Denounce Torture

The United Kingdom is allegedly trying to prevent a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan from publishing documents about how the United States and United Kingdom obtained information that is said to have been procured through torture in Uzbekistan.  The following, posted on the Daily Kos, was originally published on Craig Murray's blog:

With Tony Blair and Jack Straw cornered on extraordinary rendition, the UK government is particularly anxious to suppress all evidence of our complicity in obtaining intelligence extracted by foreign torturers.

The British Foreign Office is now seeking to block publication of Craig Murray's forthcoming book, which documents his time as Ambassador to Uzbekistan. The Foreign Office has demanded that Craig Murray remove all references to two especially damning British government documents, indicating that our government was knowingly receiving information extracted by the Uzbeks through torture, and return every copy that he has in his possession.

You can read the memos re-published on the Daily Kos.

A Houston Chronicle editorial today said that CIA abductions of terror suspects abroad damage U.S. relationships with its allies:

In waging the war against terror, the United States needs the full cooperation of its principal allies, such as Italy. It needs to behave morally and justly, and to be seen by the world to do so. Secret CIA abductions and prisons convey the opposite image.

See "Worse than sloppy."

From The Star Phoenix:

U.S. Ambassador Robert Tuttle said in a British Broadcasting Corp. radio interview last week that there was no evidence the United States had been involved in removing terror suspects to Syria, a process known as "extraordinary rendition."

The U.S. Embassy later issued a statement clarifying Tuttle's comments, saying he was aware there had been a media report of a rendition to Syria.

Lorne Waldman, a lawyer for Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar, an Ottawa engineer, told the BBC on Tuesday it had been ridiculous for Tuttle to suggest he was unaware of Arar's case.

"We know of other cases of other individuals who have been rendered," Waldman said. "So this was part of a well-known, well-documented pattern."

See " Arar's lawyer criticizes U.S. ambassador."

From the New York Times this morning:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 - The commander of American-run prisons in Iraq says the military will not turn over any detainees or detention centers to Iraqi jailers until American officials are satisfied that the Iraqis are meeting United States standards for the care and custody of detainees.

See "U.S., Citing Abuse in Iraqi Prisons, Holds Detainees."

The [Human Rights Watch]report quoted an Ethiopian-born prisoner as saying he was kept in a pitch-black prison and forced to listen to Eminem and Dr. Dre’s hit for 20 days straight before the music was replaced by "horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds."

See "Eminem Songs Used for Torture in Afghanistan."

According to a Human Rights Watch press release issued this week, the detainees alleged to have been:

chained to walls, deprived of food and drinking water, and kept in total darkness with loud rap, heavy metal music, or other sounds blared for weeks at a time. 

See "U.S. Operated Secret ‘Dark Prison’ in Kabul."

From the editorial pages of the Arizona Republic:

As McCain eloquently wrote in a letter to President Bush, "America stands for a moral mission, one of freedom and democracy and human rights at home and abroad. We are better than these terrorists, and we will win."

The Arizona Republican's relentless determination helped drive an overwhelming vote in Congress. The House passed McCain's anti-torture language with a veto-proof vote of 308 to 122 last week, while Senate approval was nearly unanimous, at 90-9.

See "Standing on principle."

From a new report by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice:

The report also draws attention to the connections between covert procedures being used in the "War on Terror." Examining the overlap between extraordinary rendition and enforced disappearances, the report stresses that "disappearances" often happen in conjunction with other abuses. Several cases included in the report detail the successive transfer of detainees among sites and even between nations. "The United States is trying to maintain a secret system of transport and detention for those it suspects of terrorism," Satterthwaite said. "It cannot avoid the application of human rights standards by hiding detainees," she added.

See "United States Must Clarify Fate of 28 Individuals."

From the LA Times:

This is merely a debater's trick, the kind of platform performance that confuses ingenious consistency with moral seriousness. The fact of the matter is that without a prohibition, torture isn't reserved for the most extreme imaginable case; it becomes a fact of everyday life. As ABC News recently reported, 11 of the 12 senior most captured Al Qaeda terrorists have been subjected to the torture called waterboarding.

See "McCain stands his high ground."

The following from today's Post, comes from Vladimir Bukovsky, a survivor of abuse and ill-treatment and more than a decade of imprisonment in the former Soviet Union:

If America's leaders want to hunt terrorists while transforming dictatorships into democracies, they must recognize that torture, which includes CID [cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment], has historically been an instrument of oppression -- not an instrument of investigation or of intelligence gathering. No country needs to invent how to "legalize" torture; the problem is rather how to stop it from happening. If it isn't stopped, torture will destroy your nation's important strategy to develop democracy in the Middle East. And if you cynically outsource torture to contractors and foreign agents, how can you possibly be surprised if an 18-year-old in the Middle East casts a jaundiced eye toward your reform efforts there?

See "Torture's Long Shadow."

The House voted 308-122 to pass the McCain amendment, an amendment to a military spending bill that would ban 'cruel, inhumane, and degrading punishment' of detainees. The amendment met with fierce opposition from the White House, particularly from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who lobbied for a CIA-exemption from the amendment.

The White House's acceptance Thursday of Sen. John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel and inhumane treatment of enemy prisoners may play out to be more than just another major legislative victory for the Arizona Republican[...]Of course, McCain had high ground from which to make his stand, that of someone recognized as having personally endured torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

Aiding his cause were high-profile incidents of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, reports of secret CIA prisons in Europe and reported mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

See "McCain wins on torture ban."

From the LA Times this morning:

After resisting for months, President Bush caved in to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday and said he would accept a formal ban on the cruel or inhumane treatment of detainees in U.S. custody anywhere in the world.

See "McCain Wins Agreement From Bush on Torture Ban."

This just in from the New York Times:

Under intense bipartisan Congressional pressure, President Bush reversed course on Thursday and reluctantly backed Senator John McCain call for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody.

See "President Backs McCain Measure on Inmate Abuse."

From the Associated Press:

"The human rights situation in Iraq requires urgent action by the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led multinational force, the U.N.'s political chief said Wednesday.

"Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari told the U.N. Security Council that the United Nations was concerned about the 'increasingly disturbing reports in recent weeks' about abuses."

Also from the Associated Press:

"Pope Benedict XVI's top official for justice issues said Tuesday that torture was unacceptable for extracting information that might thwart a terrorist attack.

"In analyzing what caused terrorism, the pope said in the Vatican's annual review of world conflicts that 'consideration should be given not only to its political and social causes, but also to its deeper cultural, religious and ideological motivations.'"

See "UN: Human rights in Iraq require action," and "Vatican opposes torture as a tool to fight terrorism."

From the NYT this morning:

In an unusual bipartisan rebuke to the Bush administration, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorsed Senator John McCain's measure to bar cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners in American custody anywhere in the world.

See "House Backs McCain on Detainees, Defying Bush."

Further evidence of abuse in Iraqi prisons has raised questions about how torture-prone militias have been allowed to operate unsupervised. From the New York Times this morning:

"In the second raid last week, on another makeshift detention center run by a notorious police commando unit, the Wolf Brigade, as many as 26 of the 625 detainees jammed into the overcrowded center had been abused, Mr. Khalilzad said[...] With hundreds of other Iraqi-run detention centers due to be inspected, American officials here appear to be concerned that the torture of detainees that was an entrenched feature of the Hussein years has reasserted itself under his successors[...]Why the commandos have been left to operate unsupervised has been a burning question among Iraqi rights groups, who say the Wolf Brigade, among other special Interior Ministry units, established an early reputation for brutality. When the issue has been pressed with American commanders, they have said the effective use of limited American troops has meant that "hard choices" had been made on where embedded American units were most needed."

New army rules are projected to complicate a discussion on McCain's anti-torture amendment:

"The Army has approved a new, classified set of interrogation methods that may complicate negotiations over legislation proposed by Senator John McCain to bar cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees in American custody, military officials said Tuesday.The techniques are included in a 10-page classified addendum to a new Army field manual that was forwarded this week to Stephen A. Cambone, the under secretary of defense for intelligence policy, for final approval, they said."

And an opinion piece from the San Francisco Chronicle:

"The more we learn of the Bush administration's pervasive outsourcing of torture, the more sensible it seems as a policy. Evidently, our intelligence people, tainted as they are by the squeamish morality of Western civilization, are just not fully up to the task of getting prisoners to tell us what the administration wants us to hear[...]Nor can the deficiency of our own personnel be simply a lack of language skills, religious familiarity or cultural affinity between interrogator and subject, as apologists for the administration's policy have suggested. Over the last decades, many billions of dollars have been spent in supplying our intelligence agents with precisely that sort of expertise. What clearly is missing is the will to go all the way in "breaking down" prisoners. There are just too many decent people scattered throughout our military and intelligence forces who would object publicly to such barbarism. They, and the American public when informed, would insist on limits, even when the president doesn't."

See "Human Rights, Rendered Meaningless," and "New Army Rules May Snarl Talks With McCain on Detainee Issue," and "To Halt Abuses, U.S. Will Inspect Jails Run by Iraq."

 

Iraq's Prime Minister publicly condemned torture, in light of a second secret torture prison that was found last week:

"Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari on Monday said he would not tolerate torture by the Shiite-dominated government police forces, renewing his condemnation of the practice after U.S. and Iraqi forces found abused, starved detainees at a second Interior Ministry detention center[...]U.S. and Iraqi officials have declined to say whether the tortured inmates at the second prison, like those at the first, were Sunni Arabs, saying they feared political fallout in Thursday's national elections."

One of the world's forefront spiritual leaders advocates humanitarian law:

Pope Benedict said in an annual peace message on Tuesday that countries have a duty to respect international humanitarian law even if they are at war[...]In one part of the message, which is sent to heads of state and international organisations, the Pope said war could not be an excuse for disregarding international humanitarian law.

See "Pope says war no excuse for human rights abuses," and "Iraq Premier Decries Torture of Detainees."

Iraq's Human Rights Ministry and U.S. forces discovered another jail in which inmates have been tortured:

"Inspectors found 'a number of problems' at a jail housing Iraqi detainees, the nation's Human Rights Ministry said Monday, amid a report of a dozen incidents of "severe torture" at the facility[...]Monday's Washington Post quoted an Iraqi official saying at least 12 of the detainees had suffered 'severe torture,' including electric shock, broken bones, cigarette burns and removal of fingernails.

"'Two of them showed me their nails, and they were gone,' said an anonymous Iraqi official quoted by the Post.

See "Report: 'Severe torture' at second Iraqi jail."

Another gruesome twist on recent findings of torture in Iraq. From the New York Times this morning:

"American and Iraqi forces raiding an Iraqi government detention center last Thursday in Baghdad discovered more than 600 prisoners packed into a cramped space, 13 of them mistreated so badly they had to be taken to a hospital, a senior American official said early Monday. The raid was the second in the past month in which American forces have uncovered mistreatment of prisoners at the hands of Interior Ministry officials."

The Polish Prime Minister has ordered an investigation into allegations that Poland allowed the CIA to operate secret 'black sites' in Poland:

"Polish officials, including the president, deny the allegations, but Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz says an investigation is necessary as the reports could in his words threaten the country's security."

See "Iraq Prison Raid Finds a New Case of Mistreatment," and  "Poland to Investigate Secret CIA Prison Allegations."

Bloggers weigh in on the breaking New York Times article linking U.S. prewar intelligence with statements extracted under the threat of torture.

Political Animal:

"It's funny how little we normally care about these countries' cultural expertise, but then suddenly develop trememdous respect for it as soon as it comes time to interrogate prisoners."

The Daily Kos:

"If the illegality of torture and the immorality of torture and extraordinary rendition are not sufficient for the rejection of these inhuman and barbaric practices, perhaps the American People might consider the fact that the use of torture and extraordinary rendition was a direct cause of the United States making the biggest strategic blunder since Vietnam."

AMERICAblog:

"The British law lords were spot on with their criticism of information gathered via torture. It's crap and useless and in this specific case provided enough information for Bush to charge into a war that has killed a few thousand Americans and a hell of a lot more Iraqis."

An editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic tour through Europe:

"The baggage burdening the nation's top diplomat included, regrettably, the Bush administration's sorry history of denying constitutional rights to prisoners it confines abroad, turning some captives over to foreign authorities with poor human-rights records and battling a proposed congressional ban on torture in the face of a 90-to-9 Senate vote approving it."

See "Rice on the torture front."

Friday, December 9, AIUSA Midwest Regional Director Dori Dinsmore will appear on Air America Radio as a guest on The Al Franken Show. Dinsmore is expected to discuss Amnesty International's recent work on the Anti-torture Amendment, Extraordinary Rendition, and the 'Black Sites'--secret interrogation prisons set up by the CIA. Tune into the show from 12-3 pm ET today.

An opinion piece from the Centre Daily:

"Capt. Ian Fishback, a West Point graduate, wrote to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that he and troops under him have witnessed abuse of prisoners that included death threats, broken bones, beatings and murder in Afghanistan and Iraq. After Fishback's letter was read aloud in the Senate, the anti-torture amendment passed with a vote of 90-9.

"Our soldiers went to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight for freedom and democracy. They should not be ordered to act as instruments of tyranny."

See "Pass anti-torture amendment."

We need your help to ensure that members of the House support the Anti-Torture Amendment as passed by the Senate, and oppose the Graham Amendment.

Some Representatives are reportedly trying to strip the anti-torture amendment. Please send an email and call your Representative today to urge them to keep the Anti-Torture Amendment exactly as passed by the Senate, and to support the fundamental right to due process by opposing the Graham Amendment!

A critical vote in the House of Representatives could come as early as tonight.

Representatives may soon vote on how to advise a small group of their colleagues who are negotiating the fate of the Anti-Torture Amendment. They might also vote on the fate of the Graham Amendment that would dangerously restrict the right for detainees at Guantanamo to challenge their detention in federal courts.

Take Action to Protect Anti-Torture Amendment

You can reach your Representative and both of your Senators by calling 800 426-8073.

If you are interested in making an emergency visit to the district offices of your Representative or Senators before December 14th, contact Eric Sears at esears@aiusa.org.  Your help is urgently needed and appreciated!

Anti-Torture Talking points

Note: Because there are differences between the House and Senate passed versions of the bills, Congress will appoint a select group of Representatives and Senators to a "conference committee" responsible for reconciling the discrepancies between House and Senate versions of legislation and agreeing on one final version for both chambers to vote on and send to the President for signature.  For this reason, we'd like activists to contact both of their Senators and their Representative in support of the Anti-Torture Amendment and opposing the Graham Amendment.

-- As your constituent, I urge you to adopt the Anti-Torture Amendment, as originally passed by the U.S. Senate. I urge you to forcefully oppose any effort to modify or to strip the language of the Senate passed amendment from the Department of Defense Appropriations bill. And I urge you to press the President to sign the provision into law without revisions.

-- Any attempts to create exemptions for the CIA, a presidential waiver on the ban, or other qualification would put the U.S. government in a position of authorizing inhumane treatment, in violation of core principles that Americans embrace and in violation of U.S. and international law. Any such revisions to the original amendment should be overwhelmingly opposed.

-- Torture is a tool of terror, not liberty. No country can hope to promote freedom, democracy and justice if it also claims a right to inflict inhuman cruelty. America's best values will only survive for our children if we stand by them in fearful and uncertain times. We must never let terrorists influence standards for moral and lawful behavior.

-- I am particularly concerned to hear that some Representatives may want to strip the anti-torture language from the Appropriations bill, and let identical language wither and never be signed into law on the authorization bill. The Senate passed anti-torture language must be adopted without modification on both bills. I urge you also to oppose the Graham Amendment to the Defense Authorization bill and to ensure that Congress protect core principles of justice and due process, especially the basic right to Habeas Corpus. The ability to challenge one's detention in a court of law is absolutely critical to protect the human rights of anyone in custody.

-- The US Army Field Manual recognizes that torture and inhuman treatment is ineffective, stating that "Use of torture and other illegal methods is a poor technique that yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and induce the source to say what he thinks the interrogator wants to hear."

-- As my elected official, I urge you to press for the adoption of the Anti-Torture Amendment in the form passed by Senate, and to urge the President to sign the provision into law without revisions. 

According to a front-page New York Times story this morning:

"[Current and former government officials] said the [...]Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi [...] provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition."

"[...]A classified Defense Intelligence Agency report issued in February 2002 that expressed skepticism about Mr. Libi's credibility on questions related to Iraq and Al Qaeda was based in part on the knowledge that he was no longer in American custody when he made the detailed statements, and that he might have been subjected to harsh treatment, the officials said. They said the C.I.A.'s decision to withdraw the intelligence based on Mr. Libi's claims had been made because of his later assertions, beginning in January 2004, that he had fabricated them to obtain better treatment from his captors."

See "Qaeda-Iraq Link U.S. Cited Is Tied to Coercion Claim."

Condoleezza Rice's visit and comments in Europe have sparked criticism at home. Europe's alleged involvment in the CIA's secret 'torture flights' may prove a liability to it as well.

"The row over CIA flights through Europe, allegedly taking terror suspects to secret prisons, has overshadowed the European visit of the US Secretary of State. But it’s not only the reputation of the USA that is at stake – the EU’s is also on the line."

And from the Toronto Star:

"The latest flap is over (1) the use of European air space and airports, in violation of European law, and perhaps Canadian airspace and airports as well, and (2) the CIA's reported use of Poland, a member of the European Union, and Romania, an EU aspirant, as sites for its clandestine jails[...]Europe is upset, or pretends to be. Condoleezza Rice suggested the latter, during her current European tour. The more important issue is what's being done with the 'ghost detainees.'

"Enter Rice's tortured logic. The U.S., she said, does not send a detainee to 'where he or she will be tortured.' (My emphasis). They may be, but Washington does not know that they will be." 

See "Human rights takes a nosedive," and "Rice's tortured logic on torture."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to clarify the U.S. stance on torture, saying that no degrading practices may be used by U.S. personnel. From the New York Times this morning:

"Rice's five-day European trip has been dominated so far by allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe and the U.S. treatment of terror suspects in those facilities. Her statements Wednesday reflect ongoing tensions between the White House, Congress and the State and Defense departments over the treatment of detainees."

Condoleezza Rice's statements regarding torture abroad have insighted criticism at home. An editorial by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey:

"What is at stake here is not the illegal or mistaken detaining of one man but the whole philosophy of Washington's approach to international relations."

Did the U.S. erroneously imprison a German citizen on charges of terrorism? Chancellor Angela Merkel tells a news conference that the United States has acknowledged the mistake, but Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice maintains it has not. The man is bringing a lawsuit against the CIA. From the International Herald-Tribune:

"A German citizen who says he was abducted in 2003, beaten and taken to Afghanistan by U.S. agents in what was apparently a case of mistaken identity has filed a lawsuit in U.S. court against George Tenet, a former CIA director, and three companies suspected of being involved in secret CIA flights."

See "Ex-CIA chief sued in abduction case," and "Rice Clarifies U.S. Interrogation Policy," and "The Voice of Hypocracy."