Washington has, for the first time, acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said.
The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on condition of anonymity.
'They are no longer trying to duck this and have respected their obligation to inform the UN,' the Committee member said.
'They they will have to explain themselves (to the Committee). Nothing should be kept in the dark,' he said.
UN sources said this is the first time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities.
The Committee, which monitors respect for the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, is gathering information from the US ahead of hearings in May 2006.
Good for the US. I think. It depends. Obviously this will be a thorough argument for Gonzalez's memo removing "enemy combatants," "detainees," from POW status. An argument supported by those I refer to as the "legalese creeps." I assume there's international law forbidding torture in general. Or there should be, and there will be if there isn't. Sorry to comment on something without the necessary details. Somebody look into it for me. I'm supposed to be working on other stories.
It's not just the UN's Committee, which monitors respect for the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, seeking justice.
The ACLU and Human Rights First are suing too.
Four civil suits alleging that senior administration officials are directly complicit in the torture and abuse of detainees in the war on Iraq the broader "war on terrorism" are heading to federal court, after a judicial panel decided to consolidate and transfer them as one case to a Washington, DC district court.
The suits name Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, General Ricardo Sanchez, General Janis Karpinski and Colonel Thomas Pappas as bearing ultimate responsibility for the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guántanamo Bay and other US military-run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lawsuits were filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights First, both vocal critics of the Bush administration’s handling of detainees.
At first glance the ACLU and a human rights organization seem pretty toothless, and we can be sure the vehemence directed their way will be thick and angry. That's good. Smoke the unredeemable out of their caves. We need a national debate on the topic removed from the banal treatment and misguided beliefs of those who support torture with incredibly inhumane and flawed arguments.
A closer look suggests this suit may not be toothless after all.
The groups are joined as co-counsel in the lawsuit by Rear Admiral John D. Hutson (Ret. USN), former Judge Advocate General of the Navy; Brigadier General James Cullen (Ret. USA), former Chief Judge (IMA) of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals; and Bill Lann Lee, Chair of the Human Rights Practice Group at Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice. Admiral Hutson and General Cullen are “of counsel” to Human Rights First.
Sounds like a group with a serious bite to me. If only Congress would join the rising storm and get an inhouse investigation with hearings before the public. Maybe they could focus on extraodinary rendition. Italy is none to pleased with that program.
An Italian judge has ordered the arrests for the "kidnapping" of an Egyptian terrorism suspect in Milan. The Islamic cleric was flown to Egypt where he said he was tortured, judicial sources said on Friday.
"In the judge's order, it (the abduction) is clearly attributed to the CIA," a source said quoted on Reuters.
Italian prosecutors believe the operation was part of a controversial US anti-terror policy known as "extraordinary rendition". The policy involves seizing suspects and taking them to third countries without court approval.Confirming the arrest warrant without mentioning the US intelligence agency, the prosecutors office said the 13 suspects were believed to be behind the abduction of imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was grabbed off a Milan street in February, 2003, and stuffed into a white van.
As the story goes, Italy was preparing to arrest Nasr anyway. Instead he was estraordinarily rendered, by the CIA, into the hands of the Egyptians. The only news from Egypt suggests he was severely abused. Rumors allege his legs were broken in interrogation.
-- Zap
I saw that story, and held off because it was unnamed UN officials--not at all because I disbelieve it, but I've learned you have to pick you rhetorical outrage spots. It's not DSM-enough, this one. But there is a definite war of credibility going on between the White House and the international NGO's. I have a piece drafted about the ICRC as the most recent target I hope to get to, today.,
Posted by: Torrid | June 26, 2005 at 12:07
Eh, if Forbes is covering it, then I'm comfortable with it. I tend to believe it's credible. I'm sure you're aware that some 70% of Americans believe our treatment of war prisoners is okay. Some even think we could step up the torture a bit. The stage is set for this debate, and what better foe to have it with than the dasturdly UN, which puts Sudan on the Human Rights Commission? Take it to Congress (Democrats?), and like I said long ago, let's get those in favor of our practices on the record for posterity if nothing else.
Posted by: Zap | June 26, 2005 at 12:58