A Call to Americans:
To those who honor their word and keep their vows sacred,
excuses for torture are pure sacrilege. The constitution and
treaties signed by the US both deny torture. Feigning to abide
by any such treaty, or the treaty against torture, does not
amount to living by our word and the vows you and I have given,
with our honor and values as Americans intact.
In front of God, a lying sack of shit will still be just that.
In front of the international community and the world, the
the Americans' reputation is now that of lying oath-breakers who
wipe their asses with the treaties and promises they have made to
the international community, thanks to the gang of smirking liars
who authorized this torture, now sitting in the White House at
this very moment.
While some Americans consider lying and feigning to abide by the
international treaties and vows that we have collectively given
some kind of a patriotic heroic act. I do not. I consider these
people traitors to America and their acts a treason. For that they
are to the American constitution and the values of our nation.
Traitors to America who do not honor the values of our Constitution
and the treaties we have collectively vowed to honor should be rightly
judged. If we can't live and die by your word, then we as Americans
don't give our word. We owe ourselves and our allies that much.
It is now upto us good Americans to bring these lying sacks of shit
to justice, and DO IT OURSELVES, in order to properly regain our
honor and the value of our word, the good reputation of America and
the respect and trust of the international community once again.
I call for George Bush and his government to resign immediately.
As an American, I am deeply ashamed of what you and your government
have done to the U.S. May God have mercy upon your soul and your
kin, for you clearly do not yet see all the evil that your hands have
wrought on our planet and the United States of America.
- C.B.
http://www.interterror.org
http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGAMR511042005
USA: UN scrutiny essential in preventing torture and ill-treatment
Press release, 06/24/2005
Amnesty International stressed the need for the USA to open up its
detention centres all over the world to independent UN experts, after they
expressed "deep regret" at the USA's failure to facilitate a visit to its
'war on terror' detainees. The organization pointed out the importance of
independent monitoring in preventing torture and ill-treatment.
"Not only is the USA failing to investigate itself fully, it is failing to
allow external independent scrutiny by human rights experts," said Amnesty
International. "Such scrutiny is essential. The less contact detainees
have with the outside world, the greater the risks of torture and other
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. As the independent experts have
reminded the USA, no country is above international human rights law."
Amnesty International is calling for the US Congress to establish a
commission to carry out a full independent investigation into US detention
and interrogation policies and practices around the world. It should seek
the advice of international experts such as the UN expert on Torture in
order to ensure its effectiveness and the appearance of impartiality in
the eyes of the world.
"Allowing UN experts full access is a vital part of ensuring the
international credibility of such an investigation," said Amnesty
International.
"Shunning international law and denying detainees basic human rights will
not bring security to the USA. It is time for the USA to fully re-engage
with the international community in upholding human rights rules which the
USA was material in shaping."
Amnesty International is intensifying its work on torture and other cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment. It is launching a campaign against the
use of torture and ill-treatment in the 'war on terror' on 26 June,
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, in recognition that
such a focus is central to reasserting the global ban on such treatment.
Notes to Editors
To see the statement made by the UN experts on Torture, Health,
Independence of Judges and Lawyers, and its Chair of the Working Group on
Arbitrary Detentions, please go to:
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/C76205166535E5C6C125702900491440?opendocument
For Amnesty International's key recommendations on preventing torture and
ill-treatment, please go see '12-Point Programme for the Prevention of
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by
Agents of the State' at
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engact400012005
For more about Amnesty International's campaign, please go to
www.amnesty.org/stoptorture
http://www.btlonline.org/btl061005.html#1hed
http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=239886
Amnesty International Calls for Prosecutions of U.S. Officials
Posted: 06/12
From: ZNet
Joshua Rubenstein interviewed by Scott Harris
In a severe condemnation of U.S. conduct in its war against terrorism,
Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan charged that the Bush
administration had abdicated its responsibility to set a global example in
upholding human rights. Speaking at a May 25th news conference in London
unveiling the group's annual human rights report, Khan said, the
American-run prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba "has become the gulag of
our time."
Amnesty International is calling for the closing of the Guantanamo
detention facility, which currently holds some 540 prisoners from 40
nations -- many detained without charge, and some held more than three
years. Over the past year, investigations by the International Committee
of the Red Cross and the FBI have documented cases of abuse and torture at
the hands of U.S. personnel at Guantanamo and prisons in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
William Schultz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, called
on foreign governments to investigate and prosecute all senior U.S.
officials who have violated the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention
Against Torture. Among those he named were President Bush, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. Between
The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Joshua Rubenstein, northeast regional
director of Amnesty International USA, who summarizes his group's
condemnation of Bush administration policies that have condoned torture.
JOSHUA RUBENSTEIN: Amnesty issues what we call our annual report every
spring. As in all these years there are reports on over a 140 countries.
So, we highlight the ongoing crisis in Darfur where nearly 2 million
refugees have been created -- many of them are staying in camps on both
sides of the border with Chad. We talk about the ongoing crisis in Congo
where more than 3 million casualties have taken place. We talk about
Chechnya and Russia. So this is a report that covers the whole globe.
But of course, we have focused on the United States this year because of
this scandal regarding torture. It was just a year ago that the world was
alerted to the mistreatment and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison
in Baghdad, Iraq. And what we've learned since then has really reinforced
our concerns.
It turns out that leading officials in the government, in the Pentagon, in
the White House, in the Department of Justice were drafting memorandums
not only justifying the use of torture, but coming up with contrived
arguments in order to protect American personnel from being accused of
using torture. So these are very contrived legal arguments, and we believe
they genuinely reinforce the mistreatment and the torture that we're now
finding out about in Afghanistan, in Guantanamo (Bay U.S. Naval base in
Cuba) and in Iraq.
Plus we're now focusing on this policy of extraordinary rendition, where
the United States takes prisoners either from the United States or
different countries, say in Europe, and sends them to Syria or Egypt or
Jordan for interrogation. Now why would they do that? We believe it's
because they rely on those countries to interrogate these prisoners using
torture and the U.S. wants to keep somewhat of a distance to keep its
hands clean, while it has surrogates carry this kind of interrogation. In
a sense, we call it "outsourcing torture." So this is what is focused on
in the report.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Could you be specific about the kinds of torture that
you believe are linked directly to official U.S. policy rather than the
actions of rogue or sadistic guards or interrogators? Because the idea
that lower-level soldiers are responsible for this abuse, is really the
essence of how the White House has responded to this scandal.
JOSHUA RUBENSTEIN: Well, we feel there has been a real whitewash by
blaming all of these lower down personnel and trying to keep the
investigations away from people in the command structure.
Approximately 125 members of the U.S armed forces have either been
court-martialed or received nonjudicial punishment or other administrative
action. But to date, no one in the extended chain of command, including
those who formulated policies on the treatment and interrogation of
prisoners has been held accountable.
So, for example, we now know that CIA operatives were abusing prisoners
with "water boarding." That's where you strap a person to a board and you
immerse them in water and they fear they may be drowned because their head
is below water for a certain amount of time and you threaten them with
drowning. This is a common form of torture in Latin America for example --
and here we believe that U.S. CIA agents have been using this form of
torture.
There's a certain term called "stress position." Now, on the surface of
things this may seem like a superficial or not so intrusive kind of
torture where you tie someone to a chair where they're not seated
properly; it's awkward for them. But when you keep someone there
indefinitely for many, many hours or days at a time, this becomes
extremely painful. Or sleep deprivation that may not leave physical scars,
but when you do not permit someone to sleep for several days at a time,
this becomes very disorienting and painful. It can have a severe impact on
one's health. This is simply a form of torture. We knew about it during
Stalin's time, why should it be OK for representatives of the United
States to use these techniques?
Mr. Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, suggested threatening people with
dogs and we have photographs from Abu Ghraib where officers are seen are
holding these large, menacing German Shepherds in front of prisoners.
So we believe there's a direct connection between the techniques that
American officials in Washington were proposing and the treatment that we
know occurred in Bagram (U.S. Air base, Afghanistan) in Abu Ghraib and at
Guantanamo.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Tell us about Amnesty's call for other governments to
investigate and possibly prosecute high-level officials in the Bush
administration such as Attorney General Gonzalez, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld and others at the Pentagon.
JOSHUA RUBENSTEIN: The call for an international response to this torture
scandal is based on the fact that there has not been an adequate
investigation here in the United States. If there were an adequate
investigation, there would be no need for European governments to have
investigations of their own.
Torture can be prosecuted around the world; there's universal
jurisdiction. That's why General Pinochet (former Chilean dictator) was
indicted by a Spanish judge. That's why courts in Belgium considered
indicting government leaders from other parts of the world. And the fact
is, there's no statute of limitations on torture. The U.S. is party to a
convention that grants over 120 countries the power to investigate torture
by government leaders in any country of the world.
And so right now, it may obviously seem unlikely that, say a European
government would indict President Bush or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld or
someone else. But when this group leaves office, when they are private
citizens, when they travel, it's quite possible that a prosecutor in
Germany or Spain or another country would seek an indictment, and that
would be perfectly legitimate as long as it was based on serious and
genuine investigation and hard evidence.
Contact Amnesty International USA by calling (212) 807-8400 or visit
their Web site at http://www.amnestyusa.org
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=8037
The short URL for this item is: http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=239886
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00241.htm
Sonia Nettnin: Abuse of U.S. Prisoners Abroad
Friday, 17 June 2005, 12:44 pm
Article: Sonia Nettnin
Abuse of U.S. Prisoners Abroad
By Sonia Nettnin
Important Note: the following article is not intended for readers under 18
years of age or for sensitive readers.
(Chicago) Human rights lawyer and Unitarian Universalist Service
Committees Stop Torture Permanently Campaign Director Jennifer Harbury
spoke about U.S. prisoners abroad and their experiences with abuse and
torture.
For the last 20 years Harbury worked for reforms in human rights
violations committed by the United States. She wrote about her first-hand
experiences in the book, Searching for Everardo, which chronicles her
efforts to save the life of her late husband, Mayan resistance leader
Efrain (Everardo) Bamaca Velasquez in the early 90s. Moreover, she is the
author of Bridge of Courage. Her forthcoming third book documents the
Central Intelligence Agencys involvement with torture in Latin America and
the Middle East.
According to the UUSC web site, the organization initiated the STOP
Campaign in 2004 in response to the human rights crisis created by the
U.S. torture and abuse of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo
Bay.
In her introduction Harbury said: Anyonewho believes in the basic value
system of our (American) society were horrified by the torture practices
that occurred in Abu Ghraib, that maybe somehow we would lose our national
conscience.
In the past, whenever she gave talks to Americans throughout the U.S., the
universal reaction she experienced from audience members was outrage. Some
Republican voters expressed to her that they voted for a particular
candidate, but not for torture.
We are facing a moral crisis, Harbury said, who believes many high-level
officials decided to de facto legalized torture.
Her lecture focused on the U.S. Governments responses to the political,
legal and national security issues surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison
scandal. She summarized the governments responses as follows: it was a
few, rogue operators; second, the abuses within U.S. prisons were just
short of the legal limits of torture, but protected by the established
guidelines; and finally, in the aftermath of 09/11 U.S. administrative
officials want to keep Americans safe.
First, Harbury answered with a rhetorical question: are these explanations
provoking the entire world and creating anti-American sentiment?
The official response from U.S. officials that the torture at Abu Ghraib
happened as a result of a few contractors and Military Personnel, a few
bad apples, is false. The Abu Ghraib photographs exhibited some of the
torture practices, as well as the use of cruel and degrading treatment.
The UUSC web site references the Abu Ghraib photograph of a hooded Iraqi
with wires attached to his fingers. They call this pose the Vietnam
position, hence the phrase has warfare meaning associated with it.
According to Harbury the abuse and torture practices used in prisons, like
Abu Ghraib, are methods refined by different intelligence agencies over
decades.
Torture Methods & Procedures
What is the definition of torture?
According to the U.N. Convention Against Torture (as explained on the UUSC
web site), torture is any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether
mental or physical, is intentionally inflicted on a person by any
government official or agent. This includes acts of torture inflicted at
the request of, or with the consent of, government officials as well.
For instance, in a water-boarding session, they tie up the person,
submerge him in water then drown him into convulsions and unconsciousness.
Immediately after they use cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), until they
revive him into consciousness.
Some other examples are denial of toilet privileges, prolonged exposure to
hot and cold by clothing removal and/or water, loud music, sleep
deprivation, stress and duress positions, and solitary confinement.
Usually, detainees subjected to torture will experience these practices in
combinations. She described one case where a man sat naked, short-bolted
to a floor for 24 hours. With the exception of solitary confinement, they
subjected him to these torture practices to the point he pulled out clumps
of his hair. The fact he acted on his distress demonstrates that torture
practices may cause mental breakdowns.
In Afghanistan a warlord threw a bomb at a U.S. military base. U.S. Forces
captured a man who had nothing to do with the incident. While imprisoned
they hit the mans leg over 100 times. As a result of his pulpification,
the man developed a blood clot in his leg and it killed him.
When they slam prisoners heads into walls, it is not uncommon for the
prisoners to die from it. During gang rapes they film the victim, and then
tell her they will show it to her parents, and/or air the tape in her
hometowns public square. The verbal threats terrorize the victim, but
public knowledge of her rape can stigmatize her within the community.
Harbury investigated prisoners who endured electric shock during their
tortures. Out of 23 cases in Guatemala and El Salvador, the survivors
testified to shock techniques. During their tortures, a North American was
either present in or around the cell.
In 2004, Harbury traveled to Israel and the Occupied Territories where she
worked with civil rights workers from BTselem, an Israeli human rights
center that examines human rights violations. Although she did not
describe specific torture examples, she said that Israel used torture
techniques deemed illegal by Israeli law, but the government does not
enforce it. A 1999 study from civil rights workers found that 80 per cent
of prisoners experienced abuse and/or torture.
Harbury studied cases that involved suicide bombings. In the first
intifada there were 50 and during the second intifada there were close to
150. Out of 50 cases she gathered she found that three of the suicide
bombers did not experience the loss of a family member. Her overall
conclusion was that Palestinians who grew up under extreme security
crackdowns, who lived in Gaza, Jenin and Ramallah, had one common
denominator: severe trauma, the loss of a family member.
During her research Harbury found that U.S. intelligent services
outsourced detainees or deportees for interrogations to countries such as
Egypt, Guatemala and Syria, and they call this transfer practice
extraordinary rendition. She assessed that they paid informants associated
with their networks to extract information out of people.
When the Guatemala military imprisoned and tortured her late husband, she
worked to save his life. Three hunger strikes later, the last strike on
the lawn of the White House, U.S. officials and declassified files
informed her that a man named Roberto ordered her husbands murder and
someone received $34,000 U.S. dollars (not a routine payment) from a
remote outpost that had associations with the CIA. She calls this
procedure torture by proxy. The U.S. response is that these countries
assured the U.S. the transferred prisoners would not experience torture.
If they do, then it is not the fault of the U.S.
Does torture happen to U.S. citizens?
In Central America, they gang raped a nun who is a U.S. citizen and she
received cigarette burns. Then they hung her to a ceiling until her hands
and feet turned black. Even today, she has bad tendons in her shoulders.
When an agent arrived to save her, he dressed her and took her out of the
prison. While they were driving away he told her to forgive these people
because they were busy fighting Communism. The next day she traveled to
the U.S. Embassy where she told officials that there were children in the
prison.
According to Harbury there are at least 100 CIA ghost prisoners, which
means the International Red Cross does not know their names, their
imprisonment locations, the state of their health conditions, and whether
they are dead or alive.
Domestic and International Law on Torture
According to the UUSC web site, the constitution prohibits torture in any
form within the United States. The use of torture by U.S. agents or
officials outside the U.S. is a felony, under both the Anti-Torture
Statute (18 U.S.C. 2340) and also the Federal War Crimes Act.
The Geneva Conventions, created by people who saw the realities of World
War II and Auschwitz, prohibit the use of torture. Harbury explained that
the U.S. Governments stance is that the prisoner of war status documented
in the Third Geneva Convention does not apply to enemy combatants. Her
retort to this interpretation of the law is that the Fourth Geneva
Convention is for civilians, non-POWs. Under this umbrella, anyone who
commits sabotage against an occupying force cannot be treated inhumanely.
The UUSC web site further explains the Convention Against Torture bans the
torture of any human being under any circumstances, even during times of
war. So does the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.
Despite these legal protections the enforcement of international law fell
short for these detainees and current U.S. mainstream media coverage
focuses on whether they received legal representation and due process. If
the world sees U.S. forces abuse and torture prisoners, what happens to
the safety of U.S. service men and women when they fall into the hands of
U.S. opposition?
Harbury shared her legal knowledge, research and personal experiences with
the application of U.S. policy abroad. The UUSC web site references
methods, such as FBI and police questioning or the use of local religious
leaders when they question a terrorist suspect, to gather information that
keeps the public safe. The international body wrote the Geneva Conventions
so people would adhere to them, not abandon them. Harburys findings raise
questions for discussion about the body politic and the organizations that
critique them.
First and foremost, people need access to information so they can
determine the truth.
*************
Sonia Nettnin is a freelance writer. Her articles and reviews demonstrate
civic journalism, with a focus on international social, economic,
humanitarian, gender, and political issues. Media coverage of conflicts
from these perspectives develops awareness in public opinion.
Nettnin received her bachelor's degree in English literature and writing.
She did master's work in journalism. Moreover, Nettnin approaches her
writing from a working woman's perspective, since working began for her at
an early age.
She is a poet, a violinist and she studied professional dance. As a
writer, the arts are an integral part of her sensibility. Her work has
been published in the Palestine Chronicle, Scoop Media and the Washington
Report on Middle East Affairs. She lives in Chicago.