, "I hope this story doesn't break before I get paid." The New Yorker on the (mis?)application of Red Cross funds.
posted by adrober on Feb 20, 2002 - 23 comments

Interesting claim - the military's investigators say that the Red Cross buildings which were bombed on October 25th were not marked and that the military had not been given their coordinates as claimed. Has anyone found more information about this?
posted by adamsc on Dec 22, 2001 - 1 comment

The Red Cross has a decade-long pattern of using local crises to raise funds, and then to spend those funds on other things. The donors had thought their money would go to help specific victims, and sometimes up to 80% would be diverted to other causes. I think this is wrong.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Nov 19, 2001 - 39 comments

Red Cross Targets All of Sept. 11 Fund to Victims That's $543 millions dollars. Interesting too, after the previous 'head' 'refused to comingle the Liberty Funds with the general fund' and resigned.
posted by thunder on Nov 14, 2001 - 13 comments

Head of Red Cross "resigns" after the board forces her to step down in a vote of no confidence. Among her failings, the board says she was refusing to comingle 9/11 donations with the RC general fund. When I donated to the Red Cross, I was not aware that 15-25% of 9/11 donation monies would go to build up their telecommunications infrastructure. This also comes just a day after the RC called the US "deplorable" for bombing a food warehouse in Afghanistan. Coincidence? Here's the Red Cross's version.
posted by jessamyn on Oct 28, 2001 - 21 comments

Red Cross warehouses hit. Again. Note to the British and American military: the red crosses painted on the tops of those buildings are not meant to be bullseyes. Thank you.
posted by shylock on Oct 26, 2001 - 22 comments

He said the roof of the building was marked with the Red Cross symbol. Good idea. Maybe they should hire Jakob, he would tell them that the cross is ineligible and might be thought of as a target.
posted by tiaka on Oct 16, 2001 - 31 comments

Maybe people will finally see "Glitter" after all. More than 200 movie theatre companies will donate all ticket sales and concession revenues to the United Way and the Red Cross for all films shown Tuesday. After two weeks of dreadful box-office grosses and sour moods, maybe this will prime the pump.
posted by tsarfan on Sep 24, 2001 - 9 comments

Used (unwashed) lingerie auction, proceeds to the Red Cross! Come on, now; let's get some bidding going here! (I want the Martian Dildo or the stars-and-stripes thong bikini! [No, I ain't gonna model it for you.])
posted by Steven Den Beste on Sep 23, 2001 - 13 comments

Bradbury Software donates money earned from TopStyle Every dollar we earn from TopStyle during the months of September and October will be donated to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
posted by Nick Finck on Sep 17, 2001 - 7 comments

Is Paypal making money? I read this on thier main Red Cross Page: PayPal will donate 100% of the proceeds to the National Disaster Relief Fund of the American Red Cross.

All donations are tax deductible. Include your address (for a tax receipt) in the "Shipping Address" field when making your donation.

PayPal will realize no profits from money donated to this fund.

Yet, I play Utopia and they have a donation account setup through paypal which states this: All funds raised through this campaign -- minus a commission of $0.30+2.9% which PayPal takes on all payments -- will be forwarded directly to the Red Cross.

So does Paypal give 100% of donations directly donated to its page, and take a commission on accounts set up through secondary pages such as Amazon? If so, with almost $6 Million dollars, that is almost $2 Million dollars!!! (if I did my math right, please correct me if I am wrong.)
posted by da5id on Sep 17, 2001 - 14 comments

NY Red Cross needs tech help - by donating computers, equipment, and services. They're looking for certified Citrix engineers and Microsoft-certified consultants, as well as a long list of computers, network parts, etc.
posted by bkdelong on Sep 13, 2001 - 4 comments

Amazon's Red Cross donation page as pointed to by arielmeadow in the big thread. This deserves front page treatment.
posted by NortonDC on Sep 11, 2001 - 15 comments

X10 redirects site traffic to blood donation info. I understand all of their popups have been changed as well. (Figures I can't find one, now that I actually want to see it.)
posted by danwalker on Sep 11, 2001 - 22 comments

Donate blood Fellow Canadians, if you want to donate blood, call 1-888-236-6283 to set up an appointment. A friend at Canadian Blood Services said that the level in NY is very low - it's the least we can do.
posted by theNonsuch on Sep 11, 2001 - 6 comments

jason is encouraging people in NYC to donate blood today. wherever you are, I encourage you to do the same.
posted by rebeccablood on Sep 11, 2001 - 31 comments