May 12, 2006
A US delegation’s claim that Washington is abiding by
international treaties barring torture was met with open skepticism
at a United Nations hearing held in Geneva.
US officials were grilled on Friday, May 5, and Monday, May
8, by members of the UN Committee Against Torture on the numerous
reports of prisoner abuse, humiliation and murder. The 25-member
US delegation, led by John Bellinger III, a US State Department
lawyer, repeatedly denied that torture was an official policy
or widely practiced by US intelligence agencies and armed forces.
In the face of the open skepticism of a member of the UN panel,
Bellinger claimed that the Bush administration is "absolutely
committed to uphold its national and international obligations
to eradicate torture."
Asked about numerous reports of the use of "waterboarding"—suspending
a prisoner upside-down on a board, wrapping his face in cellophane,
and pouring water over him to induce the repeating involuntary
gag reflex experienced in drowning—Bellinger categorically
denied any official approval of the practice. "Water-boarding
is not listed in the current Army field manual, and is therefore
not allowed," Bellinger said.
The US delegation repeated the old lie that the incidents documented
in the photographs that emerged from the US prison at Abu Ghraib
in Iraq merely reflected the deeds of a few "bad apples,"
and did not flow directly from official government policy. This
contention has recently been further discredited by the American
Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU’s) release of a document
revealing that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then commander of US
forces in Iraq, had ordered interrogators to "go to the outer
limits" to "break" prisoners.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson asserted
that "these alleged violations were properly investigated
and appropriate action taken." Of the 120 cases in which
the Washington has officially admitted that prisoners died in
its camps, Stimson claimed that most of these deaths were the
fault of the victims themselves! They resulted, according to Stimson,
from natural causes, injuries sustained while in combat against
US troops, or violence by other prisoners.
Bellinger even accused the committee of blowing everything
out of proportion. "While I am acutely aware of the innumerable
allegations," Bellinger insisted, "I would ask you not
to believe every allegation that you’ve heard. Allegations
about US military or intelligence activities have become so hyperbolic
as to be absurd."
At one point in the hearings, Bellinger attempted to halt the
discussion by claiming that any examination of the situation inside
the US detention camps would compromise America’s national
security. The chairman of the 10-member UN committee, Andreas
Mavrommatis, nipped this one in the bud: "If during intelligence
activities there is a violation of the convention," Mavrommatis
said, "it’s our duty to investigate them and your duty
to answer."
At another point, Bellinger tried to dismiss the allegations
of secret renditions and "black sites" as "absurd."
In response, Manfred Nowak said, "We have proof that [there
are] people who are in the custody of the United States of America
and nobody knows where they are. That is proof that there are
secret places of detention, which means in human rights terms
that these people are victims of enforced disappearances which
is one of the most serious human rights violations."
The complicity of European governments in the "renditions"
of prisoners to US-operated secret camps in eastern Europe and
elsewhere was apparently not discussed.
The US delegation’s defensive denials fly in the face
of reality and come directly after the release of two detailed
independent reports, one by Amnesty International (AI), the other
by the ACLU, providing fresh evidence that torture and cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners is commonplace not
only at the US concentration camps scattered around the world,
but also inside the US domestic prison system. Both reports establish
not only complicity in these crimes by the very top levels of
the government, but also direct oversight.
Contrary to the claims of Bellinger et al, there is nothing
"hyperbolic" about this documentation (it deals with
the cases of a small section of the 70,000 people believed to
have been held in US concentration camps and "black sites"
worldwide), and very few—if any—of the cases cited in
the reports were "properly investigated" by the military
brass.
"A chilling disregard for international
law"
The 363-page ACLU report, titled Enduring
Abuse: Torture and Cruel Treatment by the United States at Home
and Abroad, identifies a common thread between the prison
system inside the US and the network of detention of camps abroad,
and attributes responsibility for the widespread torture and abuse
of prisoners directly to the highest-ranking officials in the
Bush administration. The report also gives every indication that
those interrogating the prisoners are operating under no legal
or moral constraints whatsoever.
"The United States has failed to comply with its obligations
under the Convention Against Torture at home and abroad,"
the report begins. "To justify torture and abuse in the 'global
war on terrorism,’ the government narrowly defined torture
and argued that the prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment does not apply outside the United States."
"Evidence from a range of sources, including over 100,000
government documents produced to the ACLU through Freedom of Information
Act ('FOIA’) litigation, show a systemic pattern of
torture and abuse of detainees in US custody. This abuse was the
direct result of policies promulgated from high-level civilian
and military leaders and the failure of these leaders to prevent
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by subordinates.
Detainees have been beaten; forced into painful stress positions;
threatened with death; sexually humiliated; subjected to racial
and religious insults; stripped naked; hooded and blindfolded;
exposed to extreme heat and cold; denied food and water; deprived
of sleep; isolated for prolonged periods; subjected to mock drownings;
and intimidated by dogs" (ACLU 6).
The report covers US prison camps in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Cuba, in addition to the brutal conditions in America’s own
domestic penal system, which abandoned thousands of prisoners
to Hurricane Katrina, executes juveniles, and is notorious for
rape and sexual slavery, cruel forms of punishment and restraint,
overcrowding, crooked legal proceedings, and grossly inadequate
medical and psychiatric services.
The ACLU discovered that in building the vast network of prisons
and concentration camps in Iraq, the Bush administration relied
heavily on veteran administrators of the America’s own prisons—many
of whom have a very poor record. Among these administrators, the
report finds, is "Terry Stewart, a previous head of the Arizona
prison system, who was sued by the Department of Justice for the
rape and sexual assault on female prisoners by correctional staff.
Another official was Lane McCotter, who resigned as head of the
Utah prison system while under fire because of the death of a
mentally ill prisoner who had been held for sixteen hours in a
restraint chair. Gary DeLand, who had also headed the Utah system,
faced litigation for denying adequate medical care to prisoners"
(ACLU 55).
A number of the soldiers charged in the torture at Abu Ghraib
had been employed in the prison system in civilian life, the report
noted.
The report includes a large number of important facts and individual
case studies of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba, as well
as New Orleans and Chicago, that provide a grim indication of
the scope and brutality of the US institution of torture.
Among these cases is that of Albader al-Hazmi, who committed
no crime and was being held as a "material witness"
in the New York Metropolitan Detention Center. "I was searched
naked many times, sometimes twice daily in front of many guards,"
he said. "The guards, they were enjoying searching us naked.
When they felt like it they would beat us.... One of the guards
said to me while beating me say thanks to Allah" (ACLU 71).
In a December 2001case, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed El Zery were
arrested and handed over to US and Egyptian agents, who "beat
them, stripped them both naked, rammed suppositories into their
rectums, and dressed them in diapers and prison uniforms. Both
men were then placed on an aircraft where they were drugged and
chained spread-eagled to the floor of the aircraft for the duration
of the eight-hour flight to Cairo. In Cairo, the men were transferred
to the custody of Egyptian security police. Once in their custody,
they were subject to lengthy interrogations. While being interrogated,
they were subjected to torture and other inhumane treatment, including
attachment of electric cables to their testicles, frequent beatings,
and threats to their wives and families. They were held incommunicado
and Egyptian officials denied their repeated requests to speak
with a lawyer or family members" (ACLU 76).
In the US, a district court "dismissed a claim by two
female prisoners that they were strip searched by male guards
because they did not explicitly claim physical injury. (One of
the women had subsequently attempted suicide as a result of the
strip search and had to have her stomach pumped)" (ACLU 90).
The following paragraph is included in the autopsy report on
Nagem Sudun Hatab, who was beaten and strangled to death by US
soldiers in Iraq:
"Evidence of recently fractured hyoid bone in the neck
and soft tissue hemorrhage extending downward to the level of
the right thyroid cartilage. Autopsy revealed bone fracture, rib
fractures, contusions in mid abdomen, back and buttocks extending
to the left flank, abrasions on lateral buttocks. Contusions on
back of legs and knees; abrasions on knees, left fingers and encircling
to left wrist. Lacerations and superficial cuts, right 4th and
5th fingers. Also, blunt force injuries, predominantly recent
contusions (bruises) on the torso and lower extremities. Abrasions
on left wrist are consistent with use of restraints. No evidence
of defense injuries or natural disease. Manner of death is homicide."
In another account included in the ACLU document, a Guantánamo
prisoner interviewed by the FBI in April 2003 said that "a
female interrogator, after not getting cooperation from him, called
four guards into the room. While the guards held him, she removed
her blouse, embraced the detainee from behind and put her hand
on his genitals. The interrogator was on her menstrual period
and she wiped blood from her body on his face and head (ACLU 43)."
The 164-page Amnesty International report, titled Guantánamo
and Beyond: The Continuing Pursuit of Unchecked Executive Power,
was no less damning.
"This is an administration," the report finds, "that
has sought unchecked power throughout the 'war on terror’
and shown a chilling disregard for international law. The USA’s
policies and practices have led to serious human rights violations
and have set a dangerous precedent internationally" (AI 4).
"In this report, illustrated with cases throughout, Amnesty
International concludes that hypocrisy, an overarching war mentality,
and a disregard for basic human rights principles and international
legal obligations continue to mark the USA’s "war on
terror." Serious human rights violations, affecting thousands
of detainees and their families, have been the result" (AI
8).
Whether it is the federal lockups in New York City, the detention
camp at Guantánamo or the Abu Ghraib prison, one finds
the same chilling but familiar hallmarks of a depraved militaristic
culture—humiliation, the use of dogs, the obsession with
keeping the victims naked, rape, hoods, monstrous jokes, sado-pornographic
photographs, and the total and absolute disregard for and even
ignorance of the humanity of the victims. This is the true face
of the so-called "war on terror," which is being carried
out with the full support of both of America’s big-business
parties.
The UN Committee Against Torture has no power to enforce any
penalties or conduct any inspections. Each of the 141 signatories
of the 1984 Convention Against Torture take turns appearing before
the Committee.
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